The Professional Scuba Association
(PSA) was originally founded as the Florida State Skin Diving Schools in 1962 by Hal Watts in Orlando, Florida. Hal's experience
with scuba had begun in 1955 while he was attending collage, earning a Master's Degree in law.
During the 1960's Hal became devoted
to extended range diving and developing proven, effective diving techniques for dives to depths greater than the normal recreational
range of 40 meters (132 feet). In 1967, using methods he developed, Hal set the World's Depth record by diving to 119 meters
(390 feet) on air and was recognized in the Guinness Book of records. It should be noted, that as time went on, it was accepted
that extremely deep air dives were indeed hazardous and the current records represent remarkable achievements. Unfortunately,
the record is also at the very extreme edge of human physiological tolerance and so Guinness no longer publishes deep air
records or attempts.
In 1970, Hal wrote and copyrighted
the first manual for Extended Range Deep Diving for instructors and conducted specialty classes for those interested. One
of the projects that Hal wanted was a film, so he commissioned Ned DeLoach of New World Publications to produce a 16mm color
film "Deep Diving" om location at Wakulla Springs, Florida.
Hal Watts formed a specialty diving club known as the "Forty Fathom Scubapros" that was very active diving all over
Florida especially at a sink hole that just happened to be 40 fathoms (73 meters, 240 feet) deep! Many of the other divers
and organizations simply were not prepared to understand the desire of these early pioneers, so the Scubapros continued largely
in quiet. During the 1970s they continued refining techniques and skills to improve in deep diving activities.
PSA was in place as the "mainstream"
technical agencies burst onto the scene in the mid 1980's. PSA continued their program of careful selection of instructors
and adherence to safe diving techniques. Many of the agencies recognized PSA programs for their quality and afforded direct
cross-over certification.
PSA now has its World Headquarters
located in Ocala, Florida and is expanding its offerings to a variety of international offices. Long established in places
such as America, Italy, The UK, and Czech Republic, PSA continues to grow as both instructors and divers enjoy the quality of education afforded by the carefully reviewed standards and procedures.
During organizational meetings in early 2005, the PSA
course structure was reconfigured into course offerings. It was set up to include logical paths of their normal extended range
programs, a traditional path of technical deep diving from Nitrox to Trimix and a Rebreather path. This technique gives the
prospective student the direction and courses that fit their desired training objectives, without having to do unnecessary
out of scope work. At the same time, every PSA student will receive the highest quality training from the highest quality
instructors. PSA training and instruction is PRFORMANCE BASED!
