The Professional Association of Diving Instructors, PADI, has its Master Scuba Diver Challenge for 2025. This year, as an incentive for attaining the agency’s top recreational rating is the chance to win a dive trip to Fiji.

PADI’s Master Scuba Diver (MSD) rating is obtained after students have completed their Open Water and Advanced Open Water Diver courses, five Specialty courses, their Rescue Diver course and logged 50 dives.

‘The PADI Master Scuba Diver rating is considered the “black belt” of recreational diving,’ said Kristin Valette Wirth, Chief Brand and Membership Officer for PADI Worldwide.

‘We are challenging scuba divers to continue their education and be transformed into confident and prepared divers ready to seek adventure and save the ocean anywhere in the world.’

Entry into the Fiji prize giveaway is available from now until 31 October 2025 for any diver who works towards their Master Scuba Diver rating.

To enter the giveaway, participants can sign up at padi.com and answer the question: ‘Why do you want to be a PADI Master Scuba Diver?’

Divers are not required to obtain the full MSD certification, but will earn entries for each course completed during the competition period, including:

• PADI Master Scuba Diver rating – 10 entries
• PADI Rescue Diver certification – 5 entries
• PADI Club member  – 5 entries
• PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification – 3 entries
• PADI Specialty certification – 2 entries
• PADI Open Water Diver certification– 1 entry
• Purchase a PADI Certification Card – 2 entries
• Take the Save the Ocean Pledge – 1 entry

With the support of Tourism Fiji, one grand prize winner will receive round-trip airfare for two people to Fiji and six nights’ accommodation and four days diving with PADI Dive Resort Paradise Taveuni.

Two additional winners will receive a recreational PADI eLearning course of their choice. 

PADI instructors also have an opportunity to win with the PADI Members version of this competition, with those who demonstrate the most Master Scuba Diver rating growth in their region earning a free 2026 PADI Membership.

For more details on how to become a PADI Master Scuba Diver and enter PADI’s Dream Dive Trip Giveaway to Fiji, visit padi.com/education/continue-learning#msd

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Paul Toomer has announced that he has parted company with scuba training agency Dive RAID International (DRI).

Toomer, an accomplished technical instructor and former Director of Technical Training for Scuba Schools International (SSI), became RAID’s co-owner and Director of Diver Training in 2014, and was appointed as president in 2019.

He has been instrumental in RAID’s development from a rebreather training outfit into a training agency competing on the international stage across both recreational and technical diving.

In a statement announcing his departure, Toomer said:

‘It is with sadness that I must advise that I am no longer involved with Dive RAID International (RAID HQ).

‘This decision was not made lightly and reflects a mutual understanding between RAID and myself. I have greatly valued contributing to RAID’s growth and accomplishments over the years. However, we now hold differing visions for the future, and it is time for me to take a new path.

‘As of now, I am no longer in a position to respond to inquiries from RAID members, regional offices, or representatives. Please direct any questions to your local RAID office or to Dive RAID International directly. Contact information is available on the official website.

‘Even though I am no longer involved with RAID HQ, I have not lost my passion for working in this amazing industry and I will continue to teach and dive. My rebreathers will probably see more action now than they ever have.

‘Of course I wish the RAID guys all the best going forward.’

A statement issued by a spokesperson for Dive RAID International says:

‘DRI shareholders and staff wish Paul the very best with his future endeavours and naturally look forward to working with him as a valued member of our senior instructor cadre.

‘Paul’s contributions and accomplishments over many years with RAID have been inspired and inspirational, and for that and his dedicated service to the dive industry as a whole, our heartfelt thanks.

‘RAID will continue to offer our growing, worldwide professional membership personal service and the continued opportunity to bring positive change to every form of underwater instruction and adventure.’

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PADI has announced the date for Women’s Dive Day 2025, and the world’s largest scuba diving organisation is calling on its 6,600 dive centres and resorts to host events to celebrate the occasion – now in it’s 11th year – on 19 July 2025.

Over the past decade, PADI’s dive centres and professionals have, through more than 1,500 events in more than 100 countries, inspired hundreds of thousands of women to take up diving, freediving and – more recently – ‘mermaiding’.

As part of the celebration of women in diving, groups around the world have come together to perform beach and underwater cleanups, plant new coral nurseries and set a world record for the longest underwater female human chain.

Above the surface, PADI’s Women’s Dive Day events have also help raise funds for breast cancer research and local women’s shelters.

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Prior to the 2015 launch of PADI’s Women in Diving initiative, women made up just under 35 per cent of all yearly PADI certifications. As of 2025, female certifications make up almost 40 per cent of the total.

PADI is encouraging its members to plan events – for divers and non-divers alike – and register them as soon as possible. The events will then be promoted on the PADI Women’s Dive Day Event  Locator

‘Women are being celebrated for their achievements in ocean exploration, marine conservation, education, visual arts, science, technology, technical diving, and social leadership,’ said Kristin Valette Wirth, Chief Brand and Membership Officer for PADI Worldwide

‘PADI Women’s Dive Day provides PADI Members a unique opportunity to connect with their local community, motivate new students to take their first breaths underwater, entice divers to earn their next certification, or simply give a reason to connect with the ocean and each other.’

To register a PADI Women’s Dive Day event, visit padi.com/women/hostanevent.

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Former instructor Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell on why continuing education programmes are essential for both divers and dive businesses.

By Mark 'Crowley' Russell

I’ve been asked many times what is the best thing you can do to become a better diver – to which I reply: ‘Never stop learning.’

I think it applies to almost everything in life, but scuba diving, in which we must learn to exist in an environment completely alien to our own, is an activity where it is especially relevant.

While the laws of physics remain immutable, we are affected by them differently underwater. We become lighter and then heavier with every breath we take, we are unable to move as quickly as we can at the surface, and we cannot fight even the most gentle movement of water in the same way our feeble bodies cannot withstand hurricane force winds.

Regardless of which club or agency a diver chooses to start their newfound pastime with, the entry-level course will only ever confer on them the basics of dealing with that new approach to everyday physics.

Most divers will go on to complete an Advanced Open Water equivalent (or Open Water Plus, as I think it should be called), the entry-level adjunct which permits divers to descend to 30m. However, once that permission has been granted, many call an end to their scuba-diving education.

Most divers will be aware of the many continuing education programmes available. There is a wide range of speciality courses covering everything from boat diving and drift diving, to nitrox diving, night diving, search and recovery and underwater photography, plus a host of marine science and conservation-type programmes.

With the exception of an enriched-air certification to use recreational nitrox, most dive operators do not require that recreational divers take extra courses to undertake certain activities.

Beyond needing an AOW equivalent to take part in 30m dives, I know of no dive centre in my own experience that requires divers to have a drift-diving certification to go drift diving, or a night-diving certification to dive in the dark.

Some of the speciality programmes, therefore, come in for a bit of stick. Certain divers scorn what they consider to be fairly basic courses such as boat diving or drift diving, and yet most of these programmes, however simple they may appear, contain a lot of valuable information from which even experienced divers may learn.

Consider that many divers in land-locked areas will have little or no experience with boats, and PADI’s often-mocked ‘Boat Diver Specialty’ teaches much more than just how to fall off a RIB and get back onto it.

Drift diving – while exhilarating – can be terrifying for the inexperienced diver, so to have some managed practice under the guidance of a dive professional is an important step on many divers’ educational ladder.

Others – such as PADI’s Search & Recovery Specialty – go well beyond the scope of the average diver; ‘Underwater Naturalist’ borders on university-level marine biology; and underwater photography classes will transform the results of camera-wielding amateurs.

Basic dive skills are inevitably improved as a consequence of exposure to new information and learning new underwater techniques.

Yes, continuing education is a money-spinner for dive centres. Margins in the scuba-diving industry world can be vanishingly small, but continuing education courses tend to be a little more lucrative than entry-level programmes.

Dive professionals are therefore encouraged to up-sell such courses – it generates income and helps to create trust and loyalty between businesses, brands and customers.

Am I promoting the sale of such courses? I absolutely am. Not specifically for any particular brand (I tend to default to PADI as I am a former PADI instructor), but for the benefit of everyone involved – on both sides of the payment window.

A better understanding of the underwater world enhances both dive enjoyment and diver safety, but progress requires training, and training requires that viable businesses exist to provide it.

Do I need a ‘Master’ Scuba Diver certification?

Once a diver has completed some extra speciality programmes, added a stress and rescue diver course with emergency first-aid training, and logged 50 dives, some agencies – PADI, SSI and SDI among them – will reward divers with a ‘Master Scuba Diver’ or ‘Master Diver’ certification, confirmation that they have joined the scuba diving ‘elite’.

Such certifications are widely criticised as an unnecessary gimmick (probably because PADI charges divers £30-odd for the privilege of being issued a new card), and there are, sadly, many divers who sneer at the concept of a scuba diver with 50 dives somehow being at the pinnacle of their recreational diving careers.

There is, therein, a valid point – 50 dives does not an expert diver make, but, equally, it represents a significant investment of time and money into a scuba-diving education – perhaps five years or more for somebody who only gets to take a single-week dive holiday each year – and a commitment to scuba diving that is as strong as those who can afford to dive more regularly.

Such a person is somebody I would warmly welcome into a dive centre in the days when I was working as a full-time dive professional. Not because I thought they might spend more money on courses (one can always hope!), but because they are clearly somebody who is interested in learning more about the activity they have chosen to pursue.

They, therefore, enjoy diving more, are more enjoyable to dive with, and are – very importantly – safer divers.

Not all clubs and agencies offer an MSD equivalent, but some form of recognition after passing educational milestones is a worthy goal. I personally do not think there should be any charge for the extra certification (especially since the arrival of digital certification cards), but I think the level of achievement is something to be encouraged and should be, in my opinion, a bare minimum prerequisite for professional level training.

Continuing education is the lifeblood of the recreational scuba industry – and a pathway to the world of technical diving or careers in underwater photography, marine biology, or even search and rescue diving, for those prepared to take the first step.

People will undoubtedly continue to turn up their noses at the ‘Master Scuba Diver’ concept but, in all honesty, I’d rather dive with someone who waved that level of certification at me than somebody who didn’t think it necessary to continue their underwater education beyond 30 metres

More great reads from our Magazine

• The Young Dive Ambassadors of Atlantis Dumaguete
• Ocean Life – Alan J Powderham’s Coral Triangle Cameos
• Inspiring Hope – an interview with Cristina ‘Mitty’ Mittermeier
• Ross Merrin on training as a BDMLR Marine Mammal Medic
• Shark and Jolanda Reef – Howard Rosenstein on the day it all began…

The post How to become a better diver: never stop learning appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

Diver training agency PADI has launched its inaugural Adaptive Diving Week to support its ‘mission to make the wonder of the underwater world accessible to all.’

The week-long event started this year on 1 December and will become an annual event to encourage divers with physical and mental disabilities to explore the underwater world.

‘PADI has long been committed to creating opportunities for people of all abilities to explore and protect the ocean,” says Kristin Valette Wirth, Chief Brand and Membership Officer for PADI Worldwide.

‘We were founded on the belief that the oceans should be accessible to all, with PADI Adaptive Diving Week being an opportunity for us all to reflect on the impact the sport has on the global community.’

Globally, one in six people – around 1.3 billion individuals – experience some form of disability, which can present both physical and psychological barriers to activities that others may take for granted.

Scuba diving and freediving, however, have been credited as being extremely beneficial in overcoming the difficulties that disabled people can experience.

In 2018, a scientific study by the University of Sheffield’s Medical School found that scuba diving had immense therapeutic benefits to military combat veterans struggling with traumatic physical and psychological injuries.

PADI First introduced its Adaptive Techniques Specialty course in 2017, a programme which helps dive professionals adapt their teaching techniques when training divers with physical or mental difficulties.

In the same year, the agency launched its Adaptive Support Diver course for divers who want to assist disabled dive buddies, and established the PADI Adaptive Service Facility accreditation for dive centres and resorts that ‘demonstrate excellence’ in providing adaptive services and infrastructure for disabled divers.

PADI says that the Adaptive Diving Week falls under its ‘People & Humanity Pillar of Change‘ diversity and inclusion initiative, which it says is ‘designed to raise awareness about the healing benefits of diving and the ever-expanding access to dive training, experiences, and facilities.’

Typical activities being hosted during the Adaptive Diving Week include:

• Diani, Kenya: Ocean Tribe – owned by PADI’s first paraplegic course director, Mark Slingo – is running a series of adaptive diving programmes, including Discover Scuba Diving experiences, a PADI Adaptive Techniques Specialty Instructor Training Course, and PADI Adaptive Diver Specialty courses. Ocean Tribe is also hosting a series of online sessions geared towards dive professionals on how to train and support disabled divers.

• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Kids Scuba is hosting an adaptive diving workshop and community experience.

• Florida, USA: Nova Southeastern University is holding events with the university’s disability services team to raise awareness of adaptive diving.

‘PADI Members are at the forefront of creating positive ocean change,’ added Valette Wirth. ‘As PADI Adaptive Diving Week continues, we encourage members to explore how they can contribute to making the ocean a place where everyone, regardless of abilities, can dive in, explore, and protect for future generations.’

Dive centres and professionals who wish to learn more about PADI’s Adaptive Diving programme, and enquire about preparation for next year’s events are advised to contact their regional team.

Related articles

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• Learning to dive – is scuba diving right for me?
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