Referrals from Other Training Agencies
You can complete your entry-level course with us, even if you did the pool training and the knowledge development part of the course with an Instructor and/or dive center affiliated with a recreational diver training agency other than PADI, as long as it's recognized by PADI* (see below). After completing the preassesment and the training you will be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver.
The preassesment consists of a confined water or pool session, during which we will evaluate your ability to perform the dive skills of the PADI Open Water Diver Course and practise them with you if necesarry. We'll review the PADI Recreational Dive Planner (dive tables) with you because you'll need to complete the PADI Theory Exam for the PADI Open Water Diver Course as well. The whole thing takes a couple of hours at most. We usually do this preassesment portion in the afternoon, the day before you start the open water training dives.
After the preassesment we take you out for the four open water training dives, during which we will ask you to demonstrate certain dive skills. Usually we do the dives over two days, going out for a two-tank dive in the morning each day.
The dives will be registered and verified in your logbook and then we'll certify you.
* PADI recognizes the entry-level training from the following agencies:
ACUC, ANMP-CEDIP, ANIS, AUSI, BSAC, CMAS, FFESSM, FIAS, IDEA, IDD, IDF, NASDS, NAUI, PDIC, SAA, SDI, SSI, SNMP-NICEAU, SSAC and YMCA.
Note: Other certifications may qualify, please contact us or PADI for further information.
Universal or Global Referrals
PADI is not a proponent of “universal” or “global” referrals (for several reasons) and our Instructors do not feel comfortable and familiar enough with the standards and training requirements of a different agency to conduct training dives according to other agencies' guidelines. Therefore we don't accept Universal or Global Referrals as they are intended. Instead we deal with those types of referrals as described above. This means you will be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver and we will not sign off your referral form.
Note for Instructor and Dive Centers
Below you'll see the PADI standards and procedures for PADI Instructors on how to deal with students being referred to us by another training agency. These are the standards we will follow.
Preassesment
"You must ensure that the student successfully completes the entire PADI Scuba Review program (refer to the Scuba Review Instructor Guide) along with the PADI Open Water Diver Final Exam. Remediate the student’s knowledge and skills, as necessary, before any open water training occurs."
"Use the PADI Skill Evaluation to assess student skills. In addition to the skills listed on the PADI Skill Evaluation Grade Sheet, the student must also demonstrate mastery of the following skills:"
Training
"A student referred from a certification organization other than PADI must complete Open Water Dives One and Two for Scuba Diver certification, or One through Four for Open Water Diver certification. For instructional consistency, it’s recommended that the receiving instructor/dive center conducting the preassessment and required remediation completes the open water training."
Certification
"As the instructor completing the open water dives, only you can certify the student. You must submit a PADI Positive Identification Card (PIC) envelope to PADI for processing and retain the student’s referral documents. You must submit the PIC within seven days of the completion of the course."
