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The National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) is a United States based scuba diver training organization concerned with promoting dive safety through education.
NAUI is official CE and ISO certified in May 2007, on all 3 diver levels and both instructor levels.
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History
NAUI was founded by Albert Tillman and Neal Hess in 1959. In August 1960, NAUI’s first Instructor Certification Course was held at the Houston’s Shamrock Hilton Hotel with 72 candidates. A little over a year later, in October 1961, NAUI was incorporated in the State of California as a non-profit educational organization. Al Tillman was the first President and Neal Hess, the Executive Secretary. Other original board members included John C. Jones of the Red Cross and Garry Howland of the United States Air Force. NAUI Worldwide is an international not-for-profit membership training agency organized solely to support and promote dive safety through education.[1]
Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the inventor of the aqualung, was on the board of advisors of NAUI, as was Albert R. Behnke, a pioneer of diving medicine.[1] Lloyd Bridges, who, as character "Mike Nelson" on the Ziv TV series "Sea Hunt", popularized scuba diving on a mass basis in America for the first time, was the first honorary NAUI instructor member. Buster Crabbe, the famous Olympic swimmer and movie star, was a NAUI instructor. Other celebrities who are certified NAUI divers include Kevin Costner, Lou Gossett Jr., and Cameron Diaz; Tiger Woods is a NAUI divemaster member. Most of the top universities, colleges and institutes of technology in the United States certify their students through NAUI, including the US Navy, SEALs, Army Special Forces, and NASA astronauts for civilian diving licenses.[citation needed]
Courses
Throughout its existence, NAUI has continually maintained a position in the forefront of diving education. NAUI sanctioned Nitrox training in 1992—the first recreational training agency to do so—continuing to innovate in support of its members and in the interest of diving safety. In early 1997, in keeping with NAUI’s founding principles, NAUI published standards for teaching technical diving, a practice that had been growing among NAUI members for several years.
NAUI Worldwide offers a full range of training programs from Skin Diver through Instructor Course Director, with dozens of specialty courses including nitrox and technical diving. Thousands of member instructors, affiliated stores, resorts, and service centers are located in countries throughout the world.[2]
The NAUI Technical Diving Division was started in 1997 with the goal of creating a higher standard of training worldwide by codifying technical community training practices.
NAUI offers a large number of courses at all levels of diving experience. Below is a sampling of the most popular courses.
Recreational courses
- Junior Skindiver [3]
- Junior Scuba Diver [3]
- Junior Advanced Scuba Diver [3]
- Skin Diver [3]
- Scuba Diver [3]
- Experienced Scuba Diver [3]
- Advanced Scuba Diver [3]
- Master Scuba Diver [3]
Specialty courses
- Deep Diver [4]
- Dry Suit Diver [4]
- Enriched Air Nitrox (EAN) Diver [4]
- Scuba Rescue Diver [4]
- Search and Recovery Diver [4]
- Training Assistant [4]
- Underwater Archaeologist [4]
- Underwater Ecologist [4]
- Underwater Environment [4]
- Underwater Photographer [4]
- Underwater Hunter and Collector [4]
- Wreck Diver (External Survey) [4]
Leadership courses
- Assistant Instructor [5]
- Skin Diving Instructor [5]
- Divemaster [5]
- Instructor [6]
- Instructor Trainer
- Course Director
Technical courses
- Cave Diver (Levels I, II, and III)[7]
- Cavern Diver [7]
- CCR Mixed Gas Diver [7]
- Closed Circuit Rebreather Diver [7]
- Decompression Technique [7]
- Heliair Diver [7]
- Helitrox Diver [7]
- Ice Diver [7]
- Introduction to Technical Diving [7]
- Mixed Gas Blender and O2 Service Technician [7]
- Semi-closed Rebreather Diver [7]
- Technical Nitrox Diver [7]
- Technical Support Leader [7]
- Technical Wreck Penetration Diver [7]
- Tri-Mix Diver (Levels I & II) [7]
- Wreck Penetration Diver [7]
References
- ^ a b Tillman, Tom. "The history of NAUI". Scuba America Historical Foundation. http://www.divinghistory.com/id17.html. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ "NAUI Training Progression". NAUI Worldwide. 2008. http://www.naui.org/training_progression.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "NAUI Recreational Courses". NAUI Worldwide. 2008. http://www.naui.org/recreational_divers.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "NAUI Specialty Courses". NAUI Worldwide. 2008. http://www.naui.org/specialty_courses.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ a b c "NAUI Leadership Courses". NAUI Worldwide. 2008. http://www.naui.org/leadership_courses.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ "NAUI Instructor Courses". NAUI Worldwide. 2008. http://www.naui.org/leadership_courses_instructor.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "NAUI Technical Courses". NAUI Worldwide. 2008. http://www.naui.org/technical_divers.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
External links
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