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How To Get Certified In Scuba Diving
By Clint Leung, Thu Dec 8th
The first two steps in getting certified in is tomake sure that you are a reasonably proficient swimmer and youget medical clearance from your doctor to take up the sport. Asfor the swimming, you don't have to master every type of stroke.Scuba certification only requires that you are able to swimabout 200 yards using any stroke you want and to be able tofloat or tread on water for about 10 minutes. If you are in goodgeneral health and are comfortable in the water, then you shouldbe able to scuba dive without any problems. There are about 1,900 professional scuba dive centers in NorthAmerica alone and your local ones should definitely be checkedout. Most will run basic certification programs on a regularbasis. These centers or shops should be listed in the yellowpages and you can also check with websites of some of the majorscuba diving certification agencies such as PADI or NAUI as theywill also have listings. Sometimes courses areoffered at universities too. Make sure that the course you are interested in taking as wellas its instructor are certified with one of the major scubadiving training agencies. This will ensure that you get proper,safe training for both the technical background knowledge andpractical skills required for certification as a scuba diver.You also want to end up with an internationally recognizedcertification card if you want to go at variouslocations around the world.
Some vacation resorts offer 'resort' courses lasting a day ortwo which offer beginners some very basic training in order totry out scuba diving. These are not certification programs. Fullcertification programs involve classroom work, exams, practicalskills sessions at a pool and usually about four open waterdives in the sea (lake or ocean). The duration of the classroomwork and pool sessions vary from a very intensive weekend (withadvance reading) to once a week over several weeks. The openwater dives will usually take two more days. Dive centerslocated in the tropics also offer basic certification programsthat last several days to a week. Although the intensive weekendprograms are quite feasible, many feel that basic scuba divingcourses spread out over a few weeks will help beginners learnthe skills better. does involve new skills and tolearn them all during one full weekend may be too much for somepeople. As for which certification training agency is thebest, there isn't any one recognized organization that is betterthan another.
PADI is the most popular in the world but notnecessarily better than NAUI or SSI. NAUI course are often moretechnical in the classroom than those offered by PADI but bothwill adequately train you to be a scuba diver. The moreimportant factor would be the individual instructor and your owneffort during training/studying. In fact, many scuba divinginstructors have certifications from several training agencies. For people living in the more northern regions, there are a fewpossible routes to take in order to obtain certification. Onecan travel down south to the tropics and do the entire basiccertification course down there in warm weather. However, thiswill take up a good portion of a vacation since reading,classroom, pool sessions and open water dives all must be doneduring that time period. A second option is to take the entirecourse including the open water dives back in home territory.This usually offers beginners the most time since courses can bespread out over a few weeks. However, the water up north is notas warm as in the tropics and the could beseasonal. A third option is to take all the classroom and poolsessions back home and then go down south to do the open waterdives in warm waters. Many people have taken this route. Yourinstructor back home will give you a referral letter to bringdown to an instructor located down south who will oversee youropen water dives. This is a good combination of taking ampletime back home to practice the skills in the pool plus gettingthe classroom work out of the way followed by having nice warmwater to dive in for the open water dives. One thing to be awareof if considering this option is to make sure that your travelto the tropics for your open water dives is not too delayedafter finishing up with your pool sessions at home. If too muchtime has elapsed, one could easily forget the skills learned inthe pool by the time a vacation comes along. The underwater world has so much to offer and only a smallpercentage of the world's population will ever have theprivilege to see it in person rather than on television. Becomeone of these individuals who will have the honor of exploringthe oceans by getting certified in scuba diving. About the 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 anddesigner specializing in premium quality activewear withspecialty sports themes including scuba diving, skiing,snowboarding and martial arts. Free Spirit Activewear hasinformation resource articles on selected specialty sports aswell as free eCards.
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