http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q
=PADI+vs+SSI&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

"AZJAKA" <mcipriano1@comcast.net> pounded away at his keyboard
resulting in:

If you are PADI ceritified you already know how to dive so anything to
do with certification agencies should be irrelevent.

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/

I-N-C-O-M-I-N-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I asked a LDS that was a former PADI shop why they changed to SSI, and
the answer I got was the PADI Instructors that they had were stealing
the customers away from the shop and Teaching the students on the side
instead of going through the Local Dive Store. To issue a SSI
certification you must go through the Dive shop in order to get your
certification. I guess SSI Instructors must be represented by a shop and
can't Freelance.

There are differences, but they're not major.  On the other hand, there's
some advantage to the cross fertilization a diver can get from varying his
agency experience.

Lee

This has been asked and answered, debated, beaten with a club, dismembered
and fed to the fishes many times over the years.  Bottom line-- it is a good
instructor and a student who friggin' pays attention who comes away with the
most.  The agency doesn't mean much.  Learning doesn't stop with basic
certification.  Next comes learning how to brew a good pot of
coffee......and not spilling it.  Appropriate quote below.

Buck

"We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is
best who is trained in the severest school."
- Thucydides, "History of the Peloponnesian War" (431-404 B.C.)