The World Recreational Scuba Training Council was founded in 1999 and is dedicated to creating minimum recreational diving training standards for the various scuba diving certification agencies across the world. The WRSTC restricts its membership to national or regional councils. These councils consist of individual training organizations who collectively represent at least 50% of the annual diver certifications in the member council's country or region. A national council is referred to as a RSTC. Significant training organisations which are not associated with WRSTC via membership of its regional RSTCs include Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques.
Member Councils
United States RSTC
On the basis of the experience of past attempts within the United States to control various aspects of recreational diving activity by legislation, the US RSTC was created in 1986 as a permanent body to sustain a relationship between various recreational diving training organisations. In 1991, it replaced the Diving Equipment Manufacturers Association as the secretariat for the then American National Standards Institute committee for Underwater Safety. The Z86 committee was subsequently replaced by the committee for Diving Instructional Standards and Safety. In 2007 it retained its appointment as the ANSI Accredited Standards Developer for the Z375 committee. The US RSTC has been responsible for the development of a standard medical statement and minimum training standards for diving hand signals and the following recreational diver grades - Introductory Scuba Experience, Supervised Diver, Open Water Diver, Enriched Air Nitrox Certification, Entry level Rescue Diver, Dive Supervisor, Assistant Instructor, Scuba Instructor and Scuba Instructor Trainer. Membership of a US RSTC council member is one of the recognition criteria used by Boy Scouts of America for the selection of recreational scuba diving instructors for the training of its members in order to receive the BSA Scuba Diving merit badge. As of 2020, the following agencies are members:
