New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Hi All,

I tried my hand at Scuba diving whilst at centre parcs and really enjoyed it. I understand there are holidays you can book which include the tutition necessary to get your open water certification with the added bonus that you get to do part of your training at some decent dive sites, rather than soley in a swimming pool.

Does anyone have any recommedations?

Regards,

NS04

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

it's Scooby Drivers mate

ChefDude

Learn in the Red Sea at Sharm El Sheikh

www.explorers.co.uk is pretty good - been through them a couple of times.
The trainers are really good. they don't let you progress until they think your confident and proficient enough to move on.

30m down is not the place to panic when someone rips off your mask or your reg goes freeflow.

don't buy anything, until you've at least done your PADI open water. then you'll know what you like/don't like before buying your own kit.

ChefDude

specifically, the Trainers in Ocean College. chuh, forgot to say!

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Very good!!

The Zohan

I have a PADI open water divers licence which is the basic one.

I have not made use if it since gaining it which is a shame and i should really as i love diving. I am looking at a job in Dubai at the moment so if i take that then i am likely to have a lot of time for diving in a great enviroment.

I know a few people who have done their PADI O/W diver on thier holidays, it is pretty straight forward for anone with common sense and the ability to add, subtract and read - oh and swim!

I would reccommend you do it!

ChefDude

pics from Bonaire, Caribbean
http://www.z3romass.com/usr/bonaire/

Sharm El Sheikh
http://www.z3romass.com/usr/SW_Sharm...rm_jul2005.htm

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for the info mate!

Paul- Thanks for the encouragement. I really enjoyed the very limited exposure I had to Scuba

I'm a strong -if not particularly graceful or technically proficient- swimmer and having spent the best part of 10 years in post school education should be able to manage the theory work................just

Ns04

Account deleted by request

I am

You don't really need to book the holiday as a package, get a dive guide book so you can see where is good to dive in the world and book a holiday to go there. In my expereince hotels in good dive areas tend to have dive centres.

I liked kenya for diving, Thailand and Goa are both excellent with the bonus that the diving is extremley cheap, a padi certificate in thailand is approx £180. I have heard that some places in the med charge up to £350 Worth bearing in mind.

chop

The Zohan

You do not need to be a great swimmer imho, i think diving is one of those things you know wether you like it as soon as you try it for the first time. I think that once you lower your head under the water and take that first breath (and breath) you know!

I did a couple of recreational dives in the Maldives prior to my PADI course which i did in the uk and loved it.

Given the choice i would do the course in warmrn water and with more to see and do, i did my qualifying dives at Stoney Cove which is a disused gravel pit and it was fine but not the same as clear, fish filled warm seas.

The reading material is quite intense for holiday reading but with good reason.

Goos luck and i am really glad i did my PADI course and will make an effort to put it to use, you never know maybe we can do dive together sometime!

Account deleted by request

scoobynet group dive

chop

ChefDude

we're going in the next month.

we like to go every 6 months. saves on check dive costs

HowiesPreza

I was in Cuba in 2004 - it was amazing I didn't get to go scuba diving because the area i was in the sea was still rought from Hurricane Jean but i did fly to another part of the island to go snorkeling aound some reefs - amazing!!! I'm sure you'll be able to find some scuba based holidays over there - well worth plus the added bonus of Havanna - the most amazing place i've been!

SideShowBob

I did my full course over here, and actually wasnt too bad.

The lakes give very low visability, enough to see your instructor, and very little else, which while you're learning means you can concentrate on the lesson, rather than fish and coral.

Straight after I qualified, booked a holiday to Sharm, and did my first proper dives in nice wamr clear seas, and you really appreciate it.
This way you get to dive properly in a place that warrants it, rather than doing skills down there.

Best diving Ive done to date was Mozambique and South Africa, where we dived with sharks (ragged tooth and hammer head), these enormous beasts were literally swimming by at touching distance, and we just floated quietly amongst them.
It is the most amazing thing, and there's virtually no fear, just real respect, thou when one swims past you about a foot away from your arm, and you never even knew it was coming, you get a serious jump.

Here's a pic one of the chaps we were with took, just to wet your appetite:




One problem with Sharm is it is so busy. You get treated a bit like cattle, rushed on and off boats, in and out the water, while they make their buck off you, but there is some good stuff to see.

Just watch the food in Egypt if you go!! god I was sick, thought I was going to die.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

im a Padi divemaster ,you can do all that here. you do basic skills in the pool but to complete the Padi open water diver course you have to complete the same skills in open water at a depths of 5-6m. diving in this country is fun but its cold and it involves lots of travelling to decent dive sites. if your going abroad sometime this year just take the course abroad as you will be able to dive in your shorts and be warm have good vis and be less stressed

you only need to be a good swimmer if you decide to take the divemaster course or the instructor course and there is a few more levels and skill to be learned before you need to think about those course's

Tiggs

I did the referal course with PADI........booked a hoilday in the Maldives to finish it and passed the theory and basics in a pool in the UK.

as it turned out i passed the theory with 100% and did the pool bit in a few hours but thought it was a bit ****e so cancelled the holiday Gald i didnt do it all on holiday!!!

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

A tip if you're going anywhere hot like Egypt:

Slip, slap, slop!

It's got nothing to do with applying liberal amounts of Sunscreen. It's the noise you make after eating their seafood!!

Ns04

3times

off to Sharm again in 3 weeks, I love it.

Like Paul I did my Open Water qualifying dives at Stoney, not too cold (nothing that a 7mm steamer couldn'tsort out!!).

Went on to do my Advanced and will be looking to do the Peak Bouyancy and Rescue courses next.

Be careful of money grabbing dive centres abroad (especially places like Thailand) as some have a tendancy to pass anyone just to get the bucks. I have been on dives when away with the family and have seen some very poor practices from so called qualified divers.

I am quite lucky as most of my holidays are booked with my dive club so we take a whole boat (sometimes 2) and know each others strengths & weaknesses.

May try some UK diving this year.............................if the water warms to around 20 degrees!!!

speye91

moving out there as i am going to be an instructor ...Thailand is an amazing place to dive and so cheap www.mermaiddiving.com

Iwan

If you go to a WHSmith or Borders grab a copy of Diver magazine, or the PADI magazine Sport Diver, they have loads of adverts in them for places in the UK and overseas where you can learn. Don't buy Dive though, it's the BSAC mag and is mainly aimed at UK/club diving.

I can highly reccomend Australia as a destination though.

SlimJ_2005

Iwan, where did you do your diving?

Did my Padi Open Water in Exmouth, Western Australia on the Navy pier and Muiron Islands, quite close to the Ningaloo Reef. The Navy pier was an awesome first open water dive, there was so much fish life!

Also swam with some Whale Sharks off Exmouth, if you ever get the opportunity, do it!

Went on to do my Advanced from Cairns, we went on a 5 day trip out to the Cod Hole near the top of the Great Barrier Reef, then out to Osprey Reef (top of a volcano) with 1000m drop offs, my god the visibility was awesome, 60m+. Did a few dives there, one was a shark feed which was manic, after this we were able to get quite close to the Grey Whalers, fantastic!

Done a couple of Dives in Bali too, both on a Wreck just off the north west coast, great diving!

I would highly recommend doing your Padi Open water, but it's definately worth doing your advanced soon after, it's easy and will allow you to dive down to 30 odd meters and do night dives

James

Iwan

Well I took the photo of the shark (above) at Osprey Reef oddly enough, and the clown fish I saw at a reef called 'Temple of Doom' a bit further south. I was on a trip with Taka out of Cairns which started way up north on ribbon/osprey reef and then worked back towards Cairns over 5 days. Definately going back!!

Fuzz

Definitely do the classroom stuff and the pool stuff over here first then book the holiday to gain the final certification.
You dont have to do it that way though, I learnt in England at Stoney Cove and god forbid Dosthill quarries!! and then Babbacombe bay and Exmouth, going out to dive on some old ship full of coal as my first wreck dive (other than the Stanegarth in Stoney )
I think that pretty much covered me to Advanced Open water with PADI,
I also did Rescue diver, Medic first aid and O2 Admin in those same areas.
To be honest mate although this country is cold and the vis is poor it is actually the best environment to learn in, it's all a bit TOO "fast track" for my liking for the people that do it abroad.
The start of a new world should be entered into with safety and training at the VERY forefront and UK waters certainly throw some nasty **** at you!
I'm glad I got trained well because getting silted out at 40m looking for the bluebird site in Coniston water wasn't much fun, training saved me that day that's for sure !
Moving on to TDI coures was where it was at for me, the 50m recreational limit, Scotland was a prime site and also stood me in good stead for yet more nasty ****e later on.
Anyway, back to the point,
I've seen a lot of so called "trained" holiday divers that didn't know one end of a BCD to the other.
It's not "nice" training over here but the benefits come when you see how "easy" and "relaxing it is on the barrier reef for example with no cold water numbing the brain or making breathing quite so labour intensive, no masses of redundancy equipment hanging off every D clip, you feel like your in heaven and you can blame the salt water for the tears in your eyes

Although I'm a little against the BSAC talk a good dive approach, I don't think the guy shoulkd be put off of UK / club diving. It's where I learnt the most, mingling with some extremely experienced and capable divers. (rebreather Trimix divers)
If you do want to try a UK club dive environment I can heartily recommend where it all started for me, on the newsgroup uk.rec.scuba http://www.ukrecscuba.org.uk/


Andy

Simon C

I'm another UK trained diver (Chesil cove and Guildenburgh) nothing against it. Infact Scuba Scooby on here is my Diving officer!!!!

Now I first started off as a padi, and now I'm BSAC. For me the club environment is a good 1. There is lots of experiance there for me to call on and the intructors give their time and knowledge for free. Our club has a deal, that if your learning a new skill you pay for their entrance fee to the site and air, and maybe a beer afterwards and your going diving for the day.

And when I say experiance is on tap I mean it, 2/3 of my club are either trimix or advanced Nitrox or both (2 are now rebreather trimix).

For me I'll be staying in the club environment, I know them and I know I'm in safe hands.

Iwan

Don't get me wrong I have nothing against BSAC (I was in a BSAC club for ages myself), just that BSAC isn't the best idea if you're only planning on just doing a short course and then diving on holidays overseas. For that you can't really beat PADI.

SlimJ_2005

Taka, OMG! That's who we went with We had heard that it's normally booked up for a few months so we were really lucky to find there were 2 spaces left going out on the coming Friday! It looks like we both did the same dive trip, hehe.

Was the dive director Ty when you did yours? Can't remember any of the others names off the top of my head at the mo. I do remember some very good food, a lot of early mornings and throwing up for a few hours when we hit the Coral Sea, but it was definately worth the agony!

Like you say, I'll definately go back there in the near future.

James

Fuzz

I think I was with Deep Sea Divers Den on my 11 day livaboard up there and then TUSA dive for a couple of day trips for the closer to shore stuff.
Getting a bit hazy now as it's been a while.
I'll put the TUSA stuff up on video if you want (once I've ripped it off of VHS)

Shows the harbour at Cairns and the two boats. Will bring back some memories I'm sure.

Andy

SlimJ_2005

That'll be cool! We only did it just over a year ago so it's still quite fresh, really want to do some more diving soon though.

Have the dives on DVD, music is a bit pants though!

Did you manage to do the Yongala Wreck dive off of Townsville? We only managed to get one dive there as the currents were very strong on the surface, 15m down it was fine though. Some excellent fish life down there, a few turtles and Manta Rays (although I didn't see it, damn).

James

Iwan

I forgot to post this picture the other day, of a Titan Triggerfish. It was guarding its nest and I didn't realise what sort of triggerfish it was, that is I didn't until it went for me and bit me on the arm.

Was like being pinched (hard) by molegrips, I had a bruise the circumferance of a tennis ball on my arm for a week afterwards! Note to self, wear a wetsuit next time!

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

i think i agree with FUZZ on the fact that diving in this country has us the better divers as we dive in crap cold waters with a huge weight belt so when we go to warmer weathers its a breath of fresh air but after doing all my diving up to advanced diver in the cayman islands i think my most favorites dives were in the cold waters just off the scottish coast in the orkney islands, i have been drinking so i cant remember the name of the most famous island for diving in the world which has sucken ww2 ships and is far superior to the cayman islands due to it being fun and not just clear crystal water . diving to an average of 30/40 m ererytime huge warships !!! having the choice of being brave enuf to swim thru them and just great vis as well plus it was fun living aboard a boat for 1 week