Whether it’s the millions of stunning under-sea images on Instagram or the black & white episodes of Sea Hunt you watched as a child, the the attraction to diving can be a powerful motivator and an incredibly rewarding experience.
Always dreamed of becoming a diver? Join the million-strong club and take a Giant Stride into the depths with this guide on the course options and pre-course experiences out there.
PADI Bubble-Maker Experience:
A great way to try diving in a controlled and comfortable environment which also doesn’t require a huge financial investment (sometimes even offered for free in resort dive centers). Enjoy a brief introduction to the equipment and the basics of diving before breathing underwater for the first time.
PADI Discover Scuba Diving Experience:
Similarly to the PADI Bubblemaker experience Discover Scuba Diving offers the opportunity to “try before you invest”, with a pool session and now a sea dive (both are sometimes conducted in the sea). The course offers a little more detail in terms of the equipment and safe diving practices and even includes a few of those all-important Dive Skills. This is a great way to get started in diving and can even be credited towards your PADI Open Water Diver or Scuba Diver Course.
Ready to take the plunge or still have a few questions? Contact Us
PADI Scuba Diver Course:
Welcome, and let the adventure begin! This is the first “Certification Course” of the PADI system and upon completion you’ll be a qualified diver (no small achievement). As with all PADI courses, this course can be split into three primary areas – Knowledge Development, Pool Dives and Sea Dives. This course focuses on developing what could be termed your “survival skills” of diving, things like taking your mask off(and putting it back on we hope) along with learning how to recover your regulator if dropped/accidentally removed or breathe off another diver’s regulator (the breathy-thingy you see in everyone’s mouth). The course focuses on creating divers with a solid skill-set that are ready to dive under the future supervision of a PADI Divemaster or Instructor to a maximum depth of 12 meters.
PADI Open Water Course:
The Gold-Standard of Scuba Diving, and the course upon which many divers week begin their journey into the underwater world. Like the Scuba Diver Course, this course is built around Knowledge Development, Pool Dives and Sea Dives (4). This course focuses on teaching you the 20 core skills of diving, in addition to buoyancy skills and a greater level of knowledge, safety and experience, all of which prepare you for diving as a buddy team independently of instructor or divemaster supervision, and to a maximum depth of 18 meters.
While we make these grand statements about depth limits and diving without supervision, it’s important to remember that you didn’t get your driver’s license and drive a Ferrari the next day (if you did, we hope you took an advanced driving course before driving it). The importance here is to slowly build up experience – complete the course, then ensure your first dive is a shallow, gentle one, maybe even still under divemaster or instructor guidance.
Ready to take the plunge or still have a few questions? Contact Us
What’s the next step?
EXPERIENCE! Dive, dive, dive, and dive again – the Open Water course is just the beginning of what can easily be a life-changing experience, as many divers will at this point nod and agree. Once you’ve got a few dives under your belt, you can look towards PADI Specialty Courses such as the Peak Performance Buoyancy Course, Digital Underwater Photography or even jump well ahead to Sidemount Diver(combine it with Advanced Open Water 😉 )! Once you have experience “under your belt”, look a little further at the Advanced Open Water Course, giving you the opportunity to learn more and dive deeper – 30 meters to be exact, along with accessing sites beyond 18 meters which may have been previously unavailable to you.
Want to know more about the next steps of diving? Contact Us or Go Here
(Above information is provided on an “at your own risk” basis. YOU are responsible for how you use the above information. By visiting this website you release authors/owners of TheDivingSource.com from any and all liability from any accidents, injuries or loss which may occur following your use of any information present on this website)
The Diving Source 