The Way the World Learns to Dive®
PADI® (Professional Association of Diving Instructors®) is the world’s largest ocean exploration and diver organization, operating in 186 countries and territories, with a global network of more than 6,600 dive centers and resorts and over 128,000 professional members worldwide. Issuing more than 1 million certifications each year, and with over 29 million certifications to date, PADI enables people around the world to seek adventure and save the ocean through underwater education, life-changing experiences and travel.
For over 50 years, PADI is undeniably The Way the World Learns to Dive®, maintaining its high standards for dive training, safety and customer service, monitored for worldwide consistency and quality. With a longstanding commitment to environmental conservation, PADI is leading the way for millions of people to actively explore, steward and protect the ocean through its course offerings and partnerships with like-minded, mission-driven organizations.
PADI embodies a global commitment to ocean health with its mission to create a billion torchbearers to explore and protect the ocean.
Seek Adventure and Save the Ocean with PADI
- PADI Training: PADI offers the most instructionally solid system in diver education as PADI Instructors are trained and held to the diving industry’s highest standards for safety and performance that are recognized worldwide. The organization offers a wide range of scuba and freediving courses that allow beginners to discover the underwater world. Advanced specialty courses are designed to build skills and enhance an experienced diver’s love of the oceans and aquatic environments. From the beginning Open Water Diver course (and Bubblemaker experience for kids ages 8+) to more advanced courses like Digital Underwater Imaging and wreck diving, PADI offers diver training at every skill level. With nearly 200 PADI Dive Centers and Resorts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, you’ll find PADI courses and scuba diving services close to home, as well as nearly everywhere you’ve ever dreamed of visiting.
- PADI Travel: PADI’s global travel platform, PADI Travel®, is the ultimate resource for divers and travelers alike, offering hundreds of dive destinations and thousands of dive holiday packages. PADI Travel hosts one of the largest selections of liveaboards and dive resorts in the market, also offering eco-travel options for travelers to share in life-changing vacations which can truly affect ocean conservation.
- PADI Gear: PADI Gear offers thoughtfully curated products featuring sustainable, ocean-conscious options for those of us who love water – and the planet. The ocean-first marketplace enables divers and eco-minded consumers to make a positive impact through their buying power with products they’re already buying. From rashguards made of retired fishing nets to towels spun from ocean bound plastic, PADI Gear delivers sustainable choices made out of materials that result in real difference in the issues facing our oceans. PADI works with trusted partners to help recycled ocean plastic find a second life as part of their PADI Gear collection--currently removing 58,576lbs of plastic from the ocean and counting.
- PADI AWARE Foundation: PADI AWARE Foundation is a global charity driving local action for global impact. Together with PADI, they have developed the PADI Blueprint for Ocean Action that commits to actions that combat climate change, help create marine protected areas and protect vulnerable species. Over the next decade they will work to rid the ocean of marine debris, multiply marine protected areas, protect endangered and vulnerable marine species, accelerate coral reef recovery and restoration and reduce the dive industry’s carbon footprint.
PADI Worldwide is a privately held corporation that is international in scope with service offices and distribution centers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. PADI Worldwide’s corporate headquarters is located in California, United States. PADI Regional Headquarters support the efforts of individual professional members and PADI Dive Centers and Resorts in more than 186 countries and territories. To serve the needs of divers worldwide, translations of PADI materials are available in at least 26 languages.
PADI Members influence decisions by sharing their opinions through advisory boards, one-on-one contact, group meetings, member seminars and responding to surveys sent out by PADI Worldwide or PADI Offices. However, the business activities of PADI Members are independent, and not owned, operated or controlled by PADI Worldwide or PADI Offices. PADI Dive Centers, Resorts and individual professional members agree to follow established standards for PADI diver-training programs, but are responsible for the day-to-day conduct of PADI programs and supervision of divers by themselves and their staff.