The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) is the world's largest recreational diving membership organization. PADI Members (dive centers, resorts, educational facilities, instructors, assistant instructors and divemasters) teach the vast majority of the world's recreational divers, issuing nearly 946,000 certifications each year. PADI professionals make underwater exploration and adventure accessible to the public while maintaining a high industry standard for dive training, safety and customer service.
PADI is international in scope with service offices in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. PADI Worldwide (corporate headquarters) is located in California, United States. PADI Offices serve more than 100,000 individual professional members and more than 4300 dive centers and resorts in more than 175 countries. To serve the needs of divers worldwide, translations of PADI materials are available in more than 20 languages. All in all, PADIs market share worldwide is approx 50%.
A comical (shall we say "mocking") interpetation of "PADI" is "Pay Another Dollar In", indicating that some persons believe that many of programs offered from PADI facilities are expensive with a high over head cost to the organisation. Another is "Pay Alot, Dive Immediately". Many claim that the courses offered from PADI is expensive while not educating its students to a adequate level, "throwing them in the water before they know anything".
In the dive industry, a "muppet" is a degrading nickname for a "stupid" passenger on the operations dive trips. "Most Useless Pricks PADI Ever Trained" explains the abbreviation.
