Open water diving courses (PADI)

I know when I did my open water we had to do a medical before we could start. Maybe this depends on the school, might be good to ask in case they turn you away on the day you arrive for not having one. Diving in cold water isn't as comfortable as in warm water but if you wear a nice thick wetsuit or even a drysuit then it's not so bad. Might be good to find out what the sea temp is at time of year you plan to arrive. You wont see the same sort of life in cold water eigther eg turtles, huge clouds of colourful fish but there are still some cool things to see.

I emailed both the TT recommended Beyond Diving here in Munich and Nautilis in Italy last week to see if I can start a course here, then do the open water stuff while I'm on holiday.

Nautilis replied within hours and have sent me several informative emails, but all I've got from Beyond Diving is an acknowledgement of my email and even that was 3 days later. Bit dissapointing, but I'll give them a full week before I give up on them.

Thanks for the info about the doctors certificate. I'll look into it further when I find a company who can find the time to send an email.

Just to update - I got a reply email on Sunday; they were away on a conference somewhere so hence the delay. Sounds like it's no problem to start courses with them and get referred to another company for the OW stuff in case anyone else is interested in something similar.

I'm still trying to work out how to do all this diving stuff and I'm running out of time to make decisions before I go on holiday.
At the moment I'm looking at around €500 total to get to OW certification. Does that seem about right?
I wanted to do theory/closed water here (€295) and then squeeze in 4 OW dives in Italy (€210) to get that cert.
The prices include everything like hire etc.
Has anyone done the same thing in Europe? I'm just a bit nervous about going ahead and booking it as it's a little more money than I expected to spend at first.

Thoughts?

These people should be able to help, but you can get the open water PADI book at most dive shops all you really need is to get your dive tables and the book.

Fin-Up Divers S-9249
Landshuter Allee 81
Muenchen 80637
GERMANY
Phone: +49 8912111083
Fax: +08912111753
finupdivers@finupdivers.com

Gerda's Dive Shop S-9530
Schluderstr. 22
Muenchen 80634
GERMANY
Phone: 49 89 161465
Fax: 49 89 168687

Dive Center Seaworld S-798964
Gautinger Strasse 34
Muenchen/Stockdorf 82131
GERMANY
Phone: 49 0800 73296753
Fax: 49 89 85661105
info@seaworld.de

i would suggest steering clear of Fin-Up if you can. I find them to be a little lax on the standard of their training. I don't think they train you to be a good diver, they just do enough to get you through the exams and make their bucks. I found them to be a strange bunch. They would push students from novice to Divemaster without one single dive in the open ocean. All open water dives done in the boring lakes aournd MUC.

@Scogs,
Thanks, although I can't find much in the way of English with those companies and not sure what their packages cover in order to compare them with €500 all up.
Are the books and dive tables etc what would normally be supplied with a beginners course anyway?

Oh, and does anyone happen to use any diving forums that seem good? I searched for a few but most of them seem to be bogged down with adverts and graphics.

I'm not sure I have time to change companies now anyway. I either need to book it or not... I just can't bring myself to commit at the moment knowing so little about it or the costs involved.

Dive instruction is the one place where the price is immaterial - it's the quality of the instructor that's important. They might charge a lot, they might charge a little. If there is a problem with your course and you're with PADI then you can report the instructor - this triggers off all sorts of bad things and, IIRC, you will be offered a course at an alternate centre.

By spreading your tutition between two schools, you're going to be doubly checked - this is a good thing. The Munich instructors know that their handywork is going on to be looked at by another instructor, the resort guys know that you know what to expect. Win-win situation.

500E sounds about right for what you want to do - I would just bite the bullet and go for it. Diving is about the best thing I've ever done, and I'v continued to do it for a very long time, in whatever water I find myself near, so I'm obviously biased... but seriously, just go for it.

€500 is about right money wise, yes you should get the books and dive tables with the price, the theory work you can do from the books fairly quickly, there isnt anything really hard in them, the theory exams are mainly about what class of diver you are based on the amount of dive time, depth...blah blah. I would think they can do pool practise dives here so you would only need the final dives on where you go on holiday. but i would be tempted to get the books here, study them then do the whole thing on holiday rather than a split.

If I get time I will have a look and see if I have any open water books down in the cellar over the weekend

Great! Thanks for your help guys!

Yay, that really makes me feel better about splitting the tuition. I hadn't thought of it that way, I was just getting paranoid about how much it would cost and whether I was rushing it.
I'm pretty sure now I'm just going to go for it now, providing I can cough up the money in time.

Thanks again!

I'm looking into learning to dive this summer, and I thought add this to the thread:

http://www.beyond-diving.de/open_water_diver_english

They offer SSI courses in English. That's all I know at the moment - I'll keep you posted...
L

OK - So its about 350 Euros for an Open Dive SSL qualfication, and they run it as soon as they have 3 people. If anyone is interested in joining in, - PM me?

Beyond Diving is pretty good. I got my Diving Licence from them when I organised a group from work about 3 years ago. We were all very happy.

I would also recommend Beyond Diving - I did my SSI open water course there last September (as a referral for a dive holiday). Good level of English and a friendly bunch!

I would just like to mention that I did not start my diving tuition last year, but have told people at least 10 times since then that it's something "I really want to do".
Which it is, I just need to get motivated & make it priority. I know, I know.. maybe by 2008?
Anyway, thanks again for the sage advice, much appreciated and I nearly got there (as far as standing outside the school in Sardinia anyway). I'm keeping all the info for when I actually get organised.

(shame, not only all-talk/no-dive but I quote myself too.)

I haven't read the thread, but surely you'd be better off going to Egypt or something to do this. Then you would have a nice place to dive, and it would most likely be cheaper, and almost certainly offered in English.

I've been to the Red Sea, and the diving there was unbelievable..

cheapest place i know of is malwai costs 120 us dollars with padi

Well - I'm off to Maritius in September, but going with friends who already dive, so I need to learn before I go. Is it really cheaper to go to Egypt, than to learn in Munich?

nearly everywhere is cheaper then munich i took mine in Zanzibar for around 300 dollars. take it anywhere but not munich

why? take a dive course there. then when you have your license, you can go with your friends, granted they don't go below what your certification allows.

i did my dive course in thailand (koh tao). cost me about 250 Euro (was booked with accommodations, so am not exactly sure) for the PADI Open Water license.

I'm taking the PADI OWD course here in Munich at Aquatec Tauchsport

It set me back 300 €, but I think it's worth. Sure it is more expensive than doing it somewhere else, but if you are here and can't take time to go somewhere to do, it's good.

The classes are usually in german, but if there's a group of two or three who want instruction in English it is also possible. Already asked about that.

The course is done in two weekends. On both Saturdays there's a theory class in the morning and a couple of pool dives in the afternoon to practice what you learned. On both sundays there are two or three lake dives (usually) in Langwieder See.

Going back to the start of the thread - yes, courses there are cheaper but you're paying to be in Egypt/where-ever and sit in a classroom and study the theory that you can do anywhere on the planet. So, although you may save 100 euro in the course price you're paying for everything else to be on holiday and not getting any benefit. The cheapest way to learn to dive may be to join a dive club and go along with them to their pool sessions and dive trips - no idea if something like this exists in Munich but it's how I learned in Denmark and worked out a lot more fun than just paying for a course.

Also, as showem said in the opening salvos of this thread - there's an advantage for your diving technique to learning to dive in cold, dark water with strong currents and big waves. You are forced early on to confront difficult situations and learn how to handle them, giving extra confidence and a wider spectrum of skills and experience. PADI is designed for holiday dives, and structured to extract as much money from you as possible by breaking diving down into bite size chunks that are hard to fail and that you can do on holiday and pay for step by step, which is great for the sport as it gets millions of new divers started but it has its limitations. I have a friend who's an Open Water Divemaster First Aid Mermaid or somesuch but she's only done 10 dives in perfect conditions - I'm just a CMAS 2* open water diver but I'm not sure I'd want her leading me on a dive in the Northern hemisphere, which technically she could. Horses for courses, just be aware what you're doing.

I agree with you get what you pay for. Learning here makes you a great diver and then going to warm water is heaven.

Another note though, to become a PADI Divemaster first you must have logged a minimum of 20 open water dives prior to entry into Divemaster training, and completed and logged a minimum of 60 open water dives with experience in night, deep and navigation prior to certification as a Divemaster.