PADI VS SDI
We at Jaguar Divers have decided to become an SDI shop. As our beginnings are rooted in technical diving just like SDI, it suits our style best.
There are many dive organizations in the world and PADI vs SDI are just some biggest agencies you may be presented with. Choosing which dive agency you will be certified with is the first step on your road to becoming a certified diver.
What’s the difference?
Both of these agencies offer almost identical courses and most of our instructors can offer you both (though we are trying to all swap to only SDI in the future). So it is the instructor that makes the course! Our passion and experience with diving. From our reviews, you will have hopefully seen this!
Both PADI and SDI are regulated by WRSTC’s the World Recreational Scuba Training Council (http://wrstc.com). WRSTC creates and regulates the worldwide standards of scuba courses, to ensure that all agencies teach the same core skills and have common requirements to become a safe, certified diver.
All leading certifying agencies like PADI, SDI, SSI, NASE, IANTD, RAID and NAUI are members of WRSTC.
But it’s not the agencies that train the divers, it’s the instructors who do this. The instructor makes the difference between a confident well prepared diver and an unsure one. Both agencies may have slight deviations no how they analyze their courses, but it’s the people teaching those courses that can either complement those deficiencies or aggravate them.
So why did we choose Scuba Diving International (SDI)?
Scuba Diving International (SDI) was created in 1998, born from Technical Diving International (TDI), now the largest and one of the first agencies dedicated to providing technical training.
This means SDI was created by experienced professional technical divers. As an agency, it stands out from other scuba diving training agencies due to its unique perspective of teaching recreational scuba diving through the eyes of professional technical diving.
All our instructors are technical divers! We all adhere to a high level of diving and wish to pass this on to our divers from the very start and SDI gives us more flexibility to do this “Teach divers, not skills”. PADI hinders us in this.
As an example, many of our new students coming to us for their advanced, come knowing only how to flutter kick, you would never see your instructor or a professional diver kicking this way. So why learn it to be correct later on? We teach this to our students from their very 1st discovery dive.
And how does being an SDI shop help us with this? Well read on…..
Personalized Service
All the basic scuba skills are the same will all agencies, but the difference with SDI is that they do not mandate which skills must be done in which order.
For example, PADI’s teaching approach has gained criticism for being too “cookie-cutter.” It’s very common for students to struggle with at least one skill during their certification. From PADI’s standards, you are unable to move on to the next skill until you have successfully completed the 1st skill. This means some students get stuck and even sometimes become overwhelmed with a skill.
SDI allows their instructors to be a bit more flexible, as long as the student completes the skill during the course. They can reorganize the order of the skills to allow for divers to become more confident in the water 1st while practicing other skills, slowly working up to completing the skill they are struggling with.
This is a HUGE benefit to an instructor and student. And they both appreciate the flexibility.
Focus on “Teach divers, not skills”
This flexibility in teaching means we can “Teach divers, not skills”. It is common for SDI instructors to focus the firstly or a larger part of the course session purely on buoyancy, trim and finning. We want our students to be able to maintain buoyancy in the open water to protect the reef, rather than having them do all of the skills on their knees. We always want to think about the end goal of creating a confident diver rather than just completing a tick box list of skills.
Modernized
SDI also mandates that all students learn how to use a computer from their first confined water session. Though our instructors may also still teach tables you the tables to better understand the principles behind a computer. But just teaching tables is like handling students in the 2020’s an encyclopedia and ignoring the advancements of computers.
In addition, SDI is a renowned leader in eLearning. Their programs cutting edge and challenging. Don’t expect to find any fluffy questions students can blow right through. And all your forms and paperwork can be done online also to make even more time on our 1st day to get right into diving.
You want to learn properly….SDI’s eLearning prepares you for the first day of class like no other.
Can you dive anywhere? Yes!
Each student receives the same capabilities after their certification, no matter the agency. All top agencies equivalents of the Open Water course allow students to dive with a buddy, anywhere in the world, up to 60 ft.
SDI is recognised worldwide with more than 24 international offices and thousands of SDI shops. SDI is an active member of the WRSTC and in addition, it’s programs are approved by the European Underwater Federation and the International Organization Standardization (ISO).
Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) was founded in 1966 by John Cronin (a former NAUI instructor) and Ralph Erickson. Their goal was to create an accessible universal diving training course for all.
And they did this very successfully bringing scuba to the world! PADI is now the most well-known and widespread agency, with over 6,500 affiliated dive centers and resorts all over the world. As of March 2017, PADI proudly has issued 25 million scuba certifications.
“The way the world learns to dive”, their motto perfectly sums up PADI’s efforts to provide a safe and standardized dive experience. But it has recently started to gain them criticism: you get the same standardized product anywhere you go, with little-to-no room for personalization. The entry level course (Open Water) does not change from one place to another which, as some people in the diving community point out, poses a serious deficiency since it is not the same to dive in the Caribbean as in the English Channel.
Conclusion
Hopefully, after reading this blog post you’ll have a clearer understanding of why we chose SDI/TDI and an idea of what’s best for you.
Just remember, while diving may be completely safe for well-trained divers, you will be at risk if you don’t take your lessons seriously. SDI vs PADI doesn’t matter as much as having a good teacher and following their guidance.
