PADI officials believe the organization will breach the milestone in the third quarter of this year.
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), the world's largest scuba diving training and certification organization, announced Friday that the organization will soon issue its 20 millionth scuba diver certification. To celebrate the occasion, the organization will be presenting a “Countdown to 20 Million” campaign. which will award the diver who earns the 20 millionth certification AND the instructor who issues the winning certification a trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
The PADI organization was started 35 years ago and has more than 135,000 active professional members worldwide and more than 6,000 affiliated retail outlets and resorts worldwide, according to the organization. The 20 million certification milestone easily makes PADI the most recognized name in the recreational scuba diving industry.
“In 1966, Ralph Erickson and John Cronin had an idea about a better way that people to learn to dive. That the PADI organization has grown from the two of them to more than 20 million testifies to the power and wisdom of their vision” says PADI Worldwide Chief Executive Officer Brian Cronin. “It also shows how a mutual passion for diving unites the PADI family around the world. Twenty million certifications only happens because PADI professionals lead diving. I salute their achievement.”
Always fascinated by the sea and marine life and inspired by their naval officer father and sky-diver mother, two boys from Chandigarh have become the youngest pair of brothers to qualify for sea diving licences.
The boys - Ayush, 8 and Pranav Sardana, 10 - have been certified by Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) in Junior Open Water Diver Course recently.
"Ayush, being under 10, was underage for open sea diving as per PADI rules and achieved the feat in confined waters of a swimming pool whereas Pranav was eligible to dive in sea water," said the boys' grandfather S.N. Sardana.
Both the brothers underwent training in both theory and practicals at Bangalore before being given exposure to sea diving, Sardana said. The boys then went to Vishakhapatnam to train for two months as the ability to swim a minimum of 200 metres and float for 15 minutes at a stretch are major pre-requisites for sea diving.
"We had a fear of underwater marine life like fish, sea snakes and were apprehensive of use of underwater equipment but gradually we overcame these," Pranav told IANS.
"The main source of motivation have been our parents who are keen adventure sport enthusiasts. They guided and encouraged us all the day," Ayush told IANS.
Your thoughts on the Junior Open Water Diver Course and children as young as 8 becoming certified in this manner? Has PADI set sensible standards for youth to dive safely into SCUBA, or dangerously dumbed down the sport of diving? Is 8-years-old too young? What about seven? Five?
The app, developed for Apple iOS and for Android based devices, allows users to locate PADI Dive Centers or Resorts by city/state/zip, or the closest to you by using your current location.
Here's a quick tour of the iPhone version of the PADI App:
Fairly basic stuff, but it's free and PADI says "more features will be developed and added".
NOTE: This entry has been cross-posted from MarkGlesne.com
Last Friday I had the privilege of being asked by Universal Pictures to attend a screening the new film SANCTUM (which is out today) at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. I was also honored to be asked to join cast and crew the next day at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons for a Q&A round table of sorts.
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the film’s release since I first caught wind of it last summer. So you can imagine my excitement to be asked to view it a week before its release, as well as meet with those involved in its creation.
There aren’t too many movies centered around scuba diving, so this was certainly a movie you couldn’t pay me to miss.
If you have yet to see the trailer, check it out...
And here’s the official synopsis:
The 3D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth. When a tropical storm forces them deep into the caverns, they must fight raging water, deadly terrain and creeping panic as they search for an unknown escape route to the sea.
Master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) has explored the South Pacific’s Esa-ala Caves for months. But when his exit is cut off in a flash flood, Frank’s team—including 17-year-old son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) and financier Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd)—are forced to radically alter plans. With dwindling supplies, the crew must navigate an underwater labyrinth to make it out. Soon, they are confronted with the unavoidable question: Can they survive, or will they be trapped forever?
Shot on location off the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, Sanctum employs 3-D photography techniques Cameron developed to lens Avatar. Designed to operate in extreme environments, the technology used to shoot the action-thriller will bring audiences on a breathless journey across plunging cliffs and into the furthest reaches of our subterranean world.
I have to admit, I was a bit worried going into the film.
The movie is quite obviously centered around cave diving — extreme cave diving, no less. So I suppose I was worried the movie would be over-produced. That is, worried Hollywood would take a dive story inspired by true events and… well… make it too Hollywood.
That wasn’t the case. This is a movie scuba divers of all stripes and specialties will enjoy. Now, if you’re looking for in-depth character and plot development — you’re looking in the wrong crevice. SANCTUM makes no bones about being a non-stop, action-adventure flick. And I prefer movies (of all genres) that don’t attempt to be something they’re not.
I was also incredibly pleased with the way in which 3D technology was incorporated into the film. Again, not over-done. I don’t need a barrage of things jumping off the screen at me while trying to enjoy the movie’s experience. The 3D effect also added quite appropriately to the underwater effect experienced by divers.
As for the storyline, no spoilers here. You’re going to have to experience that for yourself. However, I will say this: At one point I caught myself literally holding my breath. When you see it, I think you’ll know which point. The closest I’ve come to the sort of diving depicted in the movie was scuba diving Riviera Maya cenotes with my wife. SANCTUM will take you to a whole new depth.
I returned home around 11:30 Friday evening, well after my wife and son had gone to sleep. I couldn’t help but smile as I used the illumination from my iPhone to navigate the long, dark, narrow hallway that leads to the master bedroom.
WARNING: Divers may experience residual effects.
As I mentioned, I was also asked to join members of the cast and crew for a press conference Q&A the following day. I was stoked to meet up and speak with Jeff from Psycho Solo Diver. After getting a feel for those in attendance, I can all but guarantee we were the only scuba divers in attendance.
From the actors, I was interested to hear about receiving their Open Water PADI certifications and then moving immediately into re-breather training. Talk about moving from one end of the spectrum to the other in no time at all. I asked Ioan specifically about the cast’s dive prep and schedule during the last four weeks of filming — when all the underwater scenes were shot.
He explained first that they filmed underwater only at night. This is, after all, a movie about diving where the sun doesn’t shine. He also described the two phases of topside dive prep they had to undergo before each scene could be shot. The first was cast and crew huddled around a miniature model of the set. Each person was shown where they would be, where the safety divers (3-4 per actor) would reside, and where the cameras would be set. The second phase consisted of cast and crew walking through the motions in a parking lot, or “blocking the scene”, as he called it. (The set was terrific, by the way. If you’d like to see more about its construction, I recommend watching NatGeo’s special, The Real Sanctum.)
From my own experience, this isn’t at all unlike what military forces do before certain missions. Proper planning often consists of drawing tactics in the sand, walking them out, and then executing — each exercise getting larger in the process.
Thankfully, the cast didn’t describe any sort of particularly serious accidents during the underwater (or topside) training or filming. It sounds like dive coordinator John Garvin ran a tight ship — enforcing the time-honored tradition of “Plan your dive, dive your plan.”
James Cameron discussed with us how the project was actually four years in the making, as the film’s financing fell through during the economic downturn and took time to be re-established. I spoke one-on-one with Andrew Wight after the round table and asked about Wes Skiles’ involvement in the film. As painful as the recent passing of Wes must have been for Andrew, he appeared relieved to be asked a — shall I say — more in-depth question about the film. Don’t get me wrong, the press did was it was called to do. Questions were asked about past and future films, production considerations, and technical difficulties. But I’m not press. I’m a member of the dive community. I saw the film as a diver, not a movie critic.
Andrew and I discussed how Wes was involved early on — after all, he was there for the true events that inspired the project — but was not specifically involved in the filming of the movie. He had hoped Wes would be able to be more involved, but as we all know, Wes was out there doing what he loved until the day he passed.
Were Wes still alive today, I think it’s fair to say he’s be quite pleased with SANCTUM. A film that depicts the sort of mentality required to push yourself into Earth’s previously unseen cavities and cave systems.
A film about true bravery, tough choices… and even tougher decisions.
Last October we brought you the story of the PADI/BSA partnership agreement, which paved the way to the new Scuba Diving Merit Badge.
Well, last week it appears Boy Scouts hailing from North Bend, Washington were the first to earn the badge.
Submerging up to 60 feet underwater, 20 of the 39 troop members completed their final dive off Alki Beach for their Professional Association of Diver Instructors certification for scuba diving and their Boy Scout merit badge.
“I’ve been scuba diving before in Maui and it was one of the most fun experiences of my life,” said Scout Sean Fite, 14, who goes to Eastside Catholic High School. “This opportunity came up and I thought I should take it to get my full certification.”
“It was cold,” said Scout Will Dodeward, 15, who goes to Mount Si High School. “I know 46 degrees doesn’t sound cold, but it’s cold.”
These boys seem to be the first ones in the nation to complete the required courses and training for the new Boy Scout merit badge added this year by the national offices, said parent volunteer Judy Co. The troop is the first to place an order for the merit badge, but there is no national database to confirm it for sure, she added.
From all of us at Neutral Dive Gear, congrats to the Scouts of Troop No. 609!
You may remember back in March we brought you the proposed partnership between PADI and the Boy Scouts of America. As we said at the time, a partnership of this nature is a terrific way to promote scuba diving to a responsible segment of America's youth.
PADI today officially announced the agreement with the BSA and the new Scuba Diving Merit Badge.
In a recent Boy Scouts of America (BSA) survey, scuba diving was one of the most proposed new merit badge topics for troops nationwide. Standing ready to fulfill this demand for the new Scuba Diving Merit Badge, PADI Americas entered into an agreement of mutual support with the BSA on 6 August 2009. This agreement positions PADI as an official BSA business affiliate and leads local BSA troops to PADI Dive Centers and Resorts. PADI Worldwide President and Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Drew Richardson, and BSA Chief Scout Executive, Robert J. Mazzuca, signed the memorandum of mutual understanding during a meeting at the Boy Scouts national office in Irving, Texas, USA.
“PADI Americas has entered into an agreement with the Boy Scouts of America to work cooperatively with each other to establish and nurture Boy Scout troops and Venturing crews,” says Dr. Richardson. “Through diving, PADI Dive Center and Resort members can help Scouts develop the leadership, character and self-reliance skills that are key to the Scouting’s code of ethics.”
PADI Americas will be listed as an official business sponsor at the Boy Scouts of America’s sponsorship website. As part of the agreement, PADI Dive Centers and Resorts will also receive approved BSA logos and signage to display in their businesses. “There are more than one million Boy Scout and Venturing members in the United States,” says Bill Hamm, PADI Americas director of sales and field services. “With this sponsorship and the introduction of the new Scuba Diving Merit Badge, local troops will naturally seek PADI Dive Centers and Resorts for scuba diving fulfillment. This is an incredible opportunity for all PADI business members.”
An opportunity to get major exposure for your work is here. Dive Photo Guide has the details.
PADI is offering a unique prize to the winner of the PADI Diving Society's 2010 Member Card Photo Contest. The prize isn't cash or an expensive trip, but a chance to have your image be recognized by thousands of divers. How so? The winning image will be featured on the PADI limited edition Society membership card. Talk about exposure...
Heeding customer feedback and finally bowing to market pressures, PADI’s DSAT technical diving arm is preparing an overhaul of its TecRec Deep and Trimix courses that will lower the entry barriers to the course and give instructors more flexibility.
Although final course outlines have not been finalized, the Tec Deep course will be broken into three parts, tentatively called “Tec 40,” “Tec 45″ and “Tec 50,” signifying the depth in meters students will be certified to dive. The current Tec Trimix course will be similarly broken into two parts, dubbed “Trimix 65″ and “Trimix 75.” DSAT hopes to introduce the courses by the end of the year.
Wow! Most kids his age are too worried about World of Warcraft and Cheetos to spend this much time outside... let alone in the water.
Jonathan Whitehouse, 13, has just qualified after an intensive training course, alongside his father, Chris, and another teenager, Gemma Powell, 17.
Christ the King College pupil Jonathan took his Professional Association of Diving Instructors’ (PADI) open water certificate as soon as he reached the minimum age of 12 and then went on to do his advanced open water qualification.
Since then he has logged more than 70 dives and now has his rescue divers’ qualification through PADI diving instructor Jamie Sprake, of the Aquarius Diving Club.
The course involved several days of classroom-based training in emergency first response techniques, including cardiac pulmonary resuscitation, a day of skills training in the swimming pool at Wight Montrene Hotel and a final day diving in Totland Bay, putting the students’ rescue skills into practice in a number of emergency scenarios.
Jonathan said: "I am really thrilled to have achieved this qualification.
"It was a challenge to find an unresponsive diver on the seabed and bring him to the surface, practice delivering rescue breaths and get the victim ashore to safety so that emergency treatment could be continued.
"But these skills could mean that one day I am able to save the life of a fellow diver in distress," said Jonathan.
This past weekend a few of us from Neutral Dive Gear were able to help out with a pool day hosted by Sharkys Eco Diving out of La Verne, Calif.
The event featured gear demos with Mares and Aqua Lung equipment, as well as a complimentary PADI Discover SCUBA Diving class for some folks interested in the wonderful underwater world of SCUBA.
Here's a slick video from the event, courtesy of teamcasa...
(Feed readers click through for video)
If you watch closely, at 6:00 you can spot Neutral Dive Gear Founder & CEO Mark Glesne frog kicking away from the camera, and at 6:28 you can see our Co-Founder and Divemaster Heidi Glesne giving a double OK!
=)
Here's a few photos...
Neutral Dive Gear hopes to continue working closely with Sharkys. If you're in the SoCal area, be sure to stop by the shop and say hello.
Store Location:
Sharkys Eco Diving 3836 Emerald Ave., #H La Verne, CA 91750
Store Hours:
Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Now here's a cool way to promote scuba diving to a responsible segment of America's youth.
“Given that nearly 20 percent of 2008's new open water divers in PADI Americas territory were students aged 10-18, a partnership with the Boy Scouts of America made perfect sense,” said Kristin Valette, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at PADI Americas. “Our two organizations’ goals are similar and scuba diving is a natural fit with Boy Scouts of America.”
BSA represents a niche market with tremendous potential for PADI Members. With more than 2.9 million youth members, BSA is the largest youth organization in the United States. Since its incorporation in 1910, membership in BSA has totaled more than 112 million. As of December 2007, there were more than 850,000 Boy Scouts, over 1.1 million adult members and more than 70,000 Boy Scout Troops in the United States alone.
The Boy Scouts benefit from the partnership because scuba is a perfect fit with the organization’s charter to develop leadership, character, self-reliance and physical fitness among scouts through a wide range of outdoor activities and educational programs. By providing scuba services and support to this market, the PADI family also benefits with new business opportunities.
PADI is launching a new specialty course geared at educating scuba divers to better provide oxygen to fellow divers.
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. 12 March, 2008. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) is launching the new Emergency Oxygen Provider Specialty course with the goal of improving diver accident preparedness by teaching how and when to give oxygen to an injured diver.
...
Course Overview
The new PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider Specialty course is an entry-level emergency oxygen course that also teaches the recognition of dive illnesses treatable by emergency oxygen. Though suited for divers, the new course has no prerequisites and doesn’t include dives, which means it is equally applicable to those who are around divers – boat crew, nondiving buddies, lifeguards, and shore staff. No previous CPR or first aid training is required to take the course.
CYBER DIVER News Network is featuring a harsh opinion piece by Stanford Suzuki. Wondering any and all thoughts on this:
I am a scuba diver. How do I know? Well it says so right here on my PADI "Scuba Diver" C-card.
I am with 12 other divers and a divemaster at a depth of 30m/100ft at one of the world's most famous dive sites. I started diving six months ago. My divemaster who is half my age started a few weeks before that.
Most of the other divers are Open Water certified. Their recommended depth limit is 18m/60ft. Mine is 12m/40ft. No one cares about the recommendations--after all, they are only recommendations. We just want to dive Blue Hole.
INHERENTLY DANGEROUS
Scuba diving is inherently dangerous. We cannot breathe water and breathing air underwater involves the risk of decompression illness and lung embolisms. We can never eliminate those risks but they can be minimized with, among other things, adequate training.
Anyone familiar with the diving industry is aware that PADI, the US-based diver certification agency, is often criticized for introducing programs based more on marketing objectives than educational ones. Some of that criticism is justified; much of it is nothing more than PADI-bashing by those who resent the company's success.
No PADI program has ignited more controversy and criticism than the PADI "Scuba Diver" course. In that case, at least, the critics are right. While the course will certainly help PADI to maintain market share based on overall number of certifications, it will put certified divers in the water who are inadequately trained and further increase the burden on dive professionals who must supervise divers uncomfortable with even the most basic diving skills.
DUMBING DOWN ENTRY-LEVEL COURSE REQUIREMENTS
PADI justifies "dumbing down" entry-level course requirements by comparing diving to skiing/snowboarding and arguing that even three and four-day Open Water courses are an obstacle to potential divers who don't have time to learn to dive. In that sense, the PADI "Scuba Diver" course is a marketing concept designed to increase PADI certifications and expand market share, not to reduce the inherent risk of diving.
The PADI Open Water course can be completed in three days. The notion that divers should be certified who are unwilling to make even that minimal commitment to learning to safely use underwater life support equipment is grossly irresponsible.
"PRE-ENTRY" LEVEL COURSE - SEMANTIC NONSENSE
Students who complete the course are certified and receive a PADI "Scuba Diver" C-card. There is one requirement: They must go diving with a PADI professional, the only diving professionals who accept the certification. According to PADI's own marketing spiel, that would "limit" the diver to a dive center/dive resort network that spans the entire world.
Pre-entry level? NONSENSE! The vast majority of dive travelers these days are diving with dive professionals. The majority of divers involved in accidents are also diving with dive professionals.
MEANINGLESS RECOMMENDATIONS
PADI recommends that divers who complete the course restrict their depth to 12m/40ft. PADI also recommends that Open Water divers restrict their depth to 18m/60ft. Yet almost everyone, divers and dive professionals alike, ignore such recommendations. Everyone knows that. PADI KNOWS THAT.
Such recommendations are meaningless. Only mandatory requirements that are spelled out and backed up by effective quality assurance can enhance safety.
Moreover, many drowning accidents occur at relatively shallow depths. In fact, a significant number of divers involved in diving accidents drown at the surface.
NO REQUIRED NOR RECOMMENDED DIVER TO DIVEMASTER RATIO
Unlike Discover Scuba which involves supervision of divers who ARE, in fact, pre-entry level, there is NO required or recommended diver to divemaster ratio for supervision of divers who have a PADI "Scuba Diver" certification. One divemaster and 13 novice divers with a day and a half of "training"? Hey, whatever floats the PADI 5-Star boat.
OVER 70 PERCENT OF DIVERS DO NOT CONTINUE TRAINING
More than 70 percent of divers do NOT continue training after their initial certification. Therefore it is absolutely imperative that diver certification agencies establish certain minimum certification requirements for the 70 percent of divers who will not go on after they get their first entry-level C-card.
Whether three and four-day Open Water courses accomplish that is the subject of much debate. No matter where the line is finally drawn, some will call for tougher standards. But most diving professionals, especially the ones who often supervise recently certified divers, agree that a day and a half of PADI "Scuba Diver" training will not give divers adequate time to develop the basic skills they need to dive safely. Even some PADI professionals have rejected the course and refuse to supervise divers whose training is limited to the PADI "Scuba Diver" course.
JUST SAY "NO" TO PADI "SCUBA DIVER"
Despite PADI's claims to the contrary, the PADI "Scuba Diver" course has effectively cut, almost in half, the requirements for the 70% of entry-level divers who do NOT continue their training. Just as Open Water divers and dive professionals typically ignore recommended O-W depth limits, so too PADI "Scuba Diver(s)" will be diving deeper, probably much deeper, than 12m/40ft.
Not that it matters. Accident reports provide evidence that undertrained and inexperienced divers who panic can suddenly become accident statistics at any depth despite the supervision of a dive professional.
PADI recently dumped their unpopular Advanced Plus course, another marketing concept that failed due to lack of interest. Our hope is that the PADI "Scuba Diver" course will suffer the same fate.
In the meantime, we urge divers and PADI diving professionals to just say "No" to the PADI "Scuba Diver" course. To those of you who are thinking about getting into diving, if you do NOT have enough time to learn to safely use underwater life support equipment, FORGET ABOUT DIVING.
PADI officials believe the organization will breach the milestone in the third quarter of this year.
