Best Scuba Training Agencies in 2024

Many new divers are confused by the number of different scuba training agencies, dive schools, and wonder which is the best scuba diving certification to get.

In this article, we will look at the best scuba training programs and discuss differences, similarities, and which one is “best”.

You will notice, however, that this question cannot be objectively answered and it is more important to find a good dive instructor, instead.

Best Scuba Training Agencies in 2024

These are the best scuba diving training programs and agencies in 2024:

• Most popular: PADI
• Most In-Depth training: CMAS
• Fastest Growing: IAC
• Great online courses: SSI
• Toughest Training: GUE
• Oldest Training Agency: BSAC

Let’s now look at each of them individually and how their pros and cons.

PADI – Professional Association of Diving Instructors

Most popular

Specs & Features

Founded	1966
Types of Diving	Recreational Diving, Freediving, Technical Diving, Cave Diving, Disabled Diving, Children Diving
Organization Type	Owned by Altas Partners & Florac
Headquarters Location	California, USA (PADI Travel: Zurich, Switzerland)
Number of Dive Professionals	137,000+
Number of Dive Bases	6,600+
Certifications per Year	~100,000
Total Certifications	29 million (as of 2021)
Online Course Library	Yes

• Visit www.padi.com

CMAS – Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques

Most in-depth training

Specs & Features

Founded	1959
Types of Diving	Recreational Diving, Freediving, Technical Diving, Cave Diving
Organization Type	INGO (130 federations)
Headquarters Location	Rome, Italy
Number of Dive Professionals	Unknown
Number of Dive Bases	Unknown
Certifications per Year	Unknown
Total Certifications	Unknown
Online Course Library	No

• Visit www.cmas.org

iac – International Aquanautic Club

Fastest Growing

Specs & Features

Founded	1986 (as Baracuda), 2012 (iac)
Types of Diving	Recreational Diving, Freediving, Technical Diving, Cave Diving, Disabled Diving, Children Diving
Organization Type	Privately Owned
Headquarters Location	Essen, Germany
Number of Dive Professionals	4500+
Number of Dive Bases	350+
Certifications per Year	10,000+
Total Certifications	Unknown
Online Course Library	In progress

• Visit www.diveiac.com
• Learn to dive with us!

SSI – Scuba Schools Internation

Great Online Courses

Specs & Features

Founded	1970
Types of Diving	Recreational Diving, Freediving, Technical Diving, Cave Diving, Disabled Diving, Children Diving
Organization Type	Owned by of HEAD
Headquarters Location	Colorado, USA
Number of Dive Professionals	50,000+
Number of Dive Bases	3000+
Certifications per Year	30,000+
Total Certifications	800,000+
Online Course Library	Extensive

• Visit www.divessi.com

GUE – Global Underwater Explorers

Toughest Training

Specs & Features

Founded	1998
Types of Diving	Recreational Diving, Technical Diving, Cave Diving
Organization Type	NGO
Headquarters Location	Florida, USA
Number of Dive Professionals	<500
Number of Dive Bases	Very few
Certifications per Year	Unknown
Total Certifications	Unknown
Online Course Library	No

• Visit www.gue.com

BSAC – British Sub-Aqua Club

Oldest Training Agency

Specs & Features

Founded	1953
Types of Diving	Recreational Diving, Freediving, Technical Diving, Cave Diving, Disabled Diving, Children Diving
Organization Type	NGO
Headquarters Location	Cheshire, UK
Number of Dive Professionals	Unknown
Number of Dive Bases	~400
Certifications per Year	Unknown
Total Members	27,000 (as of 2019)
Online Course Library	No

• Visit www.bsac.com

Which Scuba Training Agency is Best?

There is no overall best scuba training agency as they all have strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, choose the one that best fits your goals and approach to scuba diving. If you want to dive a lot while traveling and do courses at different locations, pick a larger agency like PADI or SSI as they have lots of dive bases around the world and are recognized everywhere. If you want the most thorough training or get into tech diving, agencies like CMAS or SDI/TDI are great starting points.

Especially new divers always ask the question “which scuba training agency is best?” or “PADI vs xyz…which is better?“. To which my usual answer is always “the training organization doesn’t matter as much as the instructor”.

The instructor is much more important than the training agency.

There are amazing training programs out there, but if they are taught by a complete idiot, you won’t become a great diver.

On the other, there are some programs I don’t like at all, but know some of their instructors and can personally vouch for their great training quality.

As such, look for a good instructor or dive school first, and don’t worry as much about the agency.

The only time you really want to look closer at the training agency is when you get into technical diving or cave diving.

Here, there are big differences in terms of equivalency and reputation around the world.

Why are there different diving certification programs?

Scuba diving is not regulated by one general entity like pilot licenses, boat permits, or skydiving courses. Therefore, different scuba training agencies evolved which all offered their own training curriculum and courses to teach people scuba diving. Only in recent years through organizations like RSTC and CMAS has scuba training been more centralized and standardized.

There are many hundreds of different scuba training agencies with just as many scuba diving certification programs attached.

Although their training methods differ, they share one common goal: Teach people to scuba dive.

Therefore, the choice of certification program has a much lower effect on your diving career than you would initially think.

How do scuba training agencies differ?

Most scuba training agencies teach scuba diving in a similar way, starting with the theory, before moving on to pool training and finishing the course in open water. However, there are differences in training methodology, number of course dives, and certification steps when taking higher scuba training courses. Bigger agencies also tend to have other features like elearning, digital certification cards, and referral programs.

As you can see from the dive training flowcharts above, the way you progress through the dive training levels differs from agency to agency.

The Open Water Diver, as well as the Advanced Open Water Diver certifications are the most popular dive training certifications in the world. Most agencies offer them or variations thereof.

In the end, the name does not matter, as long as the training conforms to the respective ISO norms (24801-1 & 2) for supervised and autonomous divers. You can read more about them below.

To improve safety and minimum training standards, the RSTC was founded.

WRSTC – World Recreational Scuba Training Council

The World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) is an organization of established scuba certification agencies that governs and develops worldwide minimum training standards for recreational dive training. It is made of smaller regional RSTC organizations and aims at improving safety and equivalency for scuba diving training.

We already discussed that the training organization is not near as important as the instructor and that most diving certifications are equivalent around the world.

However, I highly recommend you make sure that the dive school or training agency you’re with is part of the respective regional RSTC.

The RSTC is the closest thing we have to a world scuba diving organization and here, representatives of all major scuba diving organizations discuss training standards.

This means if your training organization is part of the RSTC, you can be sure that the diving course is accredited and fulfills the minimum criteria set by all its members.

RSTC members also automatically recognize each others’ training certifications as equivalent.

Scuba Certification Levels

Scuba diving certification levels are standardized by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) which ensures that there is equivalency between different scuba organizations and their training programs. ISO sets standards and norms for products and services in all areas and there are 5 ISO norms that apply to recreational diving services and training.

These are the ISO standards that are important for recreational scuba diver training:

• Introductory programs to scuba diving – ISO 11121
• Diver Level 1 – Supervised Diver – ISO 24801-1
• Diver Level 2 – Autonomous Diver – ISO 24801-2
• Diver Level 3 – Dive Leader ISO – 24801-3
• Enriched air nitrox diver training – ISO 11107

Introductory programs to scuba diving

ISO 11121 specifies the “minimum program content requirements for training organizations for introductory scuba experiences in recreational scuba diving“.

These are typically Discover Scuba Diving courses that do not qualify a person to dive on their own and are conducted in confined water environments like swimming pools.

Diver Level 1 – Supervised Diver

ISO 24801 is split into 3 parts and the first one is considered Diver Level 1 or “Supervised Diver”.

ISO 24801-1 specifies the competencies required of a scuba diver in order to obtain a scuba diver qualification from a training organization.

In practice, this refers to all basic diving qualifications that allow a diver to join guided dives under professional supervision. Most training agencies call them “Basic Diver”, “Scuba Diver”, or “Pool Diver”.

Unlike Open Water Divers, these divers must be accompanied by a diving professional like a Dive Leader or scuba instructor underwater.

Diver Level 2 – Autonomous Diver

ISO 24801-2 is the second diver level and the one we usually refer to when talking about general recreational scuba diving.

Starting at this level, scuba divers are certified to dive autonomously in buddy teams without professional supervision in open water.

Most scuba training organizations call this initial scuba certification Open Water Diver, however, there are also other equivalent ones like the CMAS* (read “CMAS 1 star“).

Diver Level 3 – Dive Leader

The final recreational scuba diver level is specified in ISO 24801-3 and refers to Dive Leaders and equivalent certifications.

These are all divers who may lead supervised divers (see above) on dives and is the highest recreational diver training level before getting into professional ones.

Enriched air nitrox diver training

ISO 11107 deals with recreational enriched air nitrox (EAN) diving and specifies requirements to be fulfilled before divers can use Nitrox gas mixtures underwater.

Are diving courses from different agencies equivalent?

Yes! In general, diving courses from different scuba training agencies are equivalent. This means that an Open Water Diver certification from iac is equal and equivalent to one from PADI, NAUI, SSI, and any other certified and accredited organization. In order to ensure this equivalency is recognized, get your scuba certifications from RSTC member organizations!

Can I switch from one to the other training agency?

Yes! Due to the equivalency of accredited diving courses, it is possible to switch between agencies and do courses wherever you like. You could, for example, do your OWD with PADI, your AOWD with SSI, but then decide to become a Dive Leader with IAC without problems. The same goes for specialty courses. You can also do the same course at two different agencies.

List of Scuba diving certification organizations

This is a list of most recognized scuba diving training organizations:

Abbreviation	Name	Country	Website
ACDC	Associazione CMAS Diving Centre Italia	Italy	https://www.cmasdivingcenter.org/
ACUC	American Canadian Underwater Certifications	Canada	https://acuc.es/en/
BSAC	British Sub Aqua Club	UK	www.bsac.com
CMAS	Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques	Worldwide	www.cmas.org
GUE	Global Underwater Explorers	USA	www.gue.com
IAC	International Aquanautic Club	Germany	www.diveiac.com
IANTD	International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers	USA	iantd.com
IDA	Inernational Diving Association	Germany	www.ida-worldwide.com
NAUI	National Association of Underwater Instructors	USA	www.naui.org
PADI	Professional Association of Diving Instructors	USA	www.padi.com
PDA	Professional Diving Association	Germany	www.pdaww.de/en
ProTec	Professional Technical and Recreational Diving	Germany	www.protecdive.com
RAID	Rebreather Association of International Divers	Sweden	www.diveraid.com
SDI	Scuba Diving International	USA	www.tdisdi.com
SSI	Scuba Schools International	USA	www.divessi.com
TDI	Technical Diving International	USA	www.tdisdi.com
TVSÖ	Tauchsportverband Österreichs	Austria	www.tsvoe.at

Conclusion

This concludes this comparison of the best scuba training agencies and hopefully answers the question which scuba diving certification is best: None of them are.

It all depends on what kind of diving you want to do and which approach suits your needs the most.

Remember: The dive instructor is much more important than the training agency.

However, it is highly recommended that you pick a training organization that’s part of the RSTC and fulfills their minimum training standards.

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Always dive with friends and happy bubbles. 😃

Cheers

Julius