PADI Certification

[dchapman]

My kids, ages 16 and 14 want to get their PADI certification on board the ship. Has anyone does this on board and what did you think? When do you have the classes on board the ship?

[Hilary]

Certification will require quite a bit of their time to sit in a classroom, study, then practice skills in the pool. I'd recommend strongly that you find a local dive shop and have them do the classwork and confined skill practice locally, then do their OW referral dives while on vacation.

[bruce-r]

Ditto what Hilary said. Kids won't like having to go to "school" while they are on a cruise.

 

Getting certified is a great, but you have no idea how much this little hobby is going to eventually cost you. You might be better off budget-wise just having them do the discover scuba dives while on the cruise.

 

You don't say if you are divers too, but I'm guessing that you aren't. If they get certified, they will bug you to take them places where they can dive.

 

I'm a diver and I don't consider at trip a real vacation unless diving is included. I plan all our family vacations to include diving even though I am the only one in my family who dives. Diving can be an addiction.

[dchapman]

Thanks for the input... I also found out today that my husband, who is PADI certified, will not be able to dive with the kids unless he signs up for the class and pays the full $249 for the shore excursion and takes the class AGAIN.... that's kinda crazy for them to expect parents to let kids go out diving in a foreign country without parental supervision.. I'm sure the dive master will be great, but we both feel a parent needs to be with them on the dive... we thought a parent would be able to dive for the normal $99, but nope.. it would be $249.... crazy!!

[bruce-r]

Sounds like the discover scuba would be the economical way to go, unless you arrange the openwater check out dives independantly.

[w&k]

Get them certified before you go - fully, if possible. That way, they can concentrate on enyoying the diving, not doing skills.

 

And Mom...get yourself certified with the kids. We can always use more lady divers on the boats, and it will turn into a family sport for you. I'm sure even teenagers will think a diving Mom & Dad are cool.

 

Have a great trip!

 

Wendy

[JodiBB]

I'm going through PADI certification right now (in fact I have my last classroom session tonight!) & I wouldn't want to go through all this training while on vacation!! Furthermore, sometimes people have difficulties with certain parts of the training (one of my classmates is!) and the instructor needs to take extra time with that person. On vacation, your kids aren't going to want to be disappointed if there are some difficulties.

 

I don't know what the ship charges for PADI, but you'd probably be able to find it cheaper at home through a dive shop.

 

If you want to know more about my current experience, feel free to email me offlist!

 

achioalumna at gmail.com (obviously no spaces/@ for "at"...I did it to prevent spam!! LOL)

[sportsterjohn]

This is how I would do it. If your kids have never dove before, have them do the discover scuba at one of the ports. The discover dives usually run about 100 or so per person. If they like it then have them get certified back home. Some people who think they would like to dive find out for one reason or another that they cannot. That happened to my wife, after we paid for her to go to class. She has a deviated septum which means that everytime she dives she has ear infections for the next 6 months. If they do decide to start the certification process without trying it first then I would suggest doing the class room work pre cruise and doing the check out dives with independant dive shops in the ports. You will have to split them between 2 ports. The classes should cost you in the $200 neighborhood and the referral dives will probably cost you about $125 in each port.

[bruce-r]

Thanks for the input... I also found out today that my husband, who is PADI certified, will not be able to dive with the kids unless he signs up for the class and pays the full $249 for the shore excursion and takes the class AGAIN.... that's kinda crazy for them to expect parents to let kids go out diving in a foreign country without parental supervision.. I'm sure the dive master will be great, but we both feel a parent needs to be with them on the dive... we thought a parent would be able to dive for the normal $99, but nope.. it would be $249.... crazy!!

DH would be able to dive with the kids on the checkout dives if you went with someone other than the ship's program. You can do this if you go the referral route. Another benefit would be that the boys will get to try the scuba gear in a pool first before the cruise. If they don't like it in the pool, you've saved a bunch of money.

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

Both my kids and I are PADI certified. Under 16 they get a junior open water card which means that 10-11 must dive with a parent and 12+ must dive with an adult (does not have to be a parent) to a depth of 40 feet. Your 16 year old would get an adult open water card which means he does need a parent or adult to dive with him. I'm unclear as to why you hubby has to pay $249 to join them. I would not get certified while on vacation though. If you find a local dive shop where you live they should be able to finish the course over 3 days or two weekends. Also it should be cheaper at home. It does take about two weeks after completion of the course to get your permanent PADI cards in the mail but they do give you temp cards immediately.

 

It should cost you about $200 - $300 US depending on where you live. We live in Canada and I paid $325 Canadian for us to be certified. I highly recomment that you call around to different dive shops as they all have different rates. Definately only get PADI certified though as the other courses are not as widely reconized.

 

I wouldn't do discover scuba as they still charge about $150.00 and then if they enjoy it you have to pay to have them certified. We all did discover scuba before we were certified because they said that you'd get credit towards your open water. Upon returning home I could not find a dive shop that would take money off the course or give you credit of drills learned as they do not believe that the discover scuba class you take on vacation is as thorough as their own. Plus for the money it costs for discovery scuba on vacation it doesn't cost much more to be fully certified at home.

 

My kids were 11 and 14 when they were certified (10 and 13 when we did discover scuba) and they absolutely love diving. At Christmas we did a night dive in Mexico and got upclose to an octupus. It was AMAZING! You may even want to get certified yourself.

 

I'm a diving mom and absolutely love it!:D

 

Sandie

[cruzegirl]

Having just completed the open water dive class at my local dive shop this is what I would recommend......Do the discover scuba class for starters.... See if they are really interested for 2 reasons....For one, it takes time to get certified...Yes you can usually do it in 2-3 weekends at home but what if the weather/ocean doesn't cooperate and you can't get your check out dives completed within the ships time of sailing... We had this happen at home.... And 2, it's expensive.... Yes, they rent/loan stuff to get it completed but there are still things you need to purchase...You should get them their own mask/snorkel to make sure if fits properly and to not exchange mouthpieces of the snorkel. That flips me out to "share" mouthpieces... lol.. Make sure they are really committed.. I signed up for the discover scuba on my cruise on the Caribbean Princess in Jan. but it was cancelled due to rough weather for beginners....Now that I've done it through a dive shop, I can't imagine what I was thinking trying to do my certification on the ship.... I love it but glad I had the extra time to do this.... lol... Discover Scuba just gives them a "taste" of what's ahead for them... They may not like it at all.... Just my thoughts for you.....

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

...Yes you can usually do it in 2-3 weekends at home but what if the weather/ocean doesn't cooperate and you can't get your check out dives completed within the ships time of sailing... it's expensive.... Yes, they rent/loan stuff to get it completed but there are still things you need to purchase.......

 

We did our certification in October when the water temperature was 40F. We just wore wet suits complete with head hoodie, mitts and booties and all of this was supplied from the dive shop and included in our cost of $325 Canadian (roughly $240 US). We were not required to purchase any of our own equipment. That is why its important to call around and see what each dive shop offers. Our dive instructor actually said it was good to learn when the weather isn't perfect as then you will be better prepared as to what to do when there is a current or rough seas. The ocean or lake isn't always the same conditions at the start and end of a dive.

 

Sandie

[bruce-r]

Our dive instructor actually said it was good to learn when the weather isn't perfect as then you will be better prepared as to what to do when there is a current or rough seas. The ocean or lake isn't always the same conditions at the start and end of a dive.

Your instructor is correct. If you learned to dive in cold water, you can dive anywhere, but if you learned to dive in the easy warm water, you will be totally unprepared to dive anywhere else, and there is good reason to want to dive in British Columbia.

 

Your OW certification is good for conditions that are similar or better than the conditions you had for your open water check out dives.

[sportsterjohn]

Bruce brings up a good point. All of my diving experience has been in 80+ degree water. Only time I ever had to deal with much current was on a drift dive in Coz. I dove Key Largo during the first week of March this year with water temps about 70 and a strong current. Talk about a shock to the system!! Took me more that 5 min to get more than 20 ft down the line. Was disoriented, cold and thought I was going to be sick. A few of the other cruise ship diver types, like myself aborted thier dives. However, after I got my 'stuff' together, I was able to enjoy 2 tanks down there.

[bruce-r]

Sportster, I'd say that 70 is cold water, at least for me. I'd probably want my drysuit.

 

A lot of people will only dive in warm water, but since I want to dive more than one a year. I don't have that option, especially when I can drive to decent cold water diving.

 

I initially got certified so I could go diving while on a cruise. The water was 48 f and I nearly didn't finish the checkout dives. Those were the only wetsuit dives I've made in cold water.

[sportsterjohn]

I wore a 3mm farmer john and froze!

[Middleager]

Definately only get PADI certified though as the other courses are not as widely reconized.

 

If you try to make a statement like that in any of the scuba diver forums (with professional divers), you'll get bombarded with lots of disagreements. In fact, sometimes I see people quite critical of PADI.

 

PADI is popular because they offer several levels of courses toward "certifications". There is the PADI Discovery, then PADI Scuba Diver certification, then the PADI Open Water certification. The PADI OW certification is among the least stringent of OW certifications. Similarly with PADI Advanced OW certification, requiring 5 dives, whereas for example NAUI requires 6 dives and more "knowledge".

 

Years ago when I was starting out and was getting my OW certification, the dive shop was affliated with several different agencies, PADI being one of them. They advised me to go with NAUI. I didn't know why at the time, and later learned.

 

There are many many others (NAUI, SSI, GUE, YMCA, ... etc.) that are just as widely recognized as PADI. PADI is good, but certainly there are many others.

[Hilary]

I agree, it won't matter if you get a PADI cert, or another agency. The important thing to remember is that there isn't one agency that's "better" than another. They are all simply machines that crank out various certification cards and set standards.

 

What is the MOST important is the quality of your instructor!! Find the BEST instructor you can and take classes from them. Don't worry about who your c-card will come from, it will be recognized when you want to dive later.

[Jerry_G]

What middleager says is true, all the agencies have their own specific requirements. What most people do not realize is that all of these agencies have banded together and formed an alliance that set forth minimum standards for different levels of diver certification. And ALL of them abide by those standards. When one agency has standards different than another it is because one of them chose to make the certification requirements more difficult than the minimum standard. For example Nitrox certification. At SSI you only need to do class room work. At PADI you need to do the class room work and two check out dives. Of course SSI is at the minimum standard and PADI has added two checkout dive in addition to the minimum standard. That may not be the case for all your certifications. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of the SSI certifications are more stringent than PADI. I haven't done the research to verify that but it wouldn't surprise me. Also, I've seen people have bad PADI instructors and bad SSI instructors. The class really comes down to selecting a good instructor not a good agency. They are all good. Talk to people who have been certified and find out about their instructors and go with a good teacher.

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

Padi was what was recommended to me and this is what I was told by various dive masters when I talked to other divers. I guess they must have all been Padi certified instructors. :eek: Sorry to offend anyone.

[w&k]

Basically it's just alphabet soup. The overall requirements are the same. All the certifications give you a MINIMUM SAFETY level. They do not make you a GOOD diver.

 

You will learn lots more from your fellow divers than from any OW class, if you ask questions and listen to the answers.

 

Make sure you are comfortable with your instructor, and the classes are not a long commercial for gear.

 

Welcome to our wonderful underwater world!

 

Wendy