The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) is a recreational diving membership and diver training organization founded in 1966 by John Cronin and Ralph Erickson. PADI courses range from entry level to relatively advanced recreational diver certification, several specialized diving skills courses, usually connected with specific equipment or conditions, some diving related informational courses and a range of recreational diving instructor certifications. They also offer various technical diving courses. As of 2022, PADI is reported to have issued 29 million scuba certifications.
Sea Base, formerly known as Florida National High Adventure Sea Base, is a high adventure program base run by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in the Florida Keys. Its counterparts are the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico, the Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases in Ely, Minnesota as well as Manitoba and Ontario in Canada, and The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve near the New River Gorge National Park in southern West Virginia.
The Flint School was a preparatory school founded by educators George and Betty Stoll. Based in Sarasota, Florida, United States, it operated aboard first one, then two, school ships from 1969 to 1981. Girls as well as boys aged 12 to 18 sailed the world aboard the steel-hulled auxiliary schooners Te Vega, and teQuest while studying an academic curriculum. The school was one of very few educational institutions of any kind during the period to stress free-market or libertarian thought, making it in some ways akin to Hillsdale College. In its pedagogy, the Flint School combined elements from Alan Villiers' earlier seaborne program with Maria Montessori's Casa dei Bambini.
Advanced Open Water Diver (AOWD) is a recreational scuba diving certification level provided by several diver training agencies. Agencies offering this level of training under this title include Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), and Scuba Schools International (SSI). Other agencies offer similar training under different titles. Advanced Open Water Diver is one step up from entry level certification as a beginner autonomous scuba diver. A major difference between Autonomous diver equivalent Open Water Diver (OWD) certification and AOWD is that the depth limit is increased from 18 to 30 metres.
Te Vega is a two-masted, gaff-rigged auxiliary schooner. Originally launched as the Etak, she was designed by New York naval architects Cox & Stevens in 1929 for American businessman Walter Graeme Ladd and his wife, Catherine ("Kate") Everit Macy Ladd. Etak was built at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, Germany, and launched in 1930. During World War II she served the US Navy as Juniata (IX-77). She is among the largest steel-hulled schooners afloat.
The Sail and Life Training Society (SALTS), founded in 1974, is a non-profit Christian organization based in Victoria, British Columbia. SALTS provides sail training and life lessons for 1,700 young people each year on tall ships and provides a valued link to the area's maritime heritage. Currently, SALTS administrative offices are located on Herald Street in downtown Victoria, with a shop space located nearby in the Rock Bay area.
Erin C. Myers Madeira is the former captain of the sailing vessel Makulu II and led a 3-year educational expedition and global circumnavigation. She currently works with The Nature Conservancy supporting collaborations between the conservation sector and Indigenous Peoples. She is a former editor for Blue Water Sailing magazine, contributor to Soundings magazine, U.S. Fulbright Fellow., and Program Fellow at Resources for the Future. She is a graduate of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Dartmouth College.
Ocean Star is a two-masted schooner which conducts educational programs for Seamester Global Programs in the Caribbean Sea. The vessel is 88 feet (27 m) in overall length and accommodates sixteen trainees and four professional staff. Ocean Star is certified and inspected by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency for ocean service. Ocean Star undergoes an annual refit in Antigua at Antigua Slipways Ltd.
S/Y Argo is a two-masted Marconi rigged schooner. She is owned and operated by Seamester Study Abroad Programs as one of three sail training vessels the company operates. Argo is certified and inspected by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency as a Category “0” vessel, allowing her unrestricted operation in the world's oceans. She is registered in Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.
Seamester is part of the Global Expeditions Group, an organization that offers academic, study abroad programs on board three sailing vessels, Ocean Star, Argo and Vela. Sea|mester began running programs in 1998 as an extension from its sister organization ActionQuest. A full semester's course load is offered on board including classes in Oceanography, Marine Biology, Professional Skipper Certification Training, Leadership, Basic Seamanship, and an Independent Research Project. Courses are accredited through the University of South Florida (USF).
GoBeyond Student Travel is an organization which offers community service based adventure programs during the Northern Hemisphere summertime to teenagers. Programs are run in the British Virgin Islands, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Thailand, China, Costa Rica, India, Peru and Australia.
Outward Bound Costa Rica (OBCR) (formerly known as "Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School" or CRROBS) is a non-profit experiential learning and outdoor education organization based in San José, Costa Rica. It is a charter of Outward Bound International (OBI).
Billed as "Part sail training vessel, part classroom, and part lab," the SSV Tabor Boy is a 92-foot gaff-rigged, two-masted topsail schooner that has been a part of the Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts since 1954. SSV stands for “Sailing School Vessel” and is the U.S. Coast Guard’s designation for the schooner. She is one of two Coast Guard inspected vessels in her class that operate in the Northeast United States. She is also the only vessel licensed to sail with a single captain and a crew composed entirely of students.
Matthew Turner was an American sea captain, shipbuilder and designer. He constructed 228 vessels, of which 154 were built in the Matthew Turner shipyard in Benicia. He built more sailing vessels than any other single shipbuilder in America, and can be considered "the 'grandaddy' of big time wooden shipbuilding on the Pacific Coast."
Bob Halstead, has made significant contributions to the sport of scuba diving in a multitude of capacities: photographer, author of eight diving books, early innovator in the development of dive tourism, pioneer in the dive liveaboard industry, diving instructor and educator, marine-life explorer and influential diving industry commentator. An ardent diver since 1968, Halstead has over 10,000 logged dives.
Electa S. "Exy" Johnson was an American author, lecturer, adventure, and sail training pioneer.
Trishna is a Swan 37 yacht belonging to the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The name Trishna means “to thirst for” in the Sanskrit language. The 1970-vintage boat, earlier known as Guinevere of Sussex, was purchased in 1984 from the United Kingdom. The yacht has since been used for long distance ocean sailing and training. The first of the yachts' journeys after it was acquired was its voyage from Gosport to Mumbai, India. Subsequently, the yacht embarked on its most notable voyage, the circumnavigation of the globe from 1985 to 1987. This was the first such achievement by an Indian crew. In subsequent years, the yacht has been used for international cruises primarily in the Indian Ocean region and is currently still operational.
Global Expeditions Group, or GXG, is the parent company of the Sea|mester, ActionQuest, and GoBeyond Student Travel brands. The company's origins began in 1985 with ActionQuest some years after its founder Jim Stoll left the Flint School. Over the course of the next 40 years ActionQuest expanded into several other brands including ARC, Sirius Sailing, Lifeworks International, and Sea|mester. In 2012 Global Expeditions Group was formed to organize all of the brands that had grown out of ActionQuest under one parent company.
The Harvey Gamage is a 131' gaff rigged schooner launched in 1973 from the Harvey F. Gamage Shipyard in South Bristol, Maine. She was designed by McCurdy & Rhodes, Naval Architects in Cold Spring Harbor, New York and Frederick W. Bates of Damariscotta, Maine. She is a USCG inspected vessel both as a passenger vessel and a sail training vessel. As governments of maritime countries recognise Sail Training as an essential component of developing and maintaining an essential merchant marine force, the US Congress created a special service category of vessel for Sail Training and the Harvey Gamage is one of a handful of vessels licensed for this service. She has been educating students at sea along the east coast of North American almost continuously since her launch. She has 14 staterooms accommodating 39 people, including 9 professional crew, 22 youth sail trainees and up to 4 adult chaperones. As a training vessel, she takes crews of students along the eastern seaboard, from her home port in Maine to various destinations ranging from The Maritimes to the Caribbean
