Who are PADI?
John Cronin and Ralph Erickson founded PADI in 1966. The two friends met one evening, over a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label, and started to pursue their dream to create a Scuba certification agency that was different than the one that had certified Ralph. They were concerned about the professionalism of the current agencies.
John and Ralph knew there had to be a way to make it easier and safer for people to take their first breaths under water.
John wanted “professional” to appear in the name, and Ralph came up with “association of Diving Instructors” after a few more drinks PADI was born.
Professional Association of Diving Instructors
It started from small beginnings, in a basement in a suburb of Chicago, based solely in the USA but grown massively over the years and is today a multi-national association of scuba diving professionals. PADI is the world’s largest organization for recreational diver training and education.
It is estimated that 7 out of 10 recreational scuba divers are trained and certified by PADI Instructors using PADI educational materials and program standards.
PADI is represented in over 175 countries and territories. Over 130,000 individual Members operate worldwide and there is a global network of more than 6000 PADI Dive Center’s and Resorts.
PADI presently certify close to 1,000,000 divers annually around the globe. As at today they only require 108,600 more to hit 20 million certifications of recreational divers, this is a massive achievement, if you are lucky enough to be the 20 millionth there is a great prize up for grabs.
Tags: Certifications, John Cronin, PADI, PADI 5 * CDC Center, PADI Dive Center, Phuket, Professional Association of Diving Instructors, Ralph Erickson, Scuba, Scuba Cat Diving, Thailand
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