1966

PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors)

Niles, Illinois, USA

PADI was dreamt up by John Cronin, a scuba equipment salesman, and Ralph Erickson, an educator and swimming instructor in 1966. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, PADI began creating its own integrated, multimedia student and instructor educational materials for each course. This development spawned an incredible growth period for PADI and made it unique from other agencies. Today it gives more people a chance to enjoy the underwater world by offering relevant, instructionally valid scuba diving training to create confident scuba divers who dive regularly. While remaining committed to safe and responsible diver education, PADI aims to make a significant impact on key issues facing the dive industry – and the entire planet – particularly: ocean health, marine animal protection, people and community, and health and wellness.

PADI Members have the courses you are looking for. If not they have the opportunity to write their own course and have it reviewed and approved by PADI. Quite simply, people want to discover the underwater world, so the most popular are the core courses – PADI Open Water and PADI Advanced Open Water. Asia itself has become a hot spot for diving with PADI members getting more certifications in Asia year after year over the last 10 years. Locations in Asia: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Timor Leste, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong (SAR), China, Taiwan (PRC), Japan, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Azerbaijan