looking for a school to learn diving

[jungsangchoe]

When i see all your lovely pictures, i too wanna grab a cam and dunk it under water.
but if i duno how to dive, it will pretty much be just a dream.
so to all my dear divers out here, could you kindly pm me and recommend me a diving school?
i guess it does not matter if its PADI or SSI now. after all, i just wana to learn and make new friends.

i hope this is not a OT thread. i duno where else to ask...

pls kindly let me know coz i work shifts and i also work weekends. so my rosters are not fixed... will the diving classes be flexible?

how much roughly is it now a days?

pls let me know tq

 

[dejavu]

try http://www.apachediver.com/, i took my open water way back in 2004 with them...

 

[diver-hloc]

some Dives School in S'pore -

http://www.51scuba.com/#

http://www.gilldivers.com/

http://www.waikikidive.com/

If I were you.... I would rather take a week long holiday at Phuket (Nov to Apr) or Koh Samui (late Mar to late Oct) to take my Scuba Class.... holiday cum schooling.... The main reason is that Thailand offers better sea life (animals + corals) than S'pore or Tioman.... and you don't want your 1st time to be a disappointment.... of course, Time & Money would cost extra.... :sweat:

 

[lovells19]

some Dives School in S'pore -

http://www.51scuba.com/#

http://www.gilldivers.com/

http://www.waikikidive.com/

If I were you.... I would rather take a week long holiday at Phuket (Nov to Apr) or Koh Samui (late Mar to late Oct) to take my Scuba Class.... holiday cum schooling.... The main reason is that Thailand offers better sea life (animals + corals) than S'pore or Tioman.... and you don't want your 1st time to be a disappointment.... of course, Time & Money would cost extra.... :sweat:

er.. i'll go bali hahahaha

 

[diver-hloc]

I did mine at Koh Tao, North of Koh Samui.....

Took 4days leaves and with 2 Off Days.... did a 6D5N holiday cum class tour :thumbsup:

 

[TBSOO]

u can try scuba oasis.

 

[canonisusm]

I will go for divewetworks.com, friendly and professional, whatsmore good pricing.

 

[jungsangchoe]

able to share more bout the overseas trip n open water? pls pm me bout pricing tq

 

[diver-hloc]

able to share more bout the overseas trip n open water? pls pm me bout pricing tq

PM sent.....

For Thailand.... try - http://www.sawadee.com/diving/index.html

Plan your date, chose area/island/place, look for Dive Centre (DC) at those places... email them regarding prices/question/information..... then go.

Price will range around $400-$500 for Padi Open Water..... but for really high end resort... of course price will be much higher (for the same Cert). Do take note.... price might or might NOT include accommdation & food.... some DC also does not include gears rental into their price.... therefore, ask lots of question. And do lots of Homework.... :sweat:

 

[ohok1973]

When i see all your lovely pictures, i too wanna grab a cam and dunk it under water.
but if i duno how to dive, it will pretty much be just a dream.
so to all my dear divers out here, could you kindly pm me and recommend me a diving school?
i guess it does not matter if its PADI or SSI now. after all, i just wana to learn and make new friends.

i hope this is not a OT thread. i duno where else to ask...

pls kindly let me know coz i work shifts and i also work weekends. so my rosters are not fixed... will the diving classes be flexible?

how much roughly is it now a days?

pls let me know tq

Can recommand u my instructor if you want.

He is a full time dive instrructor with many years of experiecne in Padi ceritifcation.

Timing is flexible for him as he is not under any centre. Best of all, he is also a freelance photographer for TCS and all.

He is planning a dive trip to Tiomen for beginners and scuba divers end of this month.

price is defenitely better than those centre been offered.

 

[antacid]

singapore probably has the cheapest courses around. for 500-600, you get all classes, materials, and travel, accomodation, food for the weekend trip. it will cost you at least $500 just for the course alone in other places like bali and phuket. you will have to pay for your own accomodation, food and travel.

at the end of the day, dont just go for the cheapest one available. do some basic research, know what you are going to get for the price. some of the cheaper courses cut corners by not giving you the manual (which is compulsory for PADI but not other certifying agencies). you should be comfortable with the instructors, feel confident in their knowledge, and most importantly that you can have fun with them.

some simple questions to ask - how many open water dives will you need to do to be certified (4)? how many skills will you learn in the pool session (20 or 27? can't remember)? how long are the pool sessions? what is the student to instructor ratio?

i know of some dive centres who bring their students on night dives and go down to 50m...followed by an inflated BC ascent. damn bloody scary!

 

[diver-hloc]

i know of some dive centres who bring their students on night dives and go down to 50m...followed by an inflated BC ascent. damn bloody scary!

Might as well kill the students on land.....

 

[lovells19]

i know of some dive centres who bring their students on night dives and go down to 50m...followed by an inflated BC ascent. damn bloody scary!

woah.. they trying to paint the sea red or what?

 

[Snipsnapsnet]

singapore probably has the cheapest courses around. for 500-600, you get all classes, materials, and travel, accomodation, food for the weekend trip. it will cost you at least $500 just for the course alone in other places like bali and phuket. you will have to pay for your own accomodation, food and travel.

at the end of the day, dont just go for the cheapest one available. do some basic research, know what you are going to get for the price. some of the cheaper courses cut corners by not giving you the manual (which is compulsory for PADI but not other certifying agencies). you should be comfortable with the instructors, feel confident in their knowledge, and most importantly that you can have fun with them.

some simple questions to ask - how many open water dives will you need to do to be certified (4)? how many skills will you learn in the pool session (20 or 27? can't remember)? how long are the pool sessions? what is the student to instructor ratio?

i know of some dive centres who bring their students on night dives and go down to 50m...followed by an inflated BC ascent. damn bloody scary!

Places like phuket/bali will cost you 1k plus to get just the Basic alone. Its not worth in Bali cause most fantastic sites like manta point, crystal bay are of advance level. Can try Phuket though, but my recommendation is to get till advance in cheap places then enjoy these expensive places.

4 dives for SSI
4 - 5 dives for PADI
5 dives for NAUI

Skills is as long as you are confident with skills like mask clearing, regulator retriever, finning method and most importantly confidence in water
NAUI cover some emergency rescue

student ratio best kept in 6:1 ratio
some intructor may go as high as 8:1
make sure you have some divemaster coming along for such high ratio

and no such thing as 50m inflat BCD shoot up, its as good as asking you to die.
Basic open water cant even allow you to night dive and max depth 18m, even shooting up from 18m will result in instant death.

well, pm me for my dive center if you wanna dive with me!:thumbsup:

 

[lovells19]

Bali is worth every cent

there's really much more then just manta point and crystal bay.

 

[diver-hloc]

Bali is worth every cent

there's really much more then just manta point and crystal bay.

Agree.... for jaded Scuba Divers seeking new stuff/experience and have 'Done It All'... Bali might seems same old same old.

But if my 1st Open Water includes a giant Ship Weck at Tulamben... or Muck diving at Seraya.... Hell, even the House-Reef at the resort I when to have better sea-scape and sealife than some suppose 'Famous Site' I've been to.... :bsmilie:

 

[Pauche]

I did mine at Koh Tao, North of Koh Samui.....

Took 4days leaves and with 2 Off Days.... did a 6D5N holiday cum class tour :thumbsup:

i did mine when i was backpacking in vietnam! just chanced across a dive school when i arrived in Nha Trang, and signed up on the spot, starting theory lesson the same day, pool lesson the next day, and two more days of open water dive before departing the city that same night on an overnight coach to HoiAn! :bsmilie:

 

[2evans]

i know of some dive centres who bring their students on night dives and go down to 50m...followed by an inflated BC ascent. damn bloody scary!

That's really crazy.

 

[lovells19]

shooting up from 18m won't really kill you but will most prob put you in a lot of pain especially if you go into deco.

50m on an inflated bcd.. yes that will kill you, if not the pain will

 

[antacid]

aiya that's a story for another thread...hahaha

just trying to help our friend here make an educated decision. don't just go for the cheapest!

honestly the best ratio is 1 instructor to 2...maybe max 1 to 4. anything more than that is haywire. some instructors can get away with packing in more students in the same class because they are experienced, or simply because "nothing happened before". at the end of the day, its the student that suffers.

i meet many open water students who finish their course, and don't know how to check how many weights to use. the common answer - "they just give me 4 weights and ask me to go in". and the result - haywire buoyancy and either become balloons or underwater tornados.

i like bringing the sinkers to tioman..their buoyancy skills improve very quickly when its all sea urchins below them! hahaha