I am going to mauritius next year on my honeymoon and my fiancee really wants to do some scuba diving while we are there, she wants us to go on a £300 per person course to learn before we go but is this really needed or can we just do some when we get there. I don't even think I will be able to do it as I gag everytime I put a snorkle in my mouth! As we are saving for the wedding £600 seems a lot of money at the moment. Cheers for any advice.
Best place to ask - the bubblers (or non bubblers) equivalent of STW : [url= http://www.yorkshire-divers.com ]Yorkshire Divers[/url]
My 2p - a short course beforehand will mean you can actually enjoy your time underwater on hols & get to see all the pretties, rather than spending most of the time staring at your instructor.
depends if you jsut want to give it a go? you should be able to do a resort dive in Mauritius (5-10m max depth) with no experience required... if you want to do proper diving (20-25m+) then you'll need to do some sort of open-water course...
i presume the padi open water (down to 18m with a guide) is the course you are talking about
you have three options:
1. do all the theory and pool sessions at home in the uk with a dive centre and then do the dives when you get out there
= dont have to sit in a classroom on holiday and get out diving in the sea straight away, albeit four of those dives will be training dives where you are doing skills.
2. do the whole course in the uk, which will involve having to learn how to use a drysuit and getting out in murky uk water
= fun diving straight away when you get there
3. do the whole course out there
= classroom while you are on holiday, being stuck at the swimming pool on holiday, nice and warm tho.
the other option is just to do some discover scuba diving while you are out there. i.e. an instructor holds your hand and drags you around somewhere but you dont want to do that you want to go for it and get your open water (and then after that get your advanced open water and buy some shiny kit and dive and dive and dive)
most imoprtant thing is to do some online research and pick a really good dive centre out there. some can be great, some can be dodgy, you dont want to be pissing around with poor instruction and dodgy equipment when your life depends on it
My advice is; do the course while your there (check its a similar price first), That way you learn in a nice environment rather than a sh1tty local pool. The first thing you will do is a discovery dive, then you will have to make your mind up wether to do the open water diver course. This allows you to dive to 20 odd meters. It's bloody good fun, but I never dive in the UK and have never dived in a pool (and never will).
100% do the whole course there...PADI is worldwide and you will get awesome conditions to learn in and the course may possibly cheaper.
Trust me... learning to dive in nice weather and good sea conditions makes the whole experience much more enjoyable!
I'd disagree with the above and suggest doing it before you go. The PADI course is a pretty intensive 3 days and will involve a full day in/around the pool plus most likely some early-evening classroom sessions and homework! That's a big chunk of your honeymoon, better to spend it doing fun dives and keep your other time free.
Make sure you don't use the dive school in your hotel as you'll likely find cheaper places nearby.
I did my Open Water in the Dominican in June, my hotel quoted USD $500 but I ended up paying $300 as I shopped around. All good fun, but as my wife doesn't dive it meant a couple of mornings of theory away from her
As the others say, do it in the resort. I did my Padi Open Water in the Maldives, grubby UK swimming pool with uptight, take it too seriously Brit or bath water temp seas off tropical islands, golden beaches and fantastic fish, corals, and sharks 😯 ,tutored by a laid back aussie lady, hmm difficult choice.
Cost me around £ 450 quid but well worth it. I started by doing a 2 hour taster which included a proper dive on a coral reef just off the beach (probably won't get that in the UK), decided I liked it, booked on for the next qualification up, scuba something or other, can't remember. Did most of the practical lessons in the sea (way better than a pool) just off the beach in 2m of water. Got that done and decided it was stupid not to go the whole hog and complete the Padi Open Water.
Went diving on holiday in Eygpt 12 months later, did a coupler of hour refresher course and was good to go.
All I need now is an end to the recession, my missus to get a job and to book an exotic holiday and I can dive again 😥 .
When I started diving it was always when on holidays. I d spend the dive having to follow the dive guide around at about 8 meters which to be honest wasn't what I was looking for. I decided to get some training done back home just to make it possible for me to do some 'proper' diving whilst away. I done my PADI open water over here with one of my local clubs, then the next time I went way I done my advanced open water in some nice warm clear waters.
I always said that I was never interested in diving in the murky uk, but I have to be fair I have spent a lot of time diving down west wales and have always had good fun. I have since been diving all over the place and find it really relaxing and interesting. Having done the training I can now decide what I want to do and look at.
My advice would be to do the PADI open water course over here. It involves about 5 sessions in the pool and 2 dives in a reservoir or the sea. BSAC also offer training but it takes a long time to be qualified as they go into far more techincal information than PADI. The PADI open water allows you to goto 18meters as long as you in the company of another experienced diver. If you both decide you enjoy it you can do your advanced open water course over there, its basically 5 dives which are designed to improve your skills this will then allow you to dive to 30m.
Personally I really enjoy it and have managed to dive not only in the UK, but also done a weeks liveabord out in Egypt and it was bloody fantastic!
Hope you enjoy!
If you've never done it before, and given you're on honeymoon - just do a trydive or two at the resort. There will be no shortage of interesting stuff to look at in the 5-10m range that they'll take you to, if you want more there'll be loads of great snorkelling which you can go off and do at your leisure.
I dive and love it, in the UK and abroad, but honeymoons should be about the two of you relaxing, spending time together and enjoying yourselves. Doing a relaxed couple of dives in amongst some other stuff seems a better way than giving up four or five days of your holiday including a load of textbook reading, two of them in the classroom and pool - or doing it here and sinking £600+ into something that you've never done before. It's not uncommon for one partner or the other to have some difficulty, either physical (clearing ears, etc) or psychological (freaking out, esp when doing the safety drills) and if that happens one will be really keen to dive while the other will be sitting it out.
If you both get on fine on the trydives, great! Come home and do it then, as and when you can afford to, then enjoy a nice holiday later in the Red Sea or similar where you can spent a whole week diving and enjoying it. FWIW, I haven't found the costs too different, and that was before the pound got so weak. UK diving courses normally charge an all-in fee, abroad it will be a much lower advertised price but when you add up all the equipment hire, air fills, PADI materials, boat fees, etc it's no cheaper at all. Training in harder conditions means that if you do go to somewhere subtropical (like NZ) you'll be much more confident and prepared than someone who's only trained in warm, completely clear water.
hiya didn
rm not a fan of water and loved it however i cant do everything so stuck with biking give it a go you can do a try dive for about £25 each, gaz