[gaz]

hmmm, it's like most things i guess you pays your money and takes your choice.

I've been trained by padi and bsac and the training is much of a muchness, the laws of physics don't change across agencies, all of the instructors i've learnt with have been very very good, maybe i'm just lucky. Of course, if you look carefully, you can find examples of very bad practise from both agencies.

One thing i have noticed recently with divers that is very nice is that the padi v bsac sniping seems to be dying down a bit. i spent a week wreck diving in egypt a while ago on a boat that was 50:50 padi and bsac and from what i can remember agencies were harldy mentioned.

The more important question isn't which agency but whether to learn in the UK or abroad.

The other issue is what you plan to do once you've become an ocean diver or an open water diver. I did padi OW and then joined bsac as i assumed it would be a good way to start diving in the UK. unfortunately, it didn't really work out that way, for the year i was a member i managed 3 dives with the club, two of which were sport diver training dives and about 50 odd with non-club buddies and padi training.

the thing that really didn't let bsac work for me was that i've got no real interest in maintaining or managing boats. i'm far happier getting on a rib or hard boat, going diving for the day and then getting off and going to the pub. the launching and stuff isn't my scene.

for a lot of people, having very cheap diving is a real boon, i think the club charged about £7 a dive of their ribs. The local skippers charge £17 and i'm quite happy to pay a tenner to not pick up boats.