Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques
(aka
World Underwater Federation in its rarely-used English form),
universally known by its abbreviation
CMAS, is an umbrella
organization for
national diving clubs. The key difference between
CMAS and the largest diving association
PADI is that CMAS operates
on a purely
amateur basis, so CMAS members are local
clubs,
not
dive shops.
History
CMAS was founded on
January 9, 1959 by the national diving
organizations of the
Federal Republic of Germany,
Belgium,
Brazil,
France,
Greece,
Italy,
Monaco,
Portugal,
Switzerland,
the
United States of America and
Yugoslavia. Over the years,
nearly all national diving organizations from all over the world
have joined up, but CMAS remains most active and best known in
Europe.
Certifications
Since CMAS is effectively a
volunteer organization for
hobbyists,
its courses tend to more demanding and longer in duration than
those offered by
commercial diving organizations like
PADI,
which are geared towards getting the
tourist on a one-week vacation
to learn the ropes and do simple dives. CMAS courses are heavy on
theory as well as
practice, and involve gobs of
physics,
anatomy and
technology.
CMAS certifications are based on a star system. The basic
rating, CMAS *, allows the diver to dive in a buddy pair
and go to a depth of 20 meters. CMAS ** divers can head
a buddy pair and dive to 30 meters. CMAS *** divers can lead
complex dives (including related skills like seamanship).
The highest rating, CMAS ****, is a purely honorary degree
that can be awarded at the discretion of the national club.
National qualifications in CMAS member countries are always based on
the CMAS star system, but may include additional limits or skills.
For example, the Finnish P1 (CMAS *) rating has a limit of only
15 meters (due to the coldness and very limited visibility of
Finnish waters), and getting a P2 (CMAS **) rating requires
drysuit training.
Equivalence
Relations between CMAS and
PADI have been strained at times, but
in January 1997 the two buried the hatchet and published an
agreement to allow cross-training between the two systems.
The table is as follows:
CMAS to PADI
CMAS * →
Advanced Open Water
CMAS * w/ 9 dives →
Rescue Diver
CMAS ** →
Dive Master
PADI to CMAS
Open Water w/ 5 dives → CMAS **
Advanced Open Water → CMAS **
Rescue Diver w/ 25 dives → CMAS ***
Confused?
So the agreement does not actually spell out
equivalence
(eg. a CMAS * diver cannot march up to the nearest PADI shop and demand
their AOW certificate), it only specifies the level need to train up
in the next system. So now a CMAS ** diver can become a Dive Master
without being a Rescue Diver, and a AOW diver can get a CMAS ** rating
without a CMAS * along the way.
My Two Eurocents
My initial scuba qualification was CMAS *, in the lovely
warm and
crystal clear waters
of the
Baltic Sea in
May. (Daily routine for our final week-long
boot camp: sleep in unheated house, roll out of sleeping bag,
put on a still-soaked wetsuit, and jump into the toasty 8°C sea.
Repeat.) But after 14 hours of theory, 10 hours of pool practice
and 5 real dives in
Finland, diving in more optimal conditions was
astonishingly easy. Since then, I've dived in
Egypt,
Malta, and
Malaysia, and my
CMAS card has always been recognized, if occasionally with surprise --
they seem to be regarded as positive exceptions to the usual "I did
my PADI OW course 5 years ago on my honeymoon and I'd like to dive again,
now which way around do I put the
BCD?" types that seem to populate
tropical beaches.
All in all, I would recommend CMAS over PADI for your initial certification
if you have the luxury of choice, they do a much more thorough job
and it is your ass on the line after all. But pick and choose
once you're got your C-card; I, for one, have yet to find a place
that could get me to CMAS ** in a reasonable amount of time without
involving sub-ice Finnish drysuit fun.
References
http://www.cmas2000.org, the hideous official CMAS site
http://www.susl.fi
Personal experience (CMAS *)