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Today around the world there are different diving agencies (ACUC, BSAC, CMAS, IDEA, NAUI, PADI, SSI, etc.) and when you decide to do your diving courses, the dive shop will help you choose between the different organizations or agencies that they are afiliated with. If you don't know about all the agencies this process can be a little confusing.
Some of the differents diving agencies are members of The World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) or European Underwater Federation (EUF) that are dedicated to the safety of the recreational diving public by regulating the development of worldwide minimum training standards.
These Scuba Diving organizations have to meet the standards in order to buy liability insurance and defend themselves from lawsuits.
When choosing an open water course it's important to remember that many dive schools and instructors hold certifications from several organizations. All courses are quite similar, they teach you safe diving and an entry level certification card from any main organization will be recognized by dive operators anywhere in the world.
What is most important for your training as a good diver is the experience and attitude of your dive instructor. Many students will pick up all the bacis very quickly, you can call those naturals, but there are some that will need to get used to it and that is when the experience and the attitude of the instructor can change everything. No matter which organization you should choose to certify with.
The importance of what you choose will be when you decide on qualifications or level upgrades. This will increase your knowledge and confidence in diving and will propel you to a pro level. You must know that most popular dive organizations recognize each other's certifications at the recreational level, it may get a little difficult when it comes to the professional level.
If what you want is to have a profession in diving, most divers stick to one agencie and when they reach the professional level they do a cross over.
ACUC | ![]() |
BSAC | ![]() |
CMAS | ![]() |
IDEA | ![]() |
NAUI | ![]() |
PADI | ![]() |
SSI | ![]() |
IDEA, PADI and SSI are members of WRSTC. For a list of all defferent diving agencies, please click HERE.
Professional recreational divers in search for work in the diving industry, will try to get certified with more than one of the most worldwide recognized organizations. Many of them will do a cross over to fulfill their goals. For those diving agencies that really emphasise on their courses, their professional members will see an advantage when crossing over, see example.
Many agencies will accept your training credentials from a competing agency. Having professional level with multiple agencies is fairly common and not difficult to do. The hard part is to maintain your annual professional memberships which you must pay a fee for to each training agency. And also, the stock of diffent training packages and student records for each agency.
Also when crossing over professionals still have to take courses; they pay for them and have to pass exams to have other agencies credentials. For non professional levels many diving agencies believe that they are much better than the competition and they don’t compare them self or the level of training they provide with other agencies.
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