Beginner 9 minutes
CMAS: the star system and the club model
A federation of federations, long training programs, and a different idea of what an autonomous diver is
It isn't a company, it doesn't sell courses, and it has no dive centers of its own. It's a federation of national federations, founded by, among others, the man who invented the modern regulator. And its way of understanding training is still the most different of them all.
In this article you'll see exactly what CMAS is and why it doesn't work like the others, how to read its star system, what it means to train at a club instead of a commercial dive center, and why its equivalencies with the rest of the industry need a caveat.
It's the dominant model across much of Europe and Latin America through its national federations, and the one that strays furthest from what most people assume a diving course is.
What CMAS really is
CMAS was founded in 1959 in Monaco as a world confederation of underwater activities, with Jacques-Yves Cousteau as its first president. It predates every commercial agency and was born with a different purpose: not to train customers, but to federate a sport's national organizations.
That means CMAS doesn't certify you directly. The one that trains you and issues your certification is your country's federation, each with its own name and initials, and CMAS acts as the international umbrella that guarantees that certification is equivalent and recognizable abroad.
It also means its scope goes far beyond scuba diving. CMAS governs international competitions in freediving, finswimming, underwater hockey, underwater orienteering, spearfishing, and underwater photography. Strictly speaking, it's a sports federation.
The most important practical consequence is variability. Since each national federation adapts the program, two one-star certifications from two different countries can differ in hours, content, and even recommended maximum depth. The international standard sets the floor; the specific country decides how far above it to go.
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