NAUI is the National Association of Underwater Instructors. Click here for more information about the history of NAUI.

There are some important differences between other agencies and NAUI. NAUI is a Not-For-Profit Worldwide Education Association, incorporated under the laws of the State of California. NAUI's purpose is to enable people to enjoy underwater activities as safely as possible by providing the highest quality practical education, and to actively promote the preservation and protection of the world's underwater environments. To accomplish this, NAUI trains, qualifies, and certifies leaders and instructors, establishes minimum standards for various levels of diver training, and provides various programs, products, and support materials to assist NAUI leaders and instructors with their diving supervising and teaching. NAUI's primary purpose is also reflected in the association's motto, "Dive Safety Through Education". The quality of training provided by NAUI Instructors is of great importance to the Association, so NAUI employs various methods of evaluation to ensure that NAUI standards are met when NAUI instruction is conducted. As a pioneer in diving education, NAUI has developed many of the programs and concepts accepted throughout the diving industry. NAUI constantly strives to increase the safety of diving by upgrading the Association's standards and programs.

NAUI Instructors are qualified, professional educators who are granted academic freedom to teach diving in any reasonable manner as long as NAUI standards and policies are met. NAUI training support materials are designed for flexibility in teaching. NAUI Instructors may exceed NAUI standards in ways that do not jeopardize student safety. Examples include exceeding the number of required open water dives or increasing the academic content. One of the things the NAUI Credo states is that it is more important to train a few students well than to certify many marginally trained divers. We further believe that educational quality must never be sacrificed for economic reasons. Also, NAUI believes that divers should not be totally dependent upon their equipment or others for their safety. NAUI members emphasize the skills of diving, and anyone certified as a diver should be able to perform the basics of a rescue of a buddy diver.

Course location, duration and price vary. This variation is due in part to location, instructor, facility, benefits and level of training. You will find information about NAUI diver courses in our NAUI Course Catalog. Contact your local nearest NAUI Dive Center or NAUI Worldwide for more information about diver courses.

To request a replacement card, completely fill out the Replacement Card form and (if possible) send or fax us a clear photocopy of your training logbook pages and/or temporary certification card/ validation form, or a clear photocopy of your existing card. Include these with the replacement request form. You may download the Replacement Card Form in PDF format. The prices on the form are current. You will need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader to be able to read and print the form. If this option does not work for you, to obtain a form, please contact a local NAUI Dive Center, NAUI office, or NAUI Worldwide directly. In order to fulfill your request, we also need a copy of a photo ID (Driver's License, Passport, etc.) and payment. If the diver who is requesting the card is under 18, we also need the Parent/Guardian's signature. We accept Money Orders, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Extra charges may also be incurred if your request requires research into paper records and rush shipment.

To obtain a Junior upgrade card, mail or fax us a clear photocopy of the junior certification card, and a clear photocopy of a photo ID, indicating age. Include these with a replacement request form. You may download the Replacement Card Form in PDF format. The prices on the form are current. You will need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader to be able to read and print the form. If this option does not work for you, to obtain a form, please contact a local NAUI Dive Center, NAUI office, or NAUI Worldwide directly. In order to fulfill your request, if the diver who is upgrading is under 18, we also need the Parent/Guardian's signature. When you submit all the paperwork, please do not forget to include payment. We accept Money Orders, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Extra charges may also be incurred if your request requires research into paper records or rush shipment.

To request a replacement card with your new name, send or fax us a clear photocopy of a photo ID, your legal name change documentation (marriage certificate, divorce decree, etc.) and a clear photocopy of your existing card. Include these with a replacement request form. You may download the Replacement Card Form in PDF format. The prices on the form are current. You will need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader to be able to read and print the form. If this option does not work for you, to obtain a form, please contact a local NAUI Dive Center, NAUI office, or NAUI Worldwide directly. In order to fulfill your request, if the diver who is requesting the card is under 18, we also need the Parent/Guardian's signature. When you submit all the paperwork, please do not forget to include payment. We accept Money Orders, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Extra charges may also be incurred if your request requires research into paper records or rush shipment.

First, all NAUI Leaders must complete a NAUI Familiarization, Instruction and Testing (FIT) program. This intensive course will evaluate your knowledge, skills and ability to meet NAUI Leadership requirements.  Once you have completed a NAUI FIT Program you will fully understand your preparedness to enter and complete NAUI Leadership Training.

The NAUI Instructor Training Course (ITC) is designed to train and qualify NAUI Instructor candidates for application to become instructor members. During the course, candidates learn effective methods to teach skin and scuba diving in compliance with NAUI Diving Course Standards. The course assures the NAUI membership that candidates who receive certification as NAUI Instructors have the knowledge, skills, fitness and proper attitude to do so.

The ITC may be presented in two phases. If done so, phase one, called an Instructor Training Program (ITP), contains all developmental training except for the final evaluations. During an ITP, candidate practice performances must be evaluated by at least two qualified evaluators, one of whom may be a Staff Training Workshop (STW) graduate and the other an Instructor Trainer (IT) or Course Director (CD). The ITP can be conducted in many formats, ranging in length from one week to an internship over an extended period. The second or final phase of an ITC so organized is called the IQP, during which a Course Director must be in residence and all final evaluations will be made.

Other agency instructors may receive Recognition Of Prior Learning (RPL) for training and experience they have accumulated. This recognition is based upon evidence of prior learning and experience provided by a candidate and becomes a part of a candidates training record. It is used to develop an individualized training plan so that standards and requirements of the ITC are met, and usually results in an accelerated program that leads to graduation and qualifying an applicant for membership. RPL may also be used for qualifying leadership candidates, i.e., assistant instructor and divemaster.

The following are excerpts from NAUI materials on the subject of contraindications to scuba diving:

Contraindications to Diving
...most authorities recognize certain Absolute Contraindications. These include:

• Disorders that may induce blackout or weakness. An epileptic seizure, insulin reaction, or acute heart dysrhythmia on land is usually merely annoying; under water, it could easily be fatal. Even if epilepsy is well controlled, hyperventilation or stress would favor seizures, and the effect of high pressure itself on epilepsy remains unknown. Even if diabetes is well controlled, exercise lowers the need for insulin; for such a person, any unexpected exertion needed for self or buddy rescue, would make the normal insulin dose excessive, thus favoring a reaction. A person subject to heart dysrhythmias may learn how to avoid them. Yet, an attack could be precipitated by anxiety, exertion, cold, or abnormal gas tensions, conditions not exactly known and not always avoidable in the water.
• Severely limited ability to cope with stress. Examples are heart failure, advanced chronic lung disease, and feebleness of any cause.
• History of pneumothorax, since it often repeats, or x-ray evidence of emphysematous blebs (weak areas of the lung), which could rupture and cause pneumothorax.
• Potential air trapping disorders such as active asthma, bronchial edema and mucus and spasm due to cigarettes or infection (e.g., up to ten days after a chest cold), and certain scars, cysts, or tumors, Any of these can cause lung rupture during ascent.
• Ruptured eardrums, or inability to equalize pressure. Pacific islanders sometimes break their eardrums on purpose to rid themselves of squeeze problems, but their diving isn't for sport.
• Tendency to dizziness or disorientation, if more than mild.
• Acute illness or intoxication. These greatly increase the risk of narcosis, bends, and other deep trouble.
• Severe emotional instability. The danger to self and others is obvious.
• Definite fear of diving, or of a particular dive. Surgeons don't do elective surgery under those conditions (extreme fear), for experience has shown they increase the patient's risk of dying. The same should apply to elective sports.

Possible Contraindications
There are also conditions which reduce one's fitness for diving, but not enough to absolutely forbid it. These are the relative contraindications. They include:

• Reduced exercise tolerance from any cause. Old? weak? or just out of shape?
• Difficulty equalizing pressure in middle ears or sinuses.
• Certain temporary states like fatigue, hunger, and dehydration.
• Low intelligence or poor judgment.
• Neurosis and adverse mood states.
• Any other disorder or disability that would reduce one's capacity to recognize or cope with problems. This huge category includes deficits in sensory function (hearing, seeing), and in neuromuscular and skeletal integrity, such as cerebral palsy, amputations, and polio residuals.

NAUI does not condone drinking alcohol prior to diving. We recommend that you do not drink alcohol before or directly following your dives and that you stay well hydrated at all times. You can find some information about these concerns in NAUI's textbook. Among other things, alcohol "impairs alertness, coordination and judgement, and is associated with an increased risk for accidents." Consumption of alcohol is also associated with increased risk of DCS, nitrogen narcosis, hypothermia/hyperthermia (depending upon the environment) and dehydration. The effects of nitrogen narcosis and hypothermia can also be magnified by the effects of alcohol. Because of these risks, drinking before diving is obviously unwise. Furthermore, drinking alcohol after diving further increases the risk of dehydration following the dive and may mask the signs & symptoms of Decompression Illnesses. Hangovers are also associated with increased susceptibility of nitrogen narcosis and may be a predisposing factor of DCS. It is the individual diver's responsibility to practice moderation when consuming alcohol.