Scuba Diving

I have never been diving before so I am looking into doing it this summer. Everywhere I look seems like you have to take 2 to 3 two hour classes and or courses before you dive. Is this necessary? Can’t they just give you the basics and you go out there? Have anyone ever been diving before? Is training longer than a day necessary?

Thanks

There are a few ways "give you the basics" can be handle:

1. Discover Scuba: The instructor will go over some very basic stuff. You will then get to play around in the pool or in some very calm and shallow ocean/sea water with the instructor by your side.

2. Resort Course: You go to a resort. The instructor will give you a very basic course. For your stay at that particular resort, you will be able to go on some simple dives with the instructor nearby.

3. Open Water Diver Course: You spend time in the classroom learning theory. You spend some time in the pool learning some skills. You then do some certification dives demonstrating what you learned in the class and pool. After certification, you can follow your training and go diving with a buddy.

With PADI, the fastest you can get certified (classroom, pool, and certification dives) is two days, and those would be a couple of really long and exhausting days. The typical class that I teach is five weeknights for about 5 hours each night to cover the pool and classroom. After that, you will have to do the certification dives over two days.

The training is necessary. You can kill yourself or get severely injured (like a ruptured lung) if you mess up while scuba diving. Scuba diving is safe and easy, and preventing major accidents is easy as well. Without that knowledge, you could mess up.

I have never been diving before so I am looking into doing it this summer. Everywhere I look seems like you have to take 2 to 3 two hour classes and or courses before you dive. Is this necessary? Can’t they just give you the basics and you go out there? Have anyone ever been diving before? Is training longer than a day necessary?

Thanks

There are a few ways "give you the basics" can be handle:

1. Discover Scuba: The instructor will go over some very basic stuff. You will then get to play around in the pool or in some very calm and shallow ocean/sea water with the instructor by your side.

2. Resort Course: You go to a resort. The instructor will give you a very basic course. For your stay at that particular resort, you will be able to go on some simple dives with the instructor nearby.

3. Open Water Diver Course: You spend time in the classroom learning theory. You spend some time in the pool learning some skills. You then do some certification dives demonstrating what you learned in the class and pool. After certification, you can follow your training and go diving with a buddy.

With PADI, the fastest you can get certified (classroom, pool, and certification dives) is two days, and those would be a couple of really long and exhausting days. The typical class that I teach is five weeknights for about 5 hours each night to cover the pool and classroom. After that, you will have to do the certification dives over two days.

The training is necessary. You can kill yourself or get severely injured (like a ruptured lung) if you mess up while scuba diving. Scuba diving is safe and easy, and preventing major accidents is easy as well. Without that knowledge, you could mess up.

I am very interested in learning to Scu Dive. i really don’t have much knowledge. i live in greater Manchester. I would like if pos a recommendation of a school or club. expence, what i would need to train, anything you could advise me on would be an advantage.

Hey…great. Always good to see people interested in taking the plunge.
In answer to your question:
There are two primary certification agencies available to you in England. BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club) and PADI ( Professional Association of Dive Instructors).
You have some choices to make. Not only do you need to decide which agency to train with, you’ll also have to decide what shop you train with within that agency. No one can make that choice but you. It’s a personal preference thing and how comfortable you are with the training staff at the shop you choose and how well they fit into your schedule regarding the actual training.
Of the two agencies, personally, I would choose BSAC. You have that option available to you, which is nice. BSAC isn’t offered everywhere and in my opinion, their training is a little superior to PADI. That…is coming from a PADI diver.Me.
I had the privilege of doing my rescue cert with a BSAC guest instructor along with the regular PADI instructor. He taught us things that weren’t on the PADI course but ought to be.
That all said, whichever dive agency you choose of the two, that certification card will be recognized world wide. Your next step is choosing the shop to train with. The only way you’re going to figure that one out is to visit the local shops, talk with the staff, take notes on what’s included on course (read the fine print, a "good deal" may not include gear rental etc) and make your decision on who you feel most comfortable training with. It’s not good to take a course that you don’t see eye to eye with your Instructor. The more comfortable you are with the staff, the easier your course will be and the more enjoyable as well.
For the actual course, you’ll need to budget some time and money. Courses will take a week at least. Academics are usually run in the evenings and actual open water dives on the weekends. The courses cost on average $250- $300. That price will include your training materials ( manuals and dive tables or electronic planner), the actual classes both in water and out and in almost all instances, the use of rental gear (read the fine print).
You will need to own some gear before you start the course. You’ll need at the very least mask, snorkel and fins. This is considered personal gear. It needs to fit you, not someone else which is why you’ll rarely if ever see it offered at rental. The rest of the gear will be provided by the shop, including your wet suit for the duration of your course. Your personal gear will set you back about $200-$300 bucks for quality stuff. No point on skimping here. Get the best you can afford and it will last you a lifetime. Buy cheap, ill fitting stuff and you’ll be disappointed with it after certification and buy replacement gear. Why spend the money twice?

To get you started in finding a dive shop near you, here are links to both PADI and BSAC’s dive shop locations.
For BSAC: http://www.bsac.com/findit.asp?section=1420
For PADI: http://www.padi.com/scuba/locate-a-padi-dive-shop/default.aspx

One thing I might add here. I’m not sure if BSAC offers it, but PADI does. PADI has what’s called "Discover Scuba". It’s a mini course that gives you a little basic instruction and then an hour in the pool doing scuba. It’s either free or just the cost of public pool admission, depending on the dive shop. You won’t be a certified diver afterward but you’ll be able to figure out if Scuba is for you at an unbeatable price. Who knows..you may not like the idea of breathing through your mouth underwater. Some people don’t. Better to find out cheaply than to pay for a full course and then find out.

Edit: As for the other poster’s answer regarding "needing a lot of strength". No, you don’t. If you are of average fitness you’re actually probably fitter than many divers are in the first place. Quite a few are overweight, probably at least 60% are in my club. Diving is actually a lazy sport. You don’t want to expend energy. Doing that expends air which means less time on the bottom besides tiring you out amongst other things. You use every trick in the book NOT to have to use your muscles and if you do use them, you use them as efficiently as possible. You’re weightless in the water and when you’re on the deck with gear, it’s no different than a backpack filled with camping gear.