Many people who learn to dive do so while on holiday because many vacation destinations offer warm water and fantastic tropical marine life.
However, while learning how to dive in an exotic place is definitely a fun experience, how can you do this without devoting your whole holiday to your scuba certification?
You actually have the choice of 3 ways to easily learn to dive, and two of them will help save some valuable vacation days.
What is involved
Learning to dive will mean taking a course like the PADI Open Water Course, the world’s most popular scuba course. In order to understand the options of this course you first you need to understand what is involved.
While courses vary slightly depending on the dive training agency, they all have the same basic principles and three core parts of the course:
- theory – you will be using a diving manual and videos to learn the theory of diving, what the equipment you will be using, and the skills that make diving one of the safest adventure sports in the world.
- confined water training (pool sessions) – learning diving skills in a safe area
- open water training dives – applying the skills you learnt in the pool to the open water, and going on a fun dive
There are also certain water skills requirements – being able to swim and tread water is a must!
3 ways to learn to dive
Option 1 – open water course over 4-days
A full Open Water Course will normally take 4-days, depending on the size of the group. If your class is just 1 or 2 people and things go well you may be able to complete the course in 3-days.
During the course, your days will be spent reviewing theory in the classroom, conducting confined exercises in the pool, and going on open water dives.
Here at Two Fish Divers, if we’re doing the full course with us then we always plan the course for 4-days. You are on holiday and taking the 4-day course is a very relaxing way to learn to dive. We also think that you get better value for money when you are not rushing through things in a shorter time!
option 2 – open water course over 3-days
Spending time in a classroom may not be what you want to spend your valuable vacation days doing – it’s difficult to focus on theory inside a classroom whilst outside the sun is shining and the palm trees are waving in a gentle breeze. But.. we have a solution that will make your open water course only 3-days!
Thanks to the internet, many dive training providers now give you access to the theory part of the course online that you can do before you leave home. With PADI, the worlds biggest and best-known scuba training agency, this option is known as eLearning and is available at PADI.com.
eLearning uses videos, online manuals, quizzes and many other teaching techniques to give you the knowledge that you need for your PADI open water without leaving your couch – or anywhere else you’d like to study that has a decent internet connection!
With eLearning, you register with a centre when you start your study, so if something is unclear or you have questions then you have an expert contact who can help you – we’ll give you the same advice or information whether you’re in our classroom or at the end of an email exchange.
You also have a year to finish the theory so there is no real time pressure on you, allowing you to study at your own pace that best helps you to learn.
option 3 – open water course in less than 3-days
There is an option that cut down your time in the resort even further by a combination of eLearning and what is called a referral. You can study the theory at home with eLearning and contact your local dive centre to arrange the pool sessions. This would mean you use 2 days of your holiday to finish your scuba certification course as all you need to do is the open water dives – this is the bit with the fishies and the reef!
However, we actually do not recommend this third option because our instructors like to teach you the pool stuff themselves. Similar to someone teaching you to drive a car, different instructors will have different ways of teaching you certain skills. Our instructors would therefore prefer to teach you their way in the pool so that they can make sure that apply it correctly on your open water dives.
4-days or 3-days is best
Out of the other two options – 4-days and 3-day eLearning – the choice is yours, but you may find that the 3-day eLearning option if the better choice because it:
- Allows you to study at home, in your own time and at your own speed.
- Provides access to all the materials used in a classroom based course (and more).
- You don’t have to spend a day of your holiday in the classroom- meaning more time for the beach or other fun things, maybe even an extra days diving after you get your scuba certification!
Its never been easier
It’s never been easier to become a certified diver in the warm and rich waters of your chosen holiday destination – be that the amazing water of the coral triangle here in Indonesia or somewhere else. So no excuses – start eLearning today!!
If you choose Two Fish then we can even offer you a special offer – you can do up to 2-days of fun diving after your course for up to 40% discount.
