luckyheather asked:
Hi,
We are planning a trip to Australia and feel that it wouldn’t be complete without diving the Great Barrier Reef. Neither of us are experienced divers. Will we have to do a course 1st? How long will this take? And if so, are we better off doing it in the UK before we go? (we only have 3 weeks away, and want to fit lots in!).
Thanks!
Oh yeah, and v important, if we do a course in the UK 1st, which one is best and what would it cost?! Thanx!
Hi,
We are planning a trip to Australia and feel that it wouldn’t be complete without diving the Great Barrier Reef. Neither of us are experienced divers. Will we have to do a course 1st? How long will this take? And if so, are we better off doing it in the UK before we go? (we only have 3 weeks away, and want to fit lots in!).
Thanks!
Oh yeah, and v important, if we do a course in the UK 1st, which one is best and what would it cost?! Thanx!


4 responses so far ↓
1 jet-set // May 11, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Yes do the training before you leave-it’ll save valuable time. I’ve done the reef, and it’s one of life’s unforgettable experiences.
Don’t forget to take your certificate and log book with you, you won’t be able to dive without it.
Have a wonderful time and enjoy the magnificence that is The Great Barrier Reef.
2 houghton weaver // May 12, 2009 at 11:01 pm
there are lots of scuba diving classes around the country it would be a wise choice to learn before you go.some less reputable scuba dives on holiday let anyone who will pay money dive and that can be dangerous
3 scubabob // May 15, 2009 at 12:42 am
You’re fortunate enough to be in the UK, where (in my opinion) the best recreational diving training agency in the world is based. BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club). Do your training at home. You’ll learn to dive in a challenging environment that will better prepare you to dive just about anywhere in the world. I’m PADI trained here in Canada, but was fortunate enough to have a BSAC instructor attend my rescue diver course. He was the bomb and taught us things from the BSAC agency that PADI doesn’t include in their course.
Not only will you earn what’s recognized as a better cert, you’ll also be able to use your holiday time diving and not stuck in a class AND be a better diver for it.
The length of time required for a course is a minumum of 4 days (pretty intense) to a week, on average. It’ll depend on the dive shop you sign up with and their training schedule by and large.
If there are no BSAC shops near you that you feel comfortable with then by all means go PADI or NAUI. Their training is good, just not quite as good as BSAC. For instance, a BSAC open water diver (their first level) is almost the equivalent of a PADI or NAUI advanced open water( these agencies second level diver)
I’ll dive with a BSAC cert diver anyday of the week. I won’t dive with a warm water cert PADI or NAUI until they’ve proved themselves. Just too many bad experiences with them.
4 scuba_dive16 // May 15, 2009 at 7:00 am
i would say hold off on going to australia until you have dove out in the ocean i am 15 and i think the best place i went to go diving at was the cayman brac it is so nice there and make sure u get your dive training in before you go. and i am a open water and advance and deep dive speicaly dive so with all of that get a few dives under your belt before you go anywere k
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