Call in, telephone or email us and we'll be happy to tailor a PADI Open Water Diver course to suit your needs.
I want to become a diver
Fantastic news!! You are about to train to become a PADI Open Water Diver and take the first steps towards what is, for us, a life-long passion. You will be able to see the things that others can only see on TV and film.
The PADI Open Water Diver qualification is by far the most popular and most widely recognised across the globe.
You will train with well qualified PADI instructors and Divemasters. They will help you with your knowledge development, pool training and in open water. This is a fabulous course.
All of your equipment will be provided. You will be using new gear of a high quality; equipment we are proud to use ourselves and sell in our shop.
When you have finished you will be qualified to dive with a buddy, independent of an instructor, to a depth of 18 metres.
You will be qualified to explore the 70% of the world that others can only dream about.
FAQ
There is some knowledge that a safe, well trained diver needs to understand.
PADI have developed a very flexible way of doing this learning. You can choose to do it online, from a computer, tablet or ‘phone. You can also use a book and video and work with your instructor to make sure you learn successfully. Choose whichever way works best for you.
You need to complete five dives in a swimming pool. On the first dive we stay shallow and learn a few easy scuba skills. Each dive develops your skills further. Some folk go quickly through these skills, others need a bit more time; that is fine – we go at your speed. Sometimes people want to learn over several evenings, others want to do it over a couple of days, usually at a weekend.
We do most of our open water training at Vobster Quay. Vobster is an amazing freshwater diving centre in the Mendip Hills. It has heated changing rooms, showers, shop, food, covered areas, and underwater there are many attractions and fish life to see and explore. We love diving there.
Sometimes we will go to the sea, the beach at Beer is close by and ideal for a lovely, shallow sea dive. Plan your course with us and we could do one day in each location.
We are confident you will have fun and get a great sense of achievement as you show just how good a diver you have become. You will do four dives, five if you have added on an extra course like the drysuit speciality. We usually take two days to complete these. This can be done in one weekend or you could choose to spread them out.
You will demonstrate some of the skills you learnt in the pool and learn a few more – how to use an underwater compass for instance.
In the last dive you will plan the dive and carry out a safe buddy dive so we can certify you as a qualified PADI Open Water Diver…. then it’s smiles and photos all round.
You can use either. If you want to use a drysuit we will show you how to use one in the pool then you can do your open water dives in it. If you want to dive in the UK, and we think our diving is world class, you can bolt on a drysuit course to your PADI Open Water Diver and get an additional Dry Suit Diver certification. This will allow you to hire a drysuit from any dive centre worldwide. Call us to discuss your options.
By the way, we take part in the Vobster annual world record attempt for the most Scuba Santas in the water at once. It takes place in December – trust us, you will need a drysuit! Join us next year.
Yes. We recognise that some divers just want to be able to dive on their holiday. There are two ways forward. Firstly you could fit the timing of your course to match one of our trips abroad and finish the course off at the start of the holiday then spend the rest of the trip diving with new friends.
The other way is to do a referral. You do your Knowledge Reviews and pool dives with us, here in the UK, then we give you referral paperwork you can pass on to a dive centre in your holiday destination and they can finish the course off with you. This means you don’t have to spend valuable holiday time doing theory and pool work. As always, just call us and we can discuss your options further.