It all started one night in 1966 with two friends and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black. Frustrated with the lack of professionalism in the dive industry, dive equipment salesperson John Cronin and dive instructor Ralph Erickson drafted a business plan — and the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) was born.

1960s: A Simple Startup

The first order of business for the two friends was to create a certification card with a photo for easy identification. Next on the agenda was branding PADI with a strong logo. Taking note of National Geographic’s simple design, Cronin wanted something equally memorable. What they ended up with was a sketch of a diver holding a torch, inspired by a photo in Jacques Cousteau’s The Silent World. Fun fact: Some of the first PADI logos were missing the “e” in “professional” — an oversight by a tired Erickson who had been pulling an all-nighter. Misspelled versions are on display at PADI’s California office. By the end of the decade, PADI’s continuing- education program included courses from Skin Diver to Master Instructor. The trade magazine, The Undersea Journal, was published as a way to educate instructors on important industry issues. Erickson wrote many of the first issues in their entirety, even writing under various pen names until he had a healthy roster of contributors.

1970s: Solid Gold Growth

Looking for ways to maintain a consistent training environment, PADI created a modular scuba course that included textbooks, tables, logbooks and student kits. Equally important was an emphasis on business development and marketing for business owners, and so the PADI Training Facility program and PADI Regional Training Coordinators were implemented into the dive family.

1980s: The Dive Boom

That PADI family continued to grow into the ’80s as it expanded internationally with headquarters located in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Europe. Planning dive profiles got even easier with the Recreational Dive Planner, while a surge of new dive certifications also brought a concern for safety. PADI answered that call by becoming the first dive organization to offer a member insurance program. Ocean conservation was also a hot topic among divers. And with that passion for the underwater world the nonprofit Project AWARE Foundation was formed. Today, the organization’s members and volunteers number in the millions.

1990s: Going Digital

With the launch of padi.com, the brand jumped into the digital world. To offer a more flexible schedule, the PADI Open Water Diver video was released as a classroom aid and as an independent study tool. A goal to get new divers into the water brought about the idea for Discover Diving, an entry-level scuba program offered to students prior to committing to an Open Water course.

2000s: Expanding the Family

The Discover Diving program was so successful that PADI decided to expand training to younger divers with the Seal Team program. For divers in search of something more advanced, the TecRec program became PADI’s first technical dive training course. The dive tables also got an upgrade with the launch of the first electronic planning calculator (eRDP). Growth further continued with eLearning, PADI’s online Open Water Course giving divers access to training from the comfort of their homes.

2010-Today: Fast-Forward to the Future

With dive training spreading around the world, PADI isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. The digital age made learning to dive even more accessible to students worldwide with PADI’s Digital Certification Paks and the PADI App. The launch of ScubaEarth brought diving to the virtual world with more than 165,000 logged dives and more than 58,000 photos and videos. The PADI family has come a long way from two friends and a bottle of whiskey to an organization that has certified more than 24 million divers in more than 190 countries. And that is something we can definitely raise our glass to.

Read more: PADI and President/CEO Drew Richardson were honored at Beneath the Sea 2016.