Scuba Diving for Beginners

Congratulations on taking the leap and learning to dive. You may not be quite sure what to expect, so this brief overview of scuba diving for beginners will give you some of the highlights of what you need to know and do when you get started diving.

Overcoming Dive Fright

If you’ve never been diving before, you may have mixed emotions. You’re excited about the prospect of diving. You can’t wait to see the world underwater. You’re anxious to get started. And…you’re worried and even a little frightened. You don’t know what it will be like, and you’re nervous about using the equipment under water and not forgetting something important—like how to breathe.

The best way to overcome that fear is to go forward and take some diving courses. Yes, there are risks in scuba diving for beginners, and even experienced divers. And yes, it could be a little challenging and requires a lot of attention and focus. But that’s also what makes it so enchanting and enjoyable. So just get moving forward, learn what to do and get in the water, and your fear will dissipate.

Getting Started

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the training involved in becoming an Open Water Diver, and you haven’t even yet breathed under water, the answer is to start slow. Take the scuba diving for beginners course or even Discovering Scuba, and learn the basics. Just, literally, get your feet wet. You can learn the equipment, spend some time under water with an instructor, and get a feel for what scuba diving is like and whether you want to continue.

A Discover Scuba course will basically just get you started and let you dive a little, which is the perfect place to start if you’re really unsure. If your Discover Scuba course includes an open water dive, you can get credit for it toward the Scuba Diver or Open Water Diver courses. The Scuba Diver course is more involved and takes you through three of the five knowledge sections and three of the five pool sessions of the Open Water Diver course. After the Scuba Diver course you’ll get a limited certification and can dive with a dive guide or instructor. This class gives you credit toward the full certification, Open Water Diver, which takes longer and may be a little beyond scuba diving for beginners.

Studying for Scuba Diving Courses

You’ll most likely be learning to dive through PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) dive shops and PADI-certified instructors. That means you’ll be taking PADI courses.

The cool thing about that is that you can choose to take the “knowledge” training of many classes online, so you can watch the videos and go through the materials wherever you have a computer and can spend the time to study. You don’t have to watch videos at home.

You may be surprised to learn how much of the instruction in a scuba diving for beginners course is done outside of the water. This insures that you know everything you need to know, and in most cases you’ll have to prove that you’ve learned the information before you’re allowed in the water.

This should make you feel even better about getting in the water, because you won’t be allowed to do so until you’re ready.

Diving

Now you’re ready to dive, and you’re wondering where to go. There are great dive spots all over the world, and if you’re like most divers, just getting in the water will be almost enough, wherever you are. However, some popular dive spots are in Florida in the US, Costa Rica, Greece, Fiji, Cebu in the Phillipines, Egypt, Cozumel in Mexico, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, and Cebu in the Philippines.

Once you’re a certified diver, you will enjoy being in the water and seeing the marine life and plants, and you will love the feeling of swimming through the deeps. Once you have mastered scuba diving for beginners you may also want to investigate other diving classes, such as underwater photography, enriched air, and rescue diving.

If you fall in love with diving, the downside is that you probably don’t live right next to a place to dive, so you may not be able to dive as often as you’d like. The upside is that you have an excuse to go to beautiful places on your vacation. And diving will be a lifelong passion and enjoyment from here on out. You will even meet new friends through diving and get to know other people who share your love and passion for diving.

It all starts with taking that first step and learning to dive. You’re on the threshold of something truly enriching and lovely. Now it’s time to start off with your first diving course and get yourself in the water. Whether that is with a Discover Scuba course, a Scuba Diver course, or any other type of scuba diving for beginners training, you will almost certainly not regret your decision to learn to dive.

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