Ironically aircon when i took my padi in the maldives i buddy'd up with a yank (he had just come out of the navy) and was really experienced in all fairness...we stayed friends long after that but lost contact (bloody funny bloke as well!) If ever i catch up with you ET ill tell you all about it....i absolutely guarantee itll make you laugh...
Now this is my perception about the PADi system. If you dive your bound to at some time, have a narrow squeak and it's then down to your training if it remains a squeak or gets worse. It was a chore doing all the training but it paid off with me and I saw the point of it all.
Diving was my main hobby for many years. I've done 10,000+ dives all around the world but mostly in the UK with London BSAC clubs ... I was the Diving Officer of Manta Divers in Tooting and later a member of Teddington BSAC before we moved to the West Country. I ended-up as a BSAC Advanced Instructor using a Trimix closed-circuit rebreather as my normal kit for deep stuff, and have personally trained 100s of recreational divers. I met the Mrs through diving and made some very good life-long friends ... sadly lost a couple as well :-( I'm way out of touch but a cursory look on Google shows that there are a few forums that you should obviously take a look at - you are bound to get some recommendations there. So long as you do your training in the UK to dive in UK waters then in my experience it matters little whether you do it with BSAC or PADI - PADI will generally be quicker and more expensive.
Fair play to those that actually like it, tried it once, scared the shit outta me. Once was enough. Was only down about 10 feet
Done a shore dive once in Oxwich, one of my first dives, out to a wreck of an American Liberty ship not to far off shore. I thought the reason it was getting darker was because we were getting deeper, wrong, I had a heck of a shock when I discovered I'd swam under the keel (vis is crap around here)
