DATELINE: 12th March 2001

PADI MAKES BIG SPLASH
Guess how many people the Professional Association of Diving Instructors reckons it taught to dive last year? A nice round million - that's a quarter more than in 1999. In fact, the organisation reckons it now trains seven out of every ten sport divers.
But despite PADI's inexorable advance, with 10 million divers now in the bag, that still leaves 6104 million humans for PADI to convert to diving - plenty of scope!
From smart offices on a trading estate in Bristol, Douglas Nash oversees PADI International Ltd. PIL moved here three years ago with plans to stay for 15, but with an expanding staff of 50 and a warehouse bulging with training materials, an earlier move seems likely, writes Steve Weinman.
The UK is the largest area for diving certifications in PIL's territory, which also covers Africa, Eastern Europe, Ireland, the Med, Middle East and Russia. In Britain PADI has 8000 members - Dive Masters, Instructors or above who qualify as pro divers.
Sorry, more stats: PIL reckons there are between 80,000 and 100,000 active PADI-trained divers in the UK.
The number certified each year rose steadily through the '90s, peaking when cut-price NVQ training flooded the market. Today some 50,000 UK trainees are turned into PADI divers each year.
A few years ago, worldwide growth appeared to have stalled. What changed? PADI has looked to appeal to new sections of the public.
When its Bubblemaker programme was aired on Blue Peter, for instance, phonelines were jammed for two days.
"We're concentrating heavily on the family side of things with Bubblemaker and Junior Diver programmes," says Nash. "The future of diving rests with the next generation. Ask fishermen when they started and they usually say they went with mum or dad when they were little. If we introduce children to diving at an earlier stage, there's a good chance they'll carry on with their parents.
"Diving has changed from being a macho sport to one that everybody can do."
Nash rejects the argument that there has been too little medical and psychological research into children and diving. "People have many ideas and perceptions which, when you look at the facts, are not reality."
I point out that two of the UK's major inland training sites recently banned under-12s. "I understand that they weren't so much worried about whether youngsters could grasp diving theory as that their equipment and suits were not fitting correctly. If you're cold, your level of concentration falls. Some major manufacturers are now coming out with complete youth lines, with smaller tanks, suits and BCs. I think this will make it more acceptable."
PADI seeks to broaden its appeal at both ends of the spectrum. "We don't see technical diving as a huge explosion going on, but it's a niche market we'd like to address," says Nash. The first PADI TecRec programme, for deco diving beyond 40m, has just been launched.
"Most of our members who went with other agencies for technical diving did so because our Enriched Air programme was the end of the line. I think they will now stay with PADI. It's less complicated and high-quality materials will back up the training. They'll be written not in easyspeak but in technicalspeak, because those who enjoy this side of diving like it that way."
Douglas Nash has been a PADI member for 20 years, setting up PIL in the late '80s with 12 UK dive centres. After living in Norway for 25 years, he started with PADI as regional manager responsible for the Middle and Far East.
He also worked to develop the African market and today concentrates on the UK, Eire and Russia, which represents the third way of growing the market - beating language barriers. Training materials translated into Russian, Polish and Czech are helping to realise a major growth area.
Nash monitors the shifting market closely. "Ask people if they are skiers and they say, yeah. Ask how often they ski and they say, once a year. The same is happening with diving, with divers who would never consider diving in the UK. But if we do our job correctly, we can tell those who have learnt abroad that there is also great diving in this country and through our dive centres introduce them to the different programmes."
In expanding its existing diver base, he says PADI is addressing the problem of providing more practical experience between Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses.
"Our programmes are now more user-friendly for somebody looking to move up a level but without committing themselves. Divers looking at the word 'advanced' would feel they weren't experienced enough to go on that course.
"Adventures in Diving introduces them to a higher level and more areas of diving to give them experience that is advanced, but as a taster."
Which are the most sought-after speciality courses? "Wreck - and the popularity of photography and night-diving is also expanding."
Building on such demand, the Extreme Adventure programme was launched at the October Dive Show.
"Funnily enough, the biggest interest was in ice-diving, something divers can't usually do over here. I think we're going to see more people getting together trips to the Nordic countries. It's all about pushing the boundaries, but we surprised ourselves with that one!"
All of which activity helps to keep PADI divers within the fold. What of its Diving Society - had that lived up to expectations in the UK?
"Huge numbers? No, but it was never the aim to have every diver a chapter-member. It's been a success to the extent that we wanted to meet the needs of divers who didn't necessarily want a club structure and meetings every week or month.
"Creating a society as opposed to a club gave them the opportunity to feel part of the PADI system. And at dive centres abroad they can show their card and get benefits."
So it's a marketing tool? "It's not something we make any money on, it's purely an information source for our divers who ask for it."
There are three options: Bronze without a magazine, Silver and Gold with it. The Society has 100,000 members worldwide and 3500 through the UK office, 2000 of those Bronze.
Had the Society been a tilt at BSAC? "No, we don't have that sort of knee-jerk reaction. We have never thought of the BSAC as competition - I don't mean that because we're better, it's just not something we consider. It has a market and a way of training which is good but different. It's mostly conducted through clubs, so it takes a long time to do because it isn't conducted professionally - by which I mean commercially.
"We have people trained to work within a professional association. Their shops are open seven days a week for courses, they have the materials and equipment, rather than a swimming pool available once a month with half an hour for training. The end result is exactly the same - a qualified diver."
And Nash is proud of PADI's standards. "Our safety record is second to none. If we felt that in any way our programmes were injuring people, we'd change them. We hear the criticism that on a PADI elementary course there's no training for safety, but we cover buddy-breathing, octopus, diver tows, all the information somebody would need at that level.
"We have a separate Rescue Diver course because we feel that when somebody is learning to dive they are fixed in one direction."
Holidaymakers can now qualify in three days. "But we haven't cut the number of dives from the course, or the theory or pool training. That person will have had to read the manual, answered all the quizzes and questions. You can say that people will get the tests right because they're doing them at home with the book, but the sections are related to modules and have to be put into practice.
"The final exam has to be done in front of an instructor. It doesn't matter how people gain information, so long as they get it."
Nash is also quick to counter the old charge that nobody fails.
"If somebody passes on a five-day course, they might have been studying for two months before. When an instructor signs to say a person is qualified, he is saying that the person has not only performed but actually mastered all the skills."
Old rivalries, Nash believes, are dying out. "Things have changed, both among the BSAC hierarchy and its members, as more travel and see the professionalism of our centres and the quality of the divers. But you will always get the diehards who believe that the only training is BSAC training."
2000 saw both bodies and the SAA collaborating on the Respect Our Wrecks initiative. "If legislation came in to stop people diving on wrecks, it would affect everybody, club-divers or not. It's a pastime many people enjoy without causing damage, and it would be a shame if it was banned.
"Respect Our Wrecks is straightforward, and everybody should respect a war grave. Our members like us being involved in this. What started in the UK is now integrating into something worldwide." Taking objects from wrecks will gradually acquire a stigma among divers, just as drink-driving has done, says Nash.
Also well-supported is Project Aware, PADI's programme of conservation projects. "All our materials are designed to make people aware of the importance of conservation. The next generation of divers must be able to control their buoyancy on a reef and understand the consequences if we fail to protect our environment."

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