Scuba
Diving Certification
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Scuba diving, Scuba diving certification, diver,
diver certification, diving, diving decompression
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How To Get Certified In
Scuba Diving
The
first two steps in getting certified in scuba diving
is to make sure that you are a reasonably proficient
swimmer and you get medical clearance from your
doctor to take up the sport. As for the swimming,
you don’t have to master every type of stroke. Scuba
certification only requires that you are able to
swim about 200 yards using any stroke you want and
to be able to float or tread on water for about 10 minutes. If you are in
good general health and are comfortable in the water, then
you should be able to scuba dive without any problems.
There
are about 1,900 professional scuba dive centers
in North America alone and your local ones should
definitely be checked out. Most will run basic
certification programs on a regular basis.
These centers or shops
should be listed in the yellow pages and you can
also check with websites of some of the major
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scuba
diving certification agencies such as PADI or NAUI
as they will also have listings. Sometimes scuba
diving courses are offered at universities too.
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Make sure that the course you are interested in
taking as well as its instructor are certified with
one of the major scuba diving training agencies.
This will ensure that you get proper, safe training
for both the technical background knowledge and
practical skills required for certification as a
scuba diver. You also want to end up with an
internationally recognized certification card if you
want to go scuba diving at various locations around
the world.
Some vacation resorts offer ‘resort’ courses lasting
a day or two which offer beginners some very basic
training in order to try out scuba diving. These are
not certification programs. Full certification
programs involve classroom work, exams, practical
skills sessions at a pool and usually about four
open water dives in the sea (lake or ocean). The
duration of the classroom work and pool sessions
vary from a very intensive weekend (with advance
reading) to once a week over several weeks. The open
water dives will usually take two more days. Dive
centers located in the tropics also offer basic
certification programs that last several days to a
week. Although the intensive weekend programs are
quite feasible, many feel that basic scuba diving
courses spread out over a few weeks will help
beginners learn the skills better. Scuba diving does
involve new skills and to learn them all during one
full weekend may be too much for some people.
As for which scuba diving
certification training agency is the best, there isn’t any
one recognized organization that is better than another.
PADI is the most popular in the world but |
not necessarily
better than NAUI or SSI. NAUI course are often more
technical in the classroom than those offered by PADI but
both will adequately train you to be a scuba diver. The more
important factor would be the individual instructor and your
own effort during training/studying. In fact, many scuba
diving instructors have certifications from several training
agencies.
For people living in the more northern regions, there are a
few possible routes to take in order to obtain
certification. One can travel down south to the tropics and
do the entire basic certification course down there in warm
weather. However, this will take up a good portion of a
vacation since reading, classroom, pool sessions and open
water dives all must be done during that time period. A
second option is to take the entire course including the
open water dives back in home territory. This usually offers
beginners the most time since courses can be spread out over
a few weeks. However, the water up north is not as warm as
in the tropics and the scuba diving could be seasonal.
A
third option is to take all the classroom and pool sessions
back home and then go down south to do the open water dives
in warm waters. Many people have taken this route. Your
instructor back home will give you a referral letter to
bring down to an instructor located down south who will
oversee your open water dives. This is a good combination of
taking ample time back home to practice the skills in the
pool plus getting the classroom work out of the way followed
by having nice warm water to dive in for the open water
dives. One thing to be aware of if considering this option
is to make sure that your travel to the tropics for your
open water dives is not too delayed after finishing up with
your pool sessions at home. If too much time has elapsed,
one could easily forget the skills learned in the pool by
the time a vacation comes along.
The underwater world has so much to offer and only a small
percentage of the world’s population will ever have the
privilege to see it in person rather than on television.
Become one of these individuals who will have the honor of
exploring the oceans by getting certified in scuba diving.
Author Clint Leung is a NAUI certified Master and Rescue Scuba
Diver. He is also owner of Free Spirit Activewear (http://www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com),
an online retailer and designer specializing in premium
quality activewear with specialty sports themes including
scuba diving, skiing, snowboarding and martial arts. Free
Spirit Activewear has numerous information resource articles
on selected specialty sports as well as free eCards.
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