PADI or SSI

 Hello,

 

Have had a bit of a search for the differences between PADI and SSI but havent come up with much.

 

Can anyody help  with the differences or the advantages/disadvantages?

 

Thanks James


fishy fingers's picture

Posts: 1719

Date Joined: 28/04/07

Who would do both

Sun, 2011-11-20 18:50

To be able to comment, however I did ssi years ago and talking to divers who used padi ssi are far superior, 1 example a diver who did his padi course was told to bury his depth guage in the mud at rockingham beach to be able to show he reached a certain depth but the general idea i get is padi are far too relaxed in their teaching.

Paul G's picture

Posts: 5215

Date Joined: 12/12/07

SSI jesse went through Hookah

Sun, 2011-11-20 19:21

SSI jesse went through Hookah dive and I was very impresed with there course. .I remember watching Jesse doing his last pool dive they entered the water as padi geared up padi were still sitting on the edge of the pool when Jesse finished in full suits one girl nearly passed out from the heat. SSI for me

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strike_zone's picture

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Date Joined: 09/09/10

ford or holden

Sun, 2011-11-20 19:36

i done mine with padi and i know what im doing but one thing i have noticed is ssi divers seem to think they are better than the rest of us a bit like the chardonay crowd in the end they both teach you how to dive it just depends on how good the instructor is

strike_zone's picture

Posts: 403

Date Joined: 09/09/10

ford or holden

Sun, 2011-11-20 19:36

i done mine with padi and i know what im doing but one thing i have noticed is ssi divers seem to think they are better than the rest of us a bit like the chardonay crowd in the end they both teach you how to dive it just depends on how good the instructor is

Posts: 87

Date Joined: 02/09/11

 Sweet so it sounds like

Sun, 2011-11-20 20:43

 Sweet so it sounds like either option is ok!

 

There isnt any barriers for diving over seas right? Like you can only dive in certain places if you have PADI visa versa??

 

Cheers

Posts: 563

Date Joined: 27/08/09

I have a mixed bag of

Sun, 2011-11-20 21:10

I have a mixed bag of quals... NQS NASDS TDI. Dived in Malaysia, Indonesia, and PNG without a problem

Vinesh87's picture

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Ford or holden mate. There is

Sun, 2011-11-20 21:02

Ford or holden mate. There is huge discussions on this on other diving forums.

 

 

Posts: 563

Date Joined: 27/08/09

All things being equal I

Sun, 2011-11-20 21:07

All things being equal I would pick SSI over Padi. But, and it's a big but, as others have pointed out the big difference is the quality of the instructors!

 

 

Posts: 87

Date Joined: 02/09/11

 Thanks boys

Tue, 2011-11-22 17:23

 Thanks boys

Colt_Striker's picture

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Date Joined: 26/07/09

I did Padi for my open,

Tue, 2011-11-22 19:29

I did Padi for my open, advanced, specialty deep & wreck, but did TDI for my nitrox & compared to my other padi courses also my mates who did nitrox through Padi, the TDI course was way more indepth. Mates reckon they would have struggled to pass a TDI course from Padi knowledge. SSI is the basic version of TDI.

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Date Joined: 21/02/08

SSI has nothing to do with

Tue, 2011-11-22 19:46

SSI has nothing to do with TDI or SDI.

The SSI franchise in Australia is owned by Aquanaut, the aus distro for Aqualung, Apeks, Seaquest and suunto and others.

TDI/SDI is a completely unrelated business that has two arms SDI and TDI. SDI being aimed at rec diving and TDI aimed at tech diving.

Names aside, the TDI nitrox is much more thorough than the PADI version.

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Colt_Striker's picture

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Date Joined: 26/07/09

My Bad, been a couple of

Tue, 2011-12-13 06:22

My Bad, been a couple of years now thought SSI was SDI.

sunshine's picture

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Open water with PADI

Wed, 2011-11-23 06:39

The rest with SSI ................the key as someone correctly pointed out was the instructor - I couldn't split them as far as course content was concerned  

mtre9209's picture

Posts: 56

Date Joined: 08/12/11

 SSI for sure. there courses

Mon, 2011-12-12 20:18

 SSI for sure. there courses are cheaper and normaly include extra parts in them over the padi courses. And SSI are normally cheaper leaving PADI to stand for its name Put Another Dollar In

Posts: 222

Date Joined: 14/12/09

SSI - all the way

Tue, 2011-12-13 12:54

I have a background of learning to dive with FAUI 27 years ago - worked in a PADI shop for a while - I found it unbelievable that someone could gain an open water qualification without doing a boat dive! With PADI, a 'Boat Diver' course was another way for them to get $$$ in...

Then I became an Instructor - FAUI for me - this was then replaced with NASDS - which was then replaced with SSI - you get more info for your money with SSI in my opinion.

PADI many years ago was the only 'Commercial' training facility for recreational diving - the others being more interested in producing competent divers than making the big bucks. Sadly, the big bucks have pretty much bought out the little guys now.

Having worked as an instructor, and dive master on various boats over the years - the difference in the thoroughness of the training was really evident in the people who didn't have an aquatic background to start with.

If you're really into water sports, and do lots of snorkelling etc and are comfortable in the water - it won't make a huge difference to your training. If you haven't had much experience, the PADI course probably won't build a lot of confidence as part of the training...

Just my own opinion.

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