Awards & Memberships

Memberships & Awards

Puffin Dive Centre has been operation for over 30 years and continues to be at the forefront of diving & water based training. Our outdoor activities are a feature to visitors coming to Oban - for people that have been diving for years or are new to the water activity scene!

Puffin proudly maintains our Visit Scotland 5* tourist attraction award - The scheme is designed to inspire and encourage improvement within the Visitor Attraction sector, helping every participant achieve their full potential in providing the best possible visitor experience. Puffin Dive Centre is also a member of Wild Scotland - Highlighting Scotland's incredible wildlife and abundance of unique outdoor activities & adventures.

PDC is a guardian of one of the #2minutebeachclean stations - a charity dedicated to reducing plastic pollution and litter. We proudly hold a cleaning station on site & encourage all our guests to take 2 minutes to help reduce plastic water pollution. As a member of Project Aware we encourage divers to #diveagainstdebris - mesh bags are provided to divers who dive for litter removal.

Teaching skills above and below the water, PDC is a certified RYA Training Centre - An RYA training centre is an accredited sailing school that has been assessed by and is regularly inspected by the Royal Yachting Association in order to ensure common standards of competence, training and safety.

We hold the highest membership level with PADI "Professional Association of Diving Instructors", which is the principal organisation providing training and certification to SCUBA diving instructors worldwide. 

As a PADI 5* IDC & Career Development centre we are recognised as one of the highest-level diver training centres world-wide, able to offer courses from Beginner to Instructor Trainer.

Puffin has a long history with a constant level of input and dedication which has resulted in numerous awards and recognition.

Puffin is proud to have achieved numerous PADI awards including:
 

PADI Green Star Award
PADI Environment award
PADI Community Involvement award
PADI Education Award
PADI Innovation within the diving community award
Numerous Project Aware Awards for contribution to the aquatic environment
Many instructors holding PADI Elite diving Instructor Awards and certificates of recognition.
PADI 30 years of outstanding service award
Emergency First Response Elite Instructor award
Multiple Good Samaritan Awards for life saving actions
 

See below for a full list and details of PDC memberships