Vandit Kalia, 18 February 2025
One of the biggest questions new divers have is what agency should they learn to dive with: is one dive agency better than another? Are certifications from one agency more widely accepted than another’s?
There is a lot of misinformation floating around on this topic, mainly spread by well-intentioned new divers who have heard of one agency (PADI) and so make erroneous assumptions about it being better/more widely accepted.
So this article is the definitive answer to the questions: which agency is better, which agency is more widely accepted and which agency should I get certified with.
WHICH DIVE AGENCY IS BETTER OR BEST?
Now, the first level of diver training is called the Open Water course. This certifies divers to dive independently (ie, without professional supervision) up to 18m.
There are LOTS of dive training agencies in the world – PADI, NAUI, SSI, RAID and more – which offer this level of training (although some may give it different names). These agencies are all a part of an umbrella organization called the World Recreational Scuba Training Council or WRSTC. This umbrella body sets the common standards for the Open Water course (and a few other key training levels). After that, each agency basically finds its own approach to ensuring that these standards are met and have small changes in how some specific skills are taught and conducted, but in the end, you are learning the same set of skills.
Yes, that is correct – all the major WRSTC agencies teach to pretty much the same standards. You are not getting a better course with one or the other.
Now, there certainly are some differences between the various agencies. Some agencies have very slickly-produced videos. Others have an integrated app-based approach. Yet others have really thorough student manuals. But these are fairly nominal differences. I have been an instructor with PADI, SSI and NAUI in the 24 years I have been teaching, and in water, it would add maybe 5-10 minutes over 4 days to cover the difference in training standards if I were to be teaching all 3 course simultaneously. That’s how small those differences are.
WHICH DIVE AGENCY IS MORE WIDELY ACCEPTED
If you are new to the sport and ask a friend who is newly certified, odds are good they will tell you to get certified with PADI, because it is more widely accepted.
That last part is false. Here’s the reality – all dive centers, regardless of their own affiliation, accept cards from any recognised (read: WRSTC) agency.
The training agency only comes into play when you are doing a training course – for fun diving (ie, just diving to see Stuff), all that a dive center needs from a liability management/insurance point of view is that the diver is certified with an accredited agency – so from their point of view, as long as you have a card from a recognised agency, they, as a for-profit business, will happily take your money and take you diving. In other words, you can take an SSI card and go diving with a PADI dive center, or take a NAUI card and go diving with an SDI center, and so on/so forth. One hundred percent acceptance.
The other related question here is – if I start with one agency, am I stuck with it forever? Again, no. Because WRSTC standards are universal across all agencies, all agency recognise each others’ cards. So you can do your Open Water with SSI, your Advanced with NAUI, your Nitrox with SDI and so on.
The only time the choice of agency matters is when you are trying to finish a course. For example, if you sign up to do the theory and pool training parts of the Open Water course in your hometown (say, Bangalore), and then plan to go to, say, Thailand to do your ocean dives, then you will need to find a dive center in Thailand that offers the same agency that you learn with in Bangalore. The good news is that most dive centres that offer training in home destinations usually have a list of partner dive centres across the world, so finding another center with the same agency affiliation isn’t difficult at all.
WHICH DIVE AGENCY SHOULD I GO WITH
By now, it should be clear to you that the choice of dive agency doesn’t make a big difference in your diving journey. However, that doesn’t mean all dive training is the same. Far from it!
Would you say that 2 schools offering the same curriculum (ICSE, CBS, IB) are the same? Or that an MBA is an MBA, regardless of where it was taught? Of course not, right? The overall institutional approach to teach and the quality of the teachers makes a huge difference.
Diving works the same way. The structure of the course (# and duration of sessions) and the quality of the instructor makes a huge difference in how the course is taught. From personal experience in the industry, I can attest to the fact that it is possible for instructors to check all the requirements of the training and yet provide vastly differing training, ranging from awful to amazing.
And sadly, new divers – who don’t have a basis for comparison – aren’t able to evaluate the quality of this training, and in the case of poorly-taught courses, end up leaving with low confidence in their own skills and thinking the problem is on their end.
The variance between instructors dwarfs the difference between various agencies, and makes the choice of agency irrelevant – a good instructor will make sure you become a good diver, regardless of what agency you choose. And the choice of agency will not mask the deficiencies of a poor instructor, and will leave you unprepared/lacking confidence in diving – which is a great way to be put off the sport entirely.
Now, the differences between agencies get magnified a little more when it comes to Specialty Training, but even there, a good instructor will typically be accredited with an agency that lets him/her teach the appropriate specialty properly. So again, the choice of instructor >> choice of agency.
TL;DR version: dive training is not a commodity. It is not the agency that makes a course good, it is the instructor. So pick a dive center with good instructors.
My article on “How to pick a dive center for learning to dive” should help you with this process.
Good luck and safe diving!