Summary
NAUI is short for National
Association of
Underwater
Instructors.
NAUI is a not-for-profit Worldwide diving certification
agency.
(as for why they
have national in their name, it's because the originated in the United
States.)
NAUI, CMAS, and PADI are the three most popular and well known diving
certification agencies.
Brief History
In 1948 during the birth of SCUBA diving in the United States, Neal Hess
began writing a column called The Instructors Corner
for a magazine called Skin Diver. This column covered
teaching techniques for skin diving and scuba diving.
Hess began "certifying" instructors by reviewing their course
materials and then running their name in the column. This program
became known as the National Diving Patrol.
In 1960, during the meeting of the Underwater Society of America
Jim Auxier, Al Tillman and Neal Hess renamed the National Diving
Patrol
to the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and
set it up as a non-profit educational organisation. This organisations
purpose was to certify skin and SCUBA diving instructors.
In the 1970s NAUI expanded further into the International market and
today is known world-wide as one of the best diver certification agencies.
What they do
NAUI's motto is Dive Safety Through Education.
NAUI trains, qualifies and certifies instructors and provide
various programs, products and support materials to assist NAUI
instructors with their diving teaching.
Summary: They teach others how to teach you how to dive :)
Certifications
NAUI courses are generally longer and more indepth than other
courses such as PADI. They have the following progression of
training:
- NAUI Skindiver.
- NAUI SCUBA Diver.
- NAUI Advanced SCUBA Diver.
- NAUI Master SCUBA Diver.
- NAUI Speciality Diver Courses.
- NAUI Technical Diver Courses.
- NAUI Leadership Courses.
- And the coveted NAUI SCUBA Instructor.
Equivalence
Generally the equivalences between PADI and NAUI are pretty straight
forward, however the NAUI courses tend to be more indepth. You can
convert a PADI Open Water diving rating to NAUI SCUBA Diver without
having to retrain, however I'm not sure about higher ratings.
My two cents
I recommend NAUI since its courses are more indepth than PADI,
but then again, I'm biased, so you choose for yourself and make everyone
happy =)
References:
http://www.naui.org