Red Sea Diving - PADI Open Water Diver Course

Red Sea Diving - PADI Open Water Diver Course

The PADI Open Water Diver course teaches you all the basics of scuba diving. You will be taught all about your diving kit, and how to correctly assemble it, along with all of the basic dos and don'ts of scuba diving. On successful completion of the PADI Open Water Diver course, you will be given an open water diver card featuring your dive your own unique number: the key to your exciting new world of scuba diving. With this under your belt you can hire equipment and continue with your red sea diving holiday and needn't sit a single test more if you don't want to. Most divers find themselves hooked by this stage, however.

The PADI Open Water Diver course has the duration of between three and five days. You will learn all of the necessary skills to enable you to plan and dive up to a maximum of 18 meters. It may seem all a bit daunting at first, but it's surprising how quickly you learn, and soon you'll be gearing up like a pro.

The PADI Open Water Diver course consists of two parts: knowledge and practical. You will need a PADI Open Water Diver crew pack, which is available for approximately £75 (and includes the certification fee otherwise payable of roughly £30). Your crew pack contains your PADI manual, which tells you all you need to know about scuba diving and the equipment. You will also receive a diving logbook to record all of your dives, together with a dives table, which you will use when planning your dives.

You might choose to undertake the knowledge section of your PADI course locally or online prior to flying out to your red sea diving holiday. It's perfectly acceptable to do this, but ideally it's better when students carry out the knowledge and practical aspects of the course concurrently. After all, you wouldn't usually take the driving theory test without ever having sat behind a steering wheel.

The PADI Open Water Diver course consists of five confined water dives, followed by four open water dives. This is where the fun really starts. Some of the practical skills you will learn are:

· buoyancy control
· scuba mask clearing and removal
· kit removal and refit
· scuba regulator free flow
· controlled emergency swimming ascents
· diving compass use
· failed BCD inflator
· tired diver tow
· alternate air source use

You must be aged at least 10 years to take the PADI Open Water Diver course. There is no upper age limit. The fitness tests requires you to be able to swim 300 m with flippers and snorkel or 200 m without and tread water to 10 minutes. You will also be asked to complete a medical questionnaire prior to diving, and should ensure that you are covered scuba diving under the terms of your travel insurance as some policies exclude the sport.

The great news is that if you book online for Diving Trips and PADI Courses you can guarantee your place and make some huge savings!

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By Lindsay Coope