Three things you need to know about starting scuba diving

Learning to scuba dive is one of the best decisions I’ve made in life, as it opened up a brand new world that cannot be experienced through snorkelling. However, getting into scuba diving can be daunting: What does it entail? How to choose diving centres? How difficult is it? We have put together a guide for those who are contemplating learning to scuba dive but don’t know where to start.

I. PADI Certification

Scuba diving certifications are normally obtained through PADI or SSI, both are recognised internationally. As I am PADI-certified, this article is based on the PADI certification process.

The entry point is the PADI Open Water Certificate, which allows you to dive up to 18 meters. Afterwards, you can choose to qualify for the Advanced Open Water Certification, which would extend the maximum dive depth to 30 meters. You can also choose speciality dive qualifications, such as Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver, Night Diver, and Dry Suite courses. There are also regional speciality dive courses such as reef survey speciality, which is offered at some dive centres in Australia. Dry Suit speciality is recommended for people who plan to dive in colder waters. For Iceland Sifra Diving, you must be dry-suit certified; otherwise, we offer snorkelling Silfra tours for non-divers and non-dry-suit certified divers.

There are three main steps to get your PADI Open Water certification:

Step 1: Theory Learning

Find a reputable PADI dive centre near you to start your journey. Many dive centres are located within city centres, so you don’t have to go somewhere coastal to start learning. PADI’s website would show if it is a five-star PADI dive centre.

After purchasing your PADI course, the dive centre will provide you with access to PADI’s online portal for theory learning. This is a really important part as you’ll learn about the fundamental physics of diving, common issues that you may encounter underwater, hand gestures and how to solve potential problems. At my diving centre, there was also an exam before shallow water training, which you must pass before diving.

Step 2: Shallow water or pool training

Once the theoretical learning is completed, the next step is shallow water training. This is usually conducted in a swimming pool or shallow sea area. A reputable diving centre will require you to pass a swimming test first. When I got certified in London, I had to swim several laps in the pool to prove my swimming ability before proceeding. Some diving centres claim you can qualify without being able to swim, and you tend to encounter these at popular dive resorts or diving destinations. A reputable diving centre would never allow non-swimmers to dive. Scuba diving is one of these activities where you don’t normally encounter problems underwater, as you would prepare your kits carefully to make sure they are up for the dive. However, when you encounter issues, they can be sudden and unexpected, and if you can’t swim in the open ocean without your scuba equipment, it can be very tricky. For example, your diving kit may get entangled with a rack or with the reef wall, and you’ll need to remove the kit and swim to the surface; another scenario could be running out of oxygen underwater, and you have to surface without any assisted buoyancy. Not knowing how to swim could lead to tragic consequences in such situations.

This part of the qualification normally takes 3 days, and you’ll learn a series of skills such as getting in and out of your scuba kits in the water, mask removal underwater, getting neutral buoyancy and breathing from a leaking regulator. You may not be able to get all of them in one go, and some dive centres would let you have extra pool sessions if you struggled with some of the tasks. I had to take an extra session for my full mask removal!

Step 3: Open water diving

After completing shallow water training, you will do two days of open water diving, which normally consists of four dives in total. This is normally done in a lake or the ocean. You will need to demonstrate the skills you’ve learned in shallow water training to pass the test. The last dive is normally a fun dive, so you get a sense of what it is like to just swim around underwater!

II. How to Choose a Diving Center on your travels

Congratulations, you are now a certified diver, and will probably be looking forward to booking your first diving holiday! I usually choose a Five-star PADI Dive Center, which can be found on the PADI website. This is because they tend to have better-qualified dive masters and better-maintained equipment, which are crucial for your survival underwater.

III. Extra notes

It is a privilege to share the ocean with the amazing marine animals that call the ocean home, and many divers are ambassadors of marine conservation. There are a few things we can do to help with marine conservation:

1. Do not touch marine life, especially animals that need to surface for air, such as sea turtles. In some instances, you may see people riding on sea turtles which can lead to their drowning. Just don’t touch anything.
2. Do not stand on coral reefs and pay attention to fin kicking. I’ve seen people on my diving trip who would kick up all the sand with their fins (normally due to buoyancy issues), and everywhere they’ve passed, it was covered with dust. As someone who was diving behind, I had close to 0 visibility and was in constant fear of the diver knocking my mask off — as mask removal is something I really do not want to encounter in real dives. It is a bit stressful for humans and marine lives alike, so please try to learn to get neutral buoyancy, and control your fin kick. It is good for you as well, as it preserves energy and makes your air tank last longer.
3. Pick up underwater garbage when you see it: My wet suit has a side pocket, which is perfect for picking up marine trash. When diving, if I see plastic bags, foams, or any kind of garbage within reach, I would pick them up and dispose of them ashore.
4. Always bring two flashlights for night dives! The first time I did a night dive in Egypt, I only brought one flashlight (new). It malfunctioned on the return journey, flickering on and off. Luckily, it was a full moon night so the surroundings were not pitch dark. Otherwise, getting lost in the sea would have been terrifying.
5. Beach cleaning: Flying after diving can increase the risk of decompression sickness, so a rule of thumb is to wait 24 hours after your last dive before flying. If you’re on a diving holiday, this non-dive day can be perfect for beach cleaning. Unfortunately, at popular dive places, you can find all kinds of garbage on the beach. Although individual efforts do not seem a lot; however, if every diver spends their non-dive day on beach-clean, it could make a big difference!

Hopefully, you are now excited about becoming PADI-qualified! We work with many dive centres, so you can check out our diving trips, including PADI Open water qualifications courses.

Happy diving!