What is the best scuba certification agency?
In terms of quality of training and caliber of diver as an end result in recreational diving, the BSAC certification is best overall. The only hitch is that as far as I’m aware, it’s only offered in the UK. I say this because the standards for completion of their courses are higher than others such as PADI, NAUI, YMCA and SSI. Also, location comes to have an impact. BSAC’s learn to dive cold water first, a much more challenging environment rife with additional physical and equipment concerns. Additionally, because the training is a little more difficult, the comparison between the BSAC open water versus the other agencies differ. A BSAC open water ( first level of certification) is just about equal to the other agencies Advanced level, BSAC’s advanced diver being almost equal to PADI’s Rescue diver and so on. The other contender for top spot is IANTD, but their major emphasis is on technical diving rather than run of the mill recreational scuba, though some IANTD centres will offer the
