After many years of paying extravagant fees at our dive shop to some very over-rated diver certification agencies, we got smart and now use the prestigious PDIC International system to compliment our scuba programs. They allow us to integrate the best of all we have learned over our diving careers into the quality programs we currently teach.

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Below is the best written description of PDIC we've come across so far.

What is PDIC?
Nov 07 '00 (Updated Nov 08 '00)

by Trace Malinowski

PDIC is the Professional Diving Instructors Corporation, International located in Scranton, Pennsylvania. On that note, it's interesting how many SCUBA training agencies have offices away from the ocean. However, the headquarters sits in a city with a surprisingly strong aquatics history that is the urban gateway to the rivers, lakes and quarries of the Pocono Mountains and within driving distance of some of the best shipwrecks in the world.

PDIC was originally called the Professional Diving Instructors College and was located in California. It was the instructor training facility for the National Association of SCUBA Diving Schools (NASDS). John Gaffney, the founder of NASDS thought it wrong that instructors in the early days could be created within various training agencies simply from outlines or proof of diving experience. Gaffney realized that dive educators were teachers of diving and should be trained similar to public school teachers. Diving, however, isn't just academic instruction, but requires blue collar technical knowledge. Gaffney needed instructor trainers who were experts in the art of classroom instruction and technical instruction. For such experts, Gaffney turned to the United States Navy and commercial divers. Those former Navy and commercial divers would have the job of turning groups of experienced recreational divers into dive educators. Gaffney's plan was to create knowledgeable professionals who would operate a chain of dive stores that would stand for quality of instruction, sales and service.

This began in the 1960s, but by the mid-1970s, the instructor training facility and Gaffney fell into a dispute and the Professional Diving Instructors College broke away from NASDS to form the Professional Diving Instructors Corporation (PDIC). Those operating the facility were great teachers, but not as business savvy as Gaffney and they fell on financial hard times. They needed to sell. Enter the current presidents of PDIC. With 50 years of experience in sport SCUBA diving with previous certifications from various training agencies, swimming instruction and lifeguarding, the current presidents of PDIC bring an incredible amount of diving and aquatic experience into the agency they've been operating for the past 25 years. Combining their training and experience with the standards set forth by Gaffney and his Navy and commercial diving instructors, they have developed PDIC into "the quality training agency."

PDIC maintains close ties to its Navy roots. Like the Navy, dive leaders are called "Dive Supervisors" rather than dive masters. All the confusion of dive master, master SCUBA diver and master SCUBA diver trainer is left out. In PDIC, you understand the simplicity of the ranking system. All divers start out in PDIC as Open Water divers. Skin Diver & Snorkeler, Junior Diver and Apprentice Diver certifications exist below the Open Water level for those divers not yet old enough or able to be certified to the standards of PDIC Open Water divers. Apprentice divers and junior divers must dive with an instructor or dive supervisor. Unlike agencies such as PADI, PDIC teaches rescue training during its Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses. So, the student moves from Open Water to Advanced Open Water, Specialty Diver (there are numerous "real" specialty and not "fluff" specialty courses offered by PDIC), Dive Supervisor, Assistant Instructor, and finally Instructor Trainer. Instructors are rated based upon the number of students they can teach in the open water environment at one time. These ratings are I-2, I-4 and I-6. I'm an I-6, but to preserve quality, I only take one buddy team (2 divers) through open water training at any one time. Instructor Trainers are rated I-8 and do the same job that PADI Course Directors do (Except better! Oh, come on, lighten up folks, I'm just joking!). Above the Instructor Trainer level is the Training Director and then the Presidents.

PDIC's Open Water course is more thorough than that of any other training agency I've researched or know of from first-hand friendships with instructors of various agencies. PDIC teaches decompression and altitude diving in OW. Also, PDIC used to teach the analog decompression meter before the invention of dive computers. Today, computers and multi-level diving are part of PDIC's OW course. We teach some water skills that some other agencies don't such as three ways to clear a regulator, vest ascents, buddy breathing vest ascents, additional second stage vest ascents and a different version of the emergency ascent designed to maintain the discipline of exhalation during the rapid ascent to prevent lung over-expansion injuries. We have the option of doing snorkeling in open water before the student begins SCUBA training in the pool or confined water. This, I find, prepares the student better for the remainder of the course and makes the student less apprehensive about what is to come. Never underestimate the value of a day or two spent snorkeling.

PDIC has a new Technical Deep Diving course and a great Underwater Criminal Investigation course being taught by two former state troopers. The UWCI is only open to law enforcement and members of other such units called in to recover bodies and/or evidence.

PDIC offers its instructors much more flexibility and room to keep up with changes in diving safety. Because PDIC is small, students, PDIC divers and PDIC leaders can get personal attention from the presidents.

PDIC is a member of the RSTC (Recreational SCUBA Training Council), the Universal Referral Program, and is recognized worldwide.

Oh, yes, I think we have the coolest logo!

Just remember. It's the instructor and not the agency that matters most!