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. Leadership level courses with NAUI include Divemaster and Scuba Diving Instructor.

The NAUI ideal is “Dive Safety Through Education”. The NAUI slogan is “The Quality Difference”. The corporate mission statement is “to enable people to enjoy underwater activities as safely as possible by providing the highest quality practical education, and to actively promote the preservation and protection of the world’s underwater environments”. The NAUI credo states that businesses and individuals are entitled to do business with whomever they choose and we (NAUI) do not demand that they be exclusive to NAUI. They do however expect NAUI members to represent and support the NAUI organization to at least the same extent they support any other organization.³

To become a NAUI leader, it takes more than desire. The step up to leadership levels of Divemaster and Instructor is a challenging process. It entails performing and committing to the limits of your ability.

The primary goal of NAUI leadership training is to help the candidate become as successful a diving leader as they can be. The training has four aspects:

1. Acquiring diving knowledge and developing the ability to perform and demonstrate specific essential water skills.

2. Learning leadership skills and developing an effective personal leadership style through study and the observation of other leaders.

3. Benefiting from evaluation and coaching on all aspects of leadership responsibilities.

4. Gaining experience through exercising leadership skills under the supervision and guidance of a NAUI Instructor. ⁴

As a NAUI leader you will develop an attitude that places the highest concern for student and diver safety. Published minimum standards of achievement are treated as goals to be acquired and exceeded. The instructor candidate will embrace the tenets of over-learning, maximizing individual potential, public speaking, developing personal best aquatic skills, minimum and no impact environmental activism, and learning by doing.⁵

NAUI Leadership and Instructor training is founded on the “Loved One” concept. That is, it is only those we would trust to train our loved ones to dive that we graduate at any level and especially so for leadership and instructor certification.

Ultimately, when you become a NAUI Instructor, you will have academic freedom. That is the freedom to meet the students academic needs. You are not required to follow a specific order of training , you are allowed to explore and innovate ways to teach and help individual students and divers meet certification requirements. ⁶

Becoming a NAUI instructor is about embracing a set of values that transcend the mundane pursuit of a vocation. It is about becoming filled with a passion to achieve one’s personal best and helping others to achieve the same .

¹ Barocas, I. (2003). NAUI Leadership and Instruction. p. 4. United States of America: NAUI.
² Carroll, S. (2000,2004). NAUI Scuba Diver. p. 7. United States 0f America: NAUI.
³ Barocas, I. (2003). NAUI Leadership and Instruction. p. 8. United States of America: NAUI.
⁴ Barocas, I. (2003). NAUI Leadership and Instruction. p. 5. United States of America: NAUI.
⁵Barocas, I. (2003). NAUI Leadership and Instruction. p. 6. United States of America: NAUI.
⁶Barocas, I. (2003). NAUI Leadership and Instruction. p. 7. United States of America: NAUI.

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