Diving professionals
Instructors, guides, dive leaders, captains, commercial divers, public-safety personnel, and professionals working throughout the operational diving sector.
IADP Update
The IADP has extended its Founding Membership campaign until 31 December 2026, giving supporters, serious divers, professionals, and industry stakeholders additional time to join during the organisation’s founding phase.
The campaign originally opened ahead of the summer period, with the intention of building the first visible membership base behind the IADP and beginning a sustained period of professional outreach and member recruitment. The months that followed, however, proved unusually disrupted for the organisation and its volunteer team.
Several volunteers and key contributors were unavailable for extended periods, while international project commitments and other operational circumstances reduced the organisation’s ability to give the campaign the sustained communications, outreach, and development effort originally planned.
As a result, the Founding Membership campaign was launched, but it was never given the full active promotional period that had been intended.
Rather than close the founding phase before that work had properly taken place, the IADP has decided to extend the campaign until 31 December 2026.
The extension gives the organisation the opportunity to run the campaign as originally intended: with sustained communication, professional outreach, member recruitment, and continued development of the membership platform.
With the summer period now behind us and normal operations resuming, the final months of 2026 will become the active phase of the Founding Membership campaign.
The focus will now move toward member recruitment, professional outreach, continued development of TheDiveProfessional.org, expansion of member services, and building the first visible membership base behind the organisation.
This is therefore not simply an extension of a date. It is the continuation of a campaign that did not receive the sustained activation originally planned during the summer period.
Founding Membership will remain open until 31 December 2026.
During this period, eligible members can still join under founding conditions and be recognised as part of the first active membership phase of the IADP.
The founding phase recognises those who choose to support the organisation while its membership structure, services, projects, and professional network are still being developed and expanded.
After 31 December 2026, the Founding Membership campaign will close and the organisation will move into the next stage of its membership development.
The founding campaign provides two principal membership routes. Both begin through the IADP Join Now page, where prospective members can review the available options before continuing to TheDiveProfessional.org to complete the appropriate membership.
Founding Associate Membership is intended for supporters, serious divers, students, early-stage professionals, and others who want to stand behind the wider diving profession and support the development of an independent professional association.
It provides a route for people who may not yet be participating as established industry professionals but who want to support the organisation, its objectives, and the wider professional community.
Founding Industry Membership is intended for people connected to the diving industry who want to support the organisation during its founding phase and become part of the developing professional network.
It is aimed at those whose work, experience, business, technical role, services, or professional activities are connected to diving and the wider underwater sector.
The IADP was created around a simple principle: the diving profession deserves independent, cross-sector representation.
That profession extends far beyond one training agency, one certification system, one commercial model, or one branch of diving.
Instructors, guides, dive leaders, captains, commercial divers, public-safety personnel, and professionals working throughout the operational diving sector.
Researchers, scientific divers, environmental workers, restoration specialists, medical and hyperbaric professionals, and others supporting underwater research and protection.
Manufacturers, technicians, equipment specialists, media professionals, compressor operators, support staff, and businesses whose work depends on the wider diving profession.
Building a credible professional association requires more than a website, statutes, projects, or organisational structures.
It requires members.
The Founding Membership campaign is the first step toward building that member-supported base and establishing a stronger collective structure behind the wider diving profession.
TheDiveProfessional.org is the operational membership platform connected to the IADP.
The IADP website remains the institutional and public-facing platform. It explains the association, its objectives, membership structure, projects, and professional role.
Prospective members begin through the IADP Join Now page. From there, they can select the appropriate membership route and continue to TheDiveProfessional.org to complete their membership.
Membership accounts, member services, future benefits, professional verification, gated resources, and other operational member functions will progressively be developed through TheDiveProfessional.org.
Founding members are joining at a stage when the organisation is still actively building its operational capacity, membership services, project structure, professional network, and long-term representation model.
Their support helps the IADP move from organisational development into a genuinely member-supported professional structure.
Just as importantly, founding members become part of the first active membership base behind the association and its long-term objective of strengthening independent representation for the diving profession.
Between now and 31 December 2026, the IADP will place greater emphasis on membership recruitment, professional communication, partner development, member services, and the further development of its project network.
The objective is clear: establish a credible first membership base and enter 2027 with a stronger operational foundation behind the organisation.
The Founding Membership campaign will close on 31 December 2026.
From 2027 onward, the IADP will move into the next stage of its membership development, with greater emphasis on professional participation, member services, verification, partnerships, projects, and the progressive expansion of its professional network.
The founding period is therefore a defined stage in the organisation’s development rather than a permanent membership category that will remain open indefinitely.
Join during the founding phase. The Founding Membership campaign remains open until 31 December 2026. Supporters, serious divers, professionals, and industry stakeholders can still join during this founding period and become part of the IADP’s first active membership base.
IADP – DIVE PROFESSIONALS
International Association of Dive Professionals
Non-Profit Association (ASBL)
Rue Émile Féron 153
1060 Saint-Gilles (Brussels) – Belgium
A proud member of Cité des Associations, Saint-Gilles