Looking for new horizons this year, we thought it might be fun to learn to dive! (at least with diving you KNOW your getting wet when you go out……)

So, any recommendations where to start, guess local club/shop and PADI OW course? We are in Northants, so just about as far from the sea as its possible to be

ps: any valid risk comparisons with MTB? i suspect biking is the more dangerous due to a almost total lack of controls (i’m talking about the more serious mtb here, not riding a tow path

I did PADI as I was abroad. Had I learned in the UK, I’d have gone BSAC. I think the training is a bit better and less geared around extracting as much £££ from you as possible.

I have zero interest in UK diving so I just do a refresher before holidays now.

I did a PADI open water course in Townsville given by a company that had an excellent reputation 20 years ago and after I qualified did a few dives in Cairns with a couple who had BSAC training. They were not that impressed with the thoroughness of the detailed training I had had, particularly regarding working out decompression intervals IIRC. My qualification has lapsed now.
A long winded way of saying if I were to train again, it would probably be BSAC but PADI may be more thorough now?

Padi qualifications are recognised the whole world over, just get a good tutor. You can do a referral, which is whrwr you do the theory and pool bits in the UK and then the open water dives on holiday, this means you’re not stuck in a classroom in the Maldives 🙂

There are risks to everything, scuba is safe as long as you don’t try to take on deep complex dives with strong currents before you are comfortable with the basics. Buoyancy control is the most important thing really for safety.

I did Padi in Turkey many years ago, wasn’t particularly safe, I was the only leaner in the group, so just got taken out on the group dives, did caves, underwater tunnels, sub 40m dives, all in my first week. Caves freaked me out / no way to surface and only on day 2 of my course. Got taken up early on most days as I’d burnt through my tank in no time!

Mind you, closest I’ve come to dying was learning to skydive in Spain – no safety culture whatsoever, had a very near miss with a graveyard at 40mph landing once (had been dropped through clouds in a wind which far exceeded my canopy speed).

It’s a brilliant thing to do. I did BSAC but it doesn”t matter wether PADI or BSAC. It’s the club that matters. Check out your local clubs and see which suits you best. It’s very social. Some can be clicky, but some are really social. Scuba is safe as long as nothing goes wrong so quality of training is utmost – your life and those of others could depend on it. But in about 4 years of diving I or anyone in my club never had any mishaps. I miss it but when kids came along I couldn’t continue doing everything I was involved with.

Bsac if you want to take longer over the training but learn with the people you’ll be diving with (assuming you’re wanting to dive in the UK which on its day is as good as anywhere in the eorld), paid if you just want a badge to let you get wet. Fwiw I started with Bsac and never had a problem with qualifications being recognised, in fact they were more often treated with respect than anything else.

Risk depends on the sort of diving you do – bubbling on a shallow reef or solo deep wreck penetration on a rebreather. For most diving you’re more at risk on the drive home than while you’re under water.

As above – BSAC is quite often useless abroad unless you happen to dive with a school owned by a Brit.
If it was me – I’d look at a nice cheap all inclusive to Tenerife and then go with one of the schools there. Plenty in Ibiza and the other islands too.
Tenerife Dive School are the best there – owned by a brit called Paul. Massively experienced, BSAC and PADI instructor for 30+ yrs.
A tip – IF you progress beyond OW – don’t ever take your cards with you (or show them at least) otherwise many schools will get you herding their Try Dives in exchange for a freebie. Not worth it as you end up watching them and not the scenery.
I’ve been through to AI with PADI and done 70+mts on volcanic surveys, try dives, submarine searches (theres half the german navy out there 😉 ), sat on hulls, massive bronze props and so much more.
Stoney Cove is pretty much the default place to learn in the UK and in fairness they have worked hard to make it good – aircraft, trucks, etc all dropped in to explore.
You just need to decide if you want to take it forward and where you may dive in the future.
Bear in mind other than Spain – very few schools are Brit run so the yanks will make you do dances if you show a BSAC card. Thats personal experience – not hearsay BTW. Only time I haven’t is when its been ex-mil owned as they are well aware of other systems obviously.
jimw’s point about the tables above is honestly unfounded – they are worked out differently and I’ve seen that comment many times. The PADI tables are exactly the same as the US Navy use (its where the PADI scheme came from). There are slight differences once you start looking at Trimix,Nitrogen, etc but unless you want massive bottom time you’ll be more than good enough at OW level.

I must admit I did wonder at the time if the comments from the BSAC couple was an element of ‘our training is better than yours’ but since I was very much less experienced than them I took it at face value. Your comments are very reassuring hammyuk

I was lucky enough to Dive the Yongala wreck with the company I learned with and they did seem very careful with newbies like me.

Find a good instructor – it does not matter if its PADI or BSAC. Its all diving in the end.

I would recommend doing the theory and pool stuff in the UK, then finish off the training somewhere nice and warm.

Second the open water training somewhere warm – UK waters even in summer are not exactly “tropical”.
Oddest thing for me was actually sweating inside a 3mm shorty – water temp reading was showing 47 degrees mind and we had over 70 degrees on thermometers (on poles as there was no way you could get any closer).
Got bloody cold on deco though coming back up through 18 degree water which is usually lovely!
Bunch of Volcanologists from Sheffield University chartered us for 10 days. It was an eye opener as to what knowledge is either lost or just forgotten about. We were questioning their transits and gps loc’s until we got down there.
Mind – there’s lots and lots of stuff that is “just a snag hazard” to the local fishermen but turns out to be massive sections of german metal. Shame all the really big stuff is sitting at about 2000 mts down though.

If you plan to be more than a holiday diver, it’s going to get even more expensive than the ‘expensive’ it already will be. Buying your own kit isn’t cheap, and having the right kit for year-round UK diving is a bit more than warm water only.
Saying that, it’s well worth it. If you can learn in crappy conditions with low visibility and a drysuit on, you’re a ninja in easier conditions!
I’ve trained with BSAC, PADI and NAUI and they all have pluses and minuses. I liked the BSAC club scene, but the training you receive is more reliant upon the instructor(s) than anything else. See who’s in your area, go and meet them, see how they suit you.

Did my OW in Menorca at S’Algar they were very good 8/10 would learn again.

When I dived I had a box full of cards from padi, bsac, gue and iantd. As above a good instructor is more important than the company but padi is internationally recognised. You can turn up in a resort, flash your card (or check online) and go diving. I always used my basic padi to show certification but found that when we got chatting and I mentioned bsac the guide was much happier as he knew I could actually dive.

With that out the way… There’s 2 ways to learn. 1 – Join a local club and do theory in the evening, pool training once a week and the occasional trip to the sea or a local quarry. 2 – go somewhere sunny and do a course in one week. Option 1 is pretty social including beers and weekend trips, option 2 is much quicker and just about getting the card and going diving.

FWIW learnt to dive 18 years ago in the military, BSAC is the way to go. PADI ( Pay And Dive In ) is ok but just a commercial model, every step of training cost more.
BSAC has more thorough training and is centred around the club, pay your club fees and BSAC membership then get further train free.

Dived around the world and never had a problem with BSAC not being recognised, in fact as has been said further up more respect is given usually.

Some of the best diving can be found around the British coast, NW Scotland, IoM, and Ireland have some amazing sea life and soft corals. St Abbs is good for laying on your back next to the rock face and watching the Guillemots dive bombing for fish, and if you like the idea of wrecks then Scapa Flow in Orkney is a must.

Something to think about is open circuit SCUBA or closed circuit rebreathers, If I was starting out again I would probably go the rebreather route as its like learning to dive all over again and the kit is expensive, but rebreathers allow you to get a lot closer to the sea life.

I did PADI as I was abroad. Had I learned in the UK, I’d have gone BSAC. I think the training is a bit better and less geared around extracting as much £££ from you as possible.

I have zero interest in UK diving so I just do a refresher before holidays now.

+1

Guy I work with is as PADI qualified an instructor as you can be, he was involved in an incident 18 months ago and PADI just walked away.

If you are in Northampton then go and see Helen at http://www.northamptonscubaschool.co.uk. They taught my 10 year old to dive last year, and I was very happy how he was taught.

You will see lot’s of BSAC people say PADi is rubbish, and you will see it the other way round. The real truth is either program can teach you to dive properly, it is more about the person/school teaching you. I have dived for 20+ years al around the world and have seen good and bad divers trained by both organisations.

Diving is like Mountain Biking, the more you do it the better you get, and regular practice helps. The school i referenced above runs club nights in Northampton monthly where you can get in the water and keep your hand in. If you learn with them, who knows I may even see you there. I am also based in Northamptonshire so if you have any more questions feel free to drop me an email, address is in my profile.

I used to dive a lot “back in the day”.

I was a member of a BSAC club and dived a lot in the UK. PADI was seen an inferior, purely commercial arrangement. However, as I understand it, BSAC is a lot more commercial now as well.

The clubs can be very clicky and diving seems to attract some right BE’s.

If I was you, I would learn in the UK before heading off to warmer, clearer waters. A bit like learning to ski on a dry slope to make the most of your time on a skiing holiday.

As has been said above, don’t under estimate the quality of the UK diving, Farne Islands, St Abbs, Eyemouth all fantastic locations in the NE, they can rival anywhere in the World. Scapa is considered one of the best wreck diving locations in the World.

Regards to risk and danger, I don’t think it’s particularly dangerous but if things go wrong, the consequences can be a lot more severe than a face plant at a trail centre.

I initially qualified with BSAC, but the experience you get out of that will depend very much on how good the club is. The first club I was in had one or two decent instructors who were keen to do what they could to get new divers qualified, the rest just wanted the title of instructor and couldn’t be bothered wasting their diving time to teach. The second club I was in however was spot on, with a BSAC National Instructor and plenty of other keen instructors. Couple of years back I did PADI Advanced Open Water with Durham City Scuba, and although I had my reservations (read: prejudices) about PADI if you go to a reputable centre it’s fine. AOW is geared towards trying to get you to spend more money, as each of the sessions is really a taster for a full course, but you don’t need to go on and do them.

Dived with a few PADI centres and never had a bad experience.

all interesting thanks chaps! most of the dive schools offer trail dives, and i guess i can use these to assess there teaching methodolgy etc

tbh, i’m not too worried about the actual course material or layout, as i suspect, like mountain biking, you actually learn you skills as you progress beyond the first steps! (the trick of course is to learn enough to be safe and stay conservative etc)

paul_m, thanks for the recommendation, i’ll look them up, and mail you with questions! 😉

ta!

BTW, i’m not that worried in absolute value for money, as i’d be giving up my rallying to do this. (And last time i made a mistake doing that, it cost me £22k in about 4 seconds………..) 😉

Underwater fight scene is on at the moment in Tunderball (ITV), if that helps any?

thanks eemy, i’ll take notes…… 😉

You will see lot’s of BSAC people say PADi is rubbish, and you will see it the other way round. The real truth is either program can teach you to dive properly, it is more about the person/school teaching you. I have dived for 20+ years al around the world and have seen good and bad divers trained by both organisations.

Totally this. Find a good school/instructor and it will open up a world of possibilities. Get a bad one and it could put you off for life.

Personally I’d go somewhere warm to learn with good visibility. If you’re going to go the PADI route then no point going for just the basic Open Water – you may as well train right through to Advanced OW, perhaps with a deep cert too. That way if you plan to dive anywhere in the world you can do dives as deep as 40m without problem. Most of the better more interesting dives are at depths greater than the 18m that you’re certified for with the basic OW cert. With just the basic OW you will be a bit limited.

Mrs Gti is a hugely experienced BSAC trained diver with around 550 dives in her logbook, the majority in dark, cold Scottish waters including wall and drift dives and some of the German wrecks in Scapa Flow. She says PADI is more widely recognised and is aimed at people who want a quick qualification whereas BSAC is more in-depth (sorry!) and thorough and may take longer.

As others have said it’s the instructor not the organisation behind them that’s important so meet them and ask the right questions.
PADI really do push the progression model though. “You want to be a better diver, then do the instructor training” rather than becoming a better diver by actually going diving seems to be the default position.
I’ve dived with several PADI instructors who had never dived outside of a flooded quarry before and yet had hundreds of logged ‘dives’.

Personally I’d go somewhere warm to learn with good visibility.

I disagree if you want to dive in the UK as well.

If you learn in warm, clear water then if you start diving in the UK, the extra kit, such as dry suits which in turn requires more weight to offset the buoyancy, can make things very difficult. I saw that on a number of occasions, with people joining the club who only had dived the Red Sea and such, they often gave up on UK diving before they had got used to the kit and conditions and before they got to do the more interesting stuff.

The other major difference between club diving and holiday diving, is the level of self reliance that is required when diving with a club, some resorts particularly if targeted at US customers, do nearly everything for you, to pint of almost putting the cylinder on your back.

IMO it’s good to have a solid understanding of your life support equipment and be able to perform simple repairs and maintenance. You will far more in depth skills from diving in the UK with a good club, including some basic seamanship, navigation and other marine knowledge.

Some perspective on warm/cold diving.

Mrs TT is a very experienced diver, including a year diving in Polynesia as well as places like Hawaii, the Red Sea and Cambridgeshire (Gildy in January!). She rates her single best diving experience as with the seals off the Farne Islands and reckons all the cold water nonsense and dry suit faff was worth it for that.

She says PADI is more widely recognised and is aimed at people who want a quick qualification whereas BSAC is more in-depth (sorry!) and thorough and may take longer.

The BSAC route only tends to take longer as you generally do it as part of a club, and might go out once per week or less to do the dives. If you go on a PADI course on holiday for example, you’ll do the same amount of dives over a shorter period, and from my experience, cover more or less the same stuff. PADI is more widely recognised though, had issues using my BSAC quals in Bali.

I worked on a dive boat for three years and I never dived once. However my penny’s worth is PADI pay and die instantly. If you are going to dive in the UK or hereabouts BSAC is much better and do drysuits so you don’t freeze to death. Good club set up who organise trips and training mostly from a passion not a moneyearner.
Good friend went through all the PADI courses to be an instructor then jacked it off as said the level of inexperience at this level was a worry to him as in pay your money and get your certificates. He now earns a good living in Norway.
Contact your local BSAC club and go meet them. If you near Manchester Trafford Sub Aqua club is good.

The BSAC route only tends to take longer as you generally do it as part of a club

That’s very true but if you want a quick BSAC course there are plenty available.

Remember it’s not just BSAC and PADI, there is quite a large number of SAA clubs in the UK.

PADI is more widely recognised though, had issues using my BSAC quals in Bali.

The easiest way around that is to get a CMAS equivlenty card off BSAC or SAA.

I would also agree that they basically teach the same skills but the standard of the instructors varies, which is nothing to do with which organisation they work with.

Aye that’s exactly what I’ve found. The PADI instructors I’ve used so far have been on a par with the best BSAC ones I’ve had experience with, but I’ve avoided anywhere that is just trying to put a load of holidaymakers through courses quick.

PADI also do drysuits, one of the optional units on AOW is Drysuit Speciality. The local PADI outfit although a business, is also run similar to a club running regular trips. I’ve had many bad experiences of diving with a BSAC branch, and an uncle of mine who was an instructor has had bad experiences with at least 2 Manchester area clubs. So do your research and find somewhere reputable, whether it be BSAC, PADI or another organization.

DIVE Northampton were great when we learnt to dive.

I’ve not dived for a few years, but my tuppence worth as a BSAC trained but also PADI AOW qualified diver.(learned in Gibraltar, dived UK, Maldives, Red Sea, Caribbean.)

PADI is designed as a commercial operation, with a Leader planning the dives, and the rest following. BSAC teaches you to dive independently as part of a buddy pair, responsible for your own depths, air and decompression stops.

BSAC additionally teaches rescue skills at an early stage.

If I wanted to dive occasionally on holiday, and be shown around by a guide, I’d be happy with PADI.

If I wanted to take a bit more responsibility for my dives (planning, wrecks, navigation) then do a BSAC course.

Second the comment about it matters how good the club is. i originally planned going with BSAC, but when i contacted the local club, they came across as complete a*seholes. Them I read one of their trainees drowned in 6ft of water. Trained with PADI instead and the instructors were great, as was their open water dive site. Then I met up with another BSAC club, had a couple of goes with them and they were a great crew. Dived and socialised with them for a couple of years but then moved and they became less practical.
If you do PADI OW and then jopin BSAC, they’ll check you out in a pool and, assumingb you’re not a complete liability, you’ll get their basic qualification (Ocean Diver) right away. Moving on though, the next qualification involves a lot more theory and rescue procedures than PADI AOW (IIRC, BSAC=SD=PADI AOW+Rescue Diver)
A PADI set up will probably be able to supply you with equipment, eg dry suit. BSAC will depend on what members have donated. Being 6’+, BSAC could not supply me with a drysuit.
PADI charge per dive and per course. BSAC charge a membership fee and training is part of that fee. Diving is also covered but you’d pay for moving the boat (if the club has one), air and stuff. Still cheaper than PADI if you dive regularly.
it’s possible (but can be expensive) to do the PADI theory in the UK and open water practicals someplace warmer. Fine in theory, but as mentioned above, dive in the UK and you can dive anywhere.
BSAC seem to recognised fairly widely, but PADI are still most widely recognised.
Personally, I’d do PADI OW here then consider moving to BSAC for regular dives and more advanced training.

Im a BSAC Sports diver, half way to Dive Leader having done one short of 100 dives. No experience of PADI but my understanding its more expensive overall with a different approach to training. However I would echo the comments above, its the trainer that makes the difference regardless of the route you go down. Really makes the difference in your confidence IMO.

Most my dives in early days have been UK quarries and Farnes/St Abbs. However after doing a week liveaboard in the Red Sea and diving wrecks and coral reefs, diving in gloomy and green UK waters doesn’t appeal as much anymore.

Diving in the UK can be amazing or grim, but it is generally much harder work than bobbing around in the Red sea. The weather and viz can make a big difference and a dive to 30m in Sharm is very different to the Clyde, so if you plan on UK diving it is better to learn the hard way and have real understanding of what diving here involves.

Diving on holiday go PADI, diving over here go BSAC.

I disagree if you want to dive in the UK as well.

If you learn in warm, clear water then if you start diving in the UK, the extra kit, such as dry suits which in turn requires more weight to offset the buoyancy, can make things very difficult.

Speaking as a novice (PADI OW) I’d say yes and no. I learnt in Thailand, the next time I dived was Milford Sound in NZ, water temp was 12 degrees instead of the 30 degrees I’d learnt in. Initially, I found buoyancy control very difficult – I went from 3mm shorty to thick suit, hood, gloves, jacket, boots etc, plus a huge amount of weight on my belt. But having said that I had a very good instructor, and got the hang of it after a couple of dives.

I learned to dive (the PADI way) about 15 years ago when I was travelling in the South Pacific & Australia.

I thought about becoming an Instructor, but in the end doing my DiveMaster was more than enough.

FWIW, I’d say the PADI Rescue Diver is about the sweet spot of level to aim for – roughly equivalent to BSAC SD?

Nowadays, my DM has lapsed (you have to “Put Another Dollar In” every year to keep it) but the Rescue lasts forever so I just dive on that the few times a year I go.

I would also echo the above, if you’re going to dive in the UK, learn in the UK.