Australian diving guide
Our Editorial and Research Standards
What we publish, what we refuse to publish, and how verified capability is separated from assumption.
This directory exists because agency locators and generic listing sites do not answer the questions divers actually have. Answering them properly requires being explicit about what is known and what is not.
Every full dive-centre profile should contain enough material to stand alone as a serious research page — and where we cannot verify something, we say so rather than filling the gap with marketing language.
We separate verified capability from assumption, and the distinction is built into how every centre record is structured.
A centre is not automatically classified as technical because it teaches recreational Nitrox. A business offering equipment hire is not automatically described as an equipment retailer. A centre employing a rebreather diver is not automatically described as providing CCR support.
Every meaningful capability should eventually be supported by a current primary source. Where a service is absent from a centre page, it means not yet researched — never "no" — and the page lists it as something worth confirming instead.
Verified capabilities carry a tick and are backed by a Sources block that links the primary source and dates the check, so any claim on the page can be traced and re-checked.
These are the categories a complete profile covers.
- location — address, town, region and state
- training agencies — PADI, SSI, SDI, TDI, RAID, IANTD and others
- beginner training — introductory scuba and Open Water
- continuing education — Advanced, Rescue, Nitrox, specialties
- professional training — Divemaster and instructor programs
- technical training — sidemount, twinset, decompression, Trimix, CCR and cave
- freediving — agency and course level
- equipment sales — physical or online retail where verified
- equipment rental — recreational and technical
- equipment servicing — regulators, BCDs, computers and suits
- cylinder services — testing, inspection and valve servicing
- gas — air, Nitrox, oxygen, Trimix and mixed gas
- CCR support — oxygen, diluent, cylinders, sorb and unit support where verified
- dive operations — shore dives, boats, charters and liveaboards
- staff — instructors, technical instructors, technicians
- facilities — classroom, pool, shop, boats and accommodation
- dive sites regularly serviced
- specialisation — reef, wreck, shark, cave, photography, technical
The following contributes almost no useful information, and we treat it as a failure rather than a placeholder:
ABC Diving is a great dive shop in Sydney offering PADI courses, equipment rental and fun dives. Contact them today to start your underwater adventure.
A publishable profile explains what the business actually does, who it suits, what training it provides, what equipment it supports, what sites it accesses, what differentiates it, what is not verified, and what divers should ask before booking.
Unsupported marketing terms are avoided unless they are clearly attributed to a source: best, premier, leading, world-class, number one.
Where we describe a site as significant or well known, that should be traceable to something — official tourism information, a marine park designation, or a documented aggregation.
Pages are connected deliberately rather than isolated. A centre page links to its state, its region, the dive sites it services, its training agencies, relevant courses and relevant services.
A dive site page links to its region and state, the operators servicing it, the training that is genuinely useful there, and related sites. A course page links to agency equivalents, the centres teaching it, appropriate next courses and the destinations where the qualification is actually useful.
The intent is a connected information system rather than hundreds of isolated directory pages.
Dive businesses change constantly. Instructors leave, agency affiliations change, helium supply comes and goes, and boats are sold.
Every page carries a last-researched date. If something here is wrong or out of date, we would rather know than have it stand.