PADI vs SSI vs CMAS: How the Three Dive Agencies Differ

Who owns PADI, SSI and CMAS?

PADI and SSI are businesses that sell a training system to dive centres and instructors. CMAS is a federation whose members are national federations. Most of the practical differences below follow from that. The course ladder itself (Open Water, Advanced, One Star, Two Star) is covered in our certification levels explained post, so this one looks at the organisations behind the cards. More articles sit under Training & Certification.

PADI was founded in 1966 by John Cronin and Ralph Erickson and is based in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. By its own count it has 6,600 dive centres and resorts, 128,000 professional members and more than 30 million certifications. It is privately held. Providence Equity sold it in 2017 to a group of wealthy families and endowments for a reported US$700 million.

SSI was founded in 1970. Since 1 January 2014 it has been owned by Head, the sporting goods group that also owns the equipment brand Mares. When the deal closed, the companies said there would be no obligation for an SSI dealer to do business with Mares. SSI lists more than 4,000 training centres and 100,000 professionals in over 150 countries and calls itself a business-based training agency.

CMAS was created in Monaco on 9-11 January 1959 by delegates from 15 countries, with Jacques-Yves Cousteau as its first president. It describes itself as a civil non-profit organisation with more than 100 members representing over 3 million divers. Each member is a national body, such as FFESSM in France, VDST in Germany, FEDAS in Spain and FIPSAS in Italy.

PADI, SSI and CMAS compared side by side

The table below sets the three systems next to each other. Sizes are each organisation's own figures, and course details come from their published standards.

How do course materials and pricing work?

None of the three sets the full price of your course. The dive centre does. What changes is who sells you the learning materials and what the centre adds on top.

With PADI, the theory is sold as eLearning that you can buy directly from PADI. On PADI's US store, Open Water Diver eLearning is listed at US$251 and Advanced Open Water at US$240; prices change and vary by country. PADI says that fee covers theory only. The in-water training is paid to the dive centre, and the cost depends on class size, location and whether you need to rent equipment.

SSI sells its course materials as Digital Kits, studied in the MySSI app. SSI states that a kit covers training materials only, and that in-water sessions, academic sessions or certification services may cost extra, charged by the training centre and varying by location. Every SSI student must choose a training centre as a "Training Partner" when registering, and the centre may charge materials and tuition separately or as a package.

In the CMAS system the course runs under a national federation's rules, so materials and fees vary from one federation to the next. The CMAS standard only requires that each student gets training material in printed or electronic form. The card is always a CMAS International C-card. CMAS controls the front (a hologram and the level), the issuing federation's name goes on the back, and federations may not print their own cards for CMAS programmes.

The practical advice is the same for all three: compare total quotes, and ask what each includes (materials, pool sessions, boat or shore dives, rental gear, the card).

How are instructors tied to dive centres?

This is the clearest structural difference between the three, and it matters if you want to follow a particular instructor rather than a particular shop.

PADI professionals are individual members. PADI tells them they can work independently or through a PADI dive shop. Membership is renewed every calendar year, and a member who lets it lapse has to regain teaching status before teaching again. Instructor exams are run by PADI Examiners, who work for PADI.

SSI requires every professional to affiliate with an active SSI Training Center, sign the professional agreement and pay annual dues. An SSI professional without a centre is placed in inactive status and cannot run SSI programs. An SSI course is therefore always a centre's course.

CMAS instructors teach on behalf of a national federation that CMAS has granted equivalence, and CMAS instructor cards are valid for five years. National law can add another layer. In France, Article L212-1 of the Code du sport lets only holders of a diploma, professional title or professional qualification certificate teach or supervise a sport for pay, and that applies to diving instructors of every agency.

Is your card recognised abroad? What ISO 24801 says

For the three big systems, yes, and ISO 24801 is the common yardstick. It defines three diver levels. Level 1, Supervised diver, dives under a dive leader to a recommended maximum of 12 m. Level 2, Autonomous diver, dives with a buddy of the same level to a recommended maximum of 20 m, with no in-water decompression stops. Level 3 is Dive leader.

PADI's certificate from the EUF certification body, issued in November 2024 and valid until December 2029, maps PADI Scuba Diver to Level 1, Open Water Diver to Level 2 and Divemaster to Level 3. SSI lists the same mapping for Scuba Diver and Open Water Diver and places its Dive Guide and Divemaster programs at Level 3. The CMAS One Star standard does not cite ISO at all. Its minimums are four open water dives of at least 20 minutes between 5 and 20 m, which is above the Level 2 floor of four dives of at least 15 minutes and 80 minutes in total.

Two caveats. ISO itself says the levels are a tool for comparing qualifications and do not require any agency's courses to match them. And the recognition that counts on a boat is the operator's. ISO requires every training organisation to be able to confirm a diver's qualification to a dive centre, which is how a centre checks a card you have left at home.

PADI and SSI both belong to RSTC Europe, a regional council of the World Recreational Scuba Training Council. CMAS is not on that list. It runs its own system instead: every CMAS federation is required to recognise a diver's CMAS International card.

Diving abroad: countries with their own rules

Your agency card is the starting point, but the country you dive in can add rules on which cards count, how deep you may go and what paperwork you bring. The five examples below come from each country's own regulation or regulator.

Two patterns stand out. The same card can be enough in one country and too low in another: French law lists a CMAS One Star as PE-20, while the Maldives regulation asks CMAS divers for at least Two Star. PADI and SSI are both RSTC members, so their entry-level cards meet the Maldives minimum. Depth caps also differ by country (30 m in the Maldives, 40 m in Spain and Egypt), whatever your card allows.

Some of these texts are old. The Maldives rules come from a 2003 regulation, which we read in an unofficial English translation, and the Turkish rules from a 2008 regulation, so current practice may differ. The advice that works anywhere: before you travel, check the destination's rules and ask the operator what it needs for the dives you plan (card level, logbook, medical form, insurance).

Can you switch agencies later?

At recreational level, yes, and usually without repeating a course. PADI accepts "qualifying entry-level certification" as the prerequisite for Advanced Open Water. SSI's Advanced Open Water page lists an Open Water Diver certification as the prerequisite, and its Divemaster standard accepts rescue and specialty cards "or equivalent from a recognized training agency". CMAS lets divers with an equivalent certification from a recognised agency join its Divemaster programme.

Training volume after entry level is where the systems part ways. The CMAS Two Star standard requires ten logged dives after One Star plus eight open water dives between 10 and 30 m. PADI Advanced Open Water is five dives. If you cross from one system to the other, expect the next course to reflect that.

Professionals pay more to switch. SSI runs a Dive Professional Crossover for pros from agencies it recognises, and since July 2024 instructors from certain agencies must also pass an Instructor Evaluation, whether or not their agency is an RSTC member or ISO certified.

How to choose a dive school instead of a logo

The agency sets the minimums. The centre and the instructor decide how far above them you train. Ask these questions before you pay:

• How many students per instructor on the open water dives? The CMAS One Star standard caps it at four. Ask the same of any course.
• How many open water dives, how long, and over how many days? ISO Level 2 requires at least four dives of 15 minutes or more, 80 minutes in total, and no more than three open water dives in a day.
• What does the quote include: materials, pool sessions, boat or shore dives, rental gear, the card?
• Is the instructor in current teaching status? PADI's ProChek shows a member's highest rating and current status, and SSI has a Pro Check on its site.
• Does the centre hold the licence the country requires? In Egypt, for example, CDWS licenses only operators that comply with ISO 24803.
• Where is the confined water session held, and what happens to the schedule if the sea is rough?