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 issue certifications and, as its acronym suggests, was an association of instructors, not retailers. The only other viable certifying agencies in existence were NAUI and YMCA, both of which had very similar anti-sales philosophies, in line with their not-for-profit status; they viewed themselves as purely educational bodies that actively discouraged instructors from selling equipment in the classroom context. They taught people to dive, period.

SSI developed with a view that teaching and equipment were not separate entities. While training is most important, SSI’s view is that divers can’t be truly successful unless provided with both the training and the tools to go diving — dive stores are seen as the perfect environment to provide this equipment, along with the air fills, trips and dive experiences that divers need. Furthermore, there is noone better suited to control the quality of training than those with the most to lose — the dive facilities. SSI was and always will be a dealer organisation.

The aim is to have a network of SSI Dealers that provide professional Scuba Schools with an internal system of checks and balances.

The owner/manager is a director of training who customises SSI training courses to fit the needs of the local market and monitors staff to provide the highest quality training possible. To the dive instructor this means that one must be affiliated with a dive store and conduct training through that store in return for access to pools, training materials and facilities, travel opportunities, and employee training in equipment sales and service. To the Dealer this means trained, sales-oriented employees and the ability to maintain a desired level of service.

What does this mean to the average diver or student? Honestly? Not much. There are good and bad dive shops all over the world; operators with integrity and straight-up fly-by-night cowboys; great instructors and total dickheads, regardless of agency.

You will read in many places and hear from a variety of sources that it is the instructor that matters, not the agency. Although this is often true and I agree with the sentiment to a certain degree, there are some marked differences in the training you might receive — what you learn and the way it is taught.

How SSI differs in this respect will be the focus of my next article.

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 dive retail store and run a charter boat out to historic Great Lakes shipwrecks during the summer season. During the winter, when I’ve just about had it with the frigid fresh water of the Lakes, I trade in my drysuit for a 1.5mm rashy and head back to the tropics to visit my more colourful fishy friends.