The NAUI System and becoming a NAUI Instructor
NAUI is the acronym for the National Association of Underwater Instructors. It was founded in 1960 and is one of the oldest diver certifying agencies in the world. It is unique in that it is a worldwide, democratic, membership association, whose Board of Directors are elected instructor members who represent the membership and establish policies for the association.¹ NAUI courses are very thorough and routinely exceed minimum industry standards. The basic course is Scuba Diver, which takes the non-diver to open water certification. This is followed by Advanced Scuba Diver which improves your overall knowledge and skill in the water. It is designed for newly certified divers and introduces them to many different types of activities available to certified divers. The Master Scuba Diver course helps you acquire leadership-level academic knowledge and enables you to participate in advanced diving activities .² Other NAUI courses include Rescue Diving and Nitrox Diver. [...]
Categories: NAUI Tags: Diving Naui, NAUI, NAUI Dive Instructor, NAUI Diver
What’s the difference between SSI and PADI? Part 1
Since PADI is “The way the world learns to dive” and a ‘PADI course’ has become synonymous with what is actually an entry-level Scuba certification, being an SSI instructor, I have necessarily developed a concise stock answer to this article’s title-question. In this short series of articles I will be exploring in detail what the differences are; to dive operators and dive leaders as well as (potential) students and divers in general. In this first article we will take a look at the beginnings of the agency. Knowledge of the early days is essential in understanding SSI’s current policies and will even shed some light on the birth of the dive training industry as a whole. When Scuba Schools International came into fruition in 1970, its founding members had all previously belonged to the National Association of Scuba Diving Schools (NASDS), a retailers’ association. PADI at this point did not [...]
Categories: SSI Tags: SSI, SSI courses, SSI divers, SSI education
NAUI: The student diver is the reason
The student diver is the reason… why NAUI has dedicated 35 years to developing the finest recreational diving instructors in the world and supporting them with the most stringent recreational diving safety standards. Scuba diving is an soft-adventure sport, and has inherent risks. The only way to minimize risk is to maximize education, “Dive safetly through education”. Many scuba certification programs exist today, but only one can be called a scuba education program, NAUI. To become a NAUI instructor, candidates undergo an intensive leadership- training program that requires extensive diving knowledge and superior water skills. The combination of exceptional leadership, sound educational materials, and true concern for the individual, has resulted in the best safety record in the recreational diving community. When students enroll in a NAUI diving program, they can be assured they’re receiving the finest diving education available. NAUI instructors won’t accept anything less… and neither should they. [...]
Categories: NAUI, Scuba diving courses Tags: Dive Naui, NAUI, NAUI Dive Agency, Scuba diving courses
Introduction to DIR Education
The talk of DIR diving over the last few years has led to a masquerade of conflicting ideas. A distorted view of equipment identification and community exclusivity has given rise to many misinterpretations of a simple and effective philosophical base for improving a diver’s safety and enjoyment underwater. DIR diving allows a unified team of divers to communicate and execute a dive in a precise and logical rhythm, free from distraction, disorientation or confusion. DIR education differs from that of conventional diver training, in that DIR is rooted in a holistic system that is consistent with the students’ progression. This includes the essential building blocks of education, as well as equipment, experience and community. The idea is to “Start with the end in mind.” Too many in the scuba industry deplete the necessary ingredients of quality education that DIR finds fundamental. A quick and cheap class, the bare minimum of [...]
Categories: DIR, Scuba diving courses Tags: DIR, DIR diving, diving DIR, Scuba diving Course
Meet Rick Davis: SSI diving, Scuba Jedi
I take a practical and pragmatic approach to creating and educating comfortable and competent divers and exceptional dive leaders. I learned to dive through BSAC when I was 17, really for no other reason than the opportunity presented itself. But loved it! I went diving on The Great Barrier Reef several years later, took a handful of PADI classes, saw working dive leaders in action and shortly after enrolled myself in an extended SSI DiveCon internship. Within a year I was bopping about the Fiji Islands and living the dream; working on reef-fringed islands, diving every day, swimming with the fishes, introducing people to a world about which I am passionate and training others to do the same! Six years on and I am now an SSI DiveCon Instructor and NAUI Instructor Trainer, working full-time in the industry but in a very different environment. I now manage a full-service Michigan-based [...]
Categories: Scuba diving courses, SSI Tags: Rick Davis, Scuba Jedi, SSI diving, SSI scuba diving
Meet Dean Pennington II, NAUI Scuba Jedi and Trainer
My name is Dean Pennington II. I have been scuba diving since 1995 when I was certified as an open water diver with the YMCA. I am a PA (physician assistant). I work in neurosurgery and have extensive experience in orthopedic surgery as well. Prior to becoming a PA I spent 9 1/2 years (85-94) in the U.S. Army flying AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopters. I have extensive training in hyperbaric and dive medicine. I have completed Hyperbaric Medicine Team Training with Dr. Paul Sheffield in San Antonio, Advanced Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Training Program with Dick Rutkowski in Key Largo, the NOAA Diving Medical Officer Program that is done with the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society in Seattle and lastly the Medical Assessment of Fitness for Diving training for Diving Medical Examiner also put on by UHMS in New Orleans. My 14 years of dive training includes, Scuba instructor and [...]
Categories: NAUI Tags: Dean Pennington II, Naui Expert, Naui Jedi, Naui Scuba Diver
