I learnt a thing or two!

PADI History

The PADI Story

Two Friends, a Bottle of Scotch and an Idea

It’s hard to believe that the world’s largest scuba diving training organization was dreamt up by two friends in Illinois over a bottle of Johnny Walker in 1966.
John Cronin, a scuba equipment salesman for U.S. Divers, and Ralph Erickson, an educator and swimming instructor, were concerned about the scuba diving industry. They felt that the current scuba certification agencies were unprofessional, didn’t use state of the art instruction and made it unnecessarily difficult for people to enter the sport. John and Ralph knew there had to be a safer, easy way for people to learn to breathe underwater.
In 1966, John brought a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label and thirty dollars to Ralph’s Illinois apartment in Morton Grove.  They decided it was time to start a scuba training organization. John insisted that the word “professional” be in the name of the company. Ralph wanted an “association of diving instructors.” After a few scotches, the acronym PADI was born: Professional  Association  of  Diving  Instructors.

The Underground Office

The initial start-up meetings took place at several restaurants in Morton Grove and Niles, Illinois. In a few months, Cronin finished a portion of his basement in his home on Main St. in Niles, Illinois to become the headquarters for PADI. He eventually hired his next door neighbor to be a part time secretary. His son, Brian stuffed and sealed envelopes.
The goal: Give more people a chance to enjoy the underwater world by offering relevant, instructionally-valid scuba diving training to create confident scuba divers who dive regularly.

A Torched Logo

When they were struggling for a logo design, John mentioned he wanted something classy like the National Geographic look. Years later in an interview, Ralph said that idea changed the way he was looking at this small two-man operation. At that moment, he could see a big vision for PADI.
Ralph was responsible for putting together the first PADI Logos. After many long hours of working with stick-on letters, he inadvertently left out the word “Professional.” The documents went to print and were used for almost two years before enough people noticed the error. One of the original documents was missing the “e” in “Professional” and hangs in Founder’s Hall at the PADI Americas office in California.

PADI Grows

In the early years, PADI grew slowly. By the late 1960s, PADI had 400 members and it was still a struggling entity. John Cronin had been promoted to Sales Manager at U.S. Divers and had moved the family to Huntington Beach, California.

Cronin went to a huge National Sporting Goods Association show in New York City. While he was there, he met with Paul Tzimoulis, who later became the editor of Skin Diver Magazine. Paul suggested that PADI put the diver’s picture on the certification card. That was a strategic move that helped PADI’s eventual global recognition.

Gaius Julius Caesar

Julie, don't go!