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The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) is the world's largest recreational diving membership organization and diver training organization. PADI Members (dive centers, resorts, educational facilities, instructors, assistant instructors and divemasters) teach the vast majority of the world's recreational divers, issuing nearly 946,000 certifications each year. PADI professionals make underwater exploration and adventure accessible to the public while maintaining a high industry standard for dive training, safety and customer service.
PADI courses range from entry levels (such as Scuba Diver and Open Water Diver) over advanced degress to master and instructor certificates. The system is composed of certain standardized "modules" divided into theory and practice. Theory is mainly conveyed by way of self-study and confirmation of the student's level of knowledge in discussions with a diving instructor, while practice is obtained through training in pools and in open water. At the end of each course, a certificate is issued which, due to the international scope of PADI (see below) and the standard module composition of its degrees, is recognized almost all over the world.
PADI is international in scope with service offices in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. PADI Worldwide (corporate headquarters) is located in California, United States. PADI Offices serve more than 100,000 individual professional members and more than 4300 dive centers and resorts in more than 175 countries. To serve the needs of divers worldwide, translations of PADI materials are available in more than 20 languages. All in all, PADIs market share worldwide is approx 50%.
A mocking interpretation of PADI is "Pay Another Dollar In", indicating that some people believe that many of programs offered from PADI facilities are expensive with a high overhead cost to the organization. Another – albeit one that takes certain liberties with the English language – is "Pay A lot, Dive Immediately". Many claim that the courses offered from PADI is expensive while not educating its students to an adequate level, "throwing them in the water before they know anything".
Although, all other agencies are getting closer and closer to PADI - courses that used to be months long can be done in couple of days. Most of the training agencies have noticed also that people don't want to learn all the physics and chemistry of diving but they want to learn how to enjoy beautiful creatures underwater - safely.
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