So you want to be a scuba diver…
You’ve come to the right place! We know it can be intimidating to start your dive journey, so we have put together this ultimate guide for learning to scuba dive.
Let the adventure begin!
Where to start?
If you can’t make it on one of our scuba training retreats, your next best bet is to go local. Find a scuba diving shop in your area and see what they can do!
Scuba Certifying Agencies
There are many different agencies that license scuba divers. Think of it like a trade school, you can go to different schools for training, but your skills can be applied anywhere.
It’s the same with diving, whether you get certified as PADI, SSI, NAUI, wherever, your certificate is valid to let you dive anywhere in the world!
Here are the most popular agencies:
PADI – Professional Association of Diving Instructors. Most popular in the Americas, and credited with making scuba diving accessible as a recreational sport. At MHT, we are PADI instructors.
SSI – Scuba Schools International. More popular in Europe and Asia. Credited with taking a more scientific approach to diving.
The company you choose to get certified with does not matter, until you want to become a professional. You can get your Open Water with SSI, then continue with PADI courses, and vice versa. The certifications from all agencies are valid and accepted laterally.
How the Course Works
The entry-level course across agencies is called Open Water Diver. This is the basic certificate that will let you dive!
With the Open Water Diver certificate, you are limited to a depth of 18m/60feet in the conditions that you were trained in. Regardless of where you get certified, the course will be broken down into 3 parts: Theory, Confined Water (Pool), and Open Water Dives.
📖 Theory
Before you even get in the water, you will need to complete some homework. This can be done with a book or online, but we generally recommend going wtih the online option.
PADI has an eLearning platform which is accessible through their app. This makes it so easy to refer to whenever you like as you will have access forever!
If you choose the textbook route, you will need more time with the instructor to complete your exams.
🏖️Confined Water (Pool) Training
The next step is called confined water training. It is commonly referred to as pool training, but this is misleading as it can also be done in what’s called “confined open water”. This means an area in open water that provides “pool-like” conditions.
Any body of water that offers calm, shallow conditions is great for your confined water training dives.
This is where you learn all of the skills you need to dive! There are 20 different skills that your instructor will go through with you.
In confined water, for every skill you do your instructor should:
You can get a sneak peek at the open water dive skills here!
🌊 Open Water Dives
Once you’ve nailed all the skills in confined water, you will head out to open water with your instructor for real!
You will do a total of 4 “real” dives in the course. On each dive you will practice a couple of skills that you learned in the confined water, with only a prompt from your instructor.
The important thing to remember in open water is that you instructor cannot demonstrate the skills for you again. You need to be able to do them independently. That’s why getting comfortable in the confined water is important!
What Do I Need?
Your dive shop should provide you with everything you need to do your course! Typically rental gear is included in your course price.
At MHT, we do not recommend buying too much of your own gear before you learn to dive. Here’s why:
Non-diving things to bring:
Course Requirements
To start the open water course, you need:
Types of Diving
Did you know that Scuba is actually an acroym? It stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Aparatus.
This means that any diving where you carry an air source is considered SCUBA diving, but there are a lot of different types of diving!
Types of SCUBA Diving
Recreational: That’s us! We are recreational divers. We go scuba diving with a single tank of regular air or nitrox, maximum depth is 40m/130ft, and we don’t dive in caves or other specialty dive sites.
Technical: Commonly referred to as Tec diving. Tec divers go through special training to go to deeper depths, use different gas blends, dive in caves, and other kinds of crazy stuff!
CCR (Closed Circuit Rebreather): CCR is a special type of dive system. Basically, instead of exhaling bubbles into the water, you breathe back into your SCUBA system. The CCR system can take the oxygen from your exhales and recycle it into your air mix. This allows you dive waaaaay longer, and you make less noise underwater! Cool right?
Other Types of Diving
Free Diving: Also called “apnea” or “breath-hold” diving, free-diving is just that! You learn to dive without air, just hold your breath! Its a beautiful sport based in meditation and mind-body control.
Commercial Diving: this is the big leagues! Commercial divers are the people that do things like cleaning boats, underwater welding, pipelines, etc. Its extremely technical and dangerous work!
Commercial divers don’t typically carry their air, but have an air source from the surface connected to them below the water through a hose.
Ready to Learn to Scuba Dive?
Are you ready to try diving? We’d love to teach you! The Scuba MAR Maids host scuba retreats every year where we teach women to dive. Learn more about those on our dive school page:
