Hold the passport to visit the last frontier as these simple steps may guide you to that.
As a member of the Coastal and Marine Resources Team at one of the Philippine government agencies, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, scuba diving is a must-have skill for me to effectively perform my responsibilities. At DENR, I was tasked for the assessment and survey of fishes, corals percentage cover and identification of other marine invertebrates. With the scope at hand, I knew I should be taking advanced scuba dive training.
Last January 2017, I had my basic training and subsequently, advance diver training just two months later. Since then, diving has been part of my official travels - all expense paid by the government. Ola, now Im a PADI certified diver with two licenses without taking some bucks out of my pocket.
What is PADI?
Note: There are many diver training agencies for you to enroll with the likes of NAUI, BSAC, CMAS and SSI. You can search for those I mentioned but here in my tutorial, I’ll use PADI as a guide.
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) is the world's largest recreational diving membership and diver training organization Their divers carry the most respected and sought after scuba diving credentials in the world. They have safely guided divers below the surface for over 50 years. True to their words, the training that I had with them was smooth, fun and productive. The educational materials they gave were very useful, and the whole process was of high standards.
QUALIFICATIONS
AGE
You must qualify by age. As for PADI, their beginner course requires you to be 10 years old or older. For other agencies, you may google it.PHYSICAL CONDITION
Adequate swimming skills and good physical health.PAPER WORKS
Enroll at any scuba diving course and know the details, from cost to schedule.WATERMANSHIP TEST
The most basic prerequisite to become a qualified scuba diver is comfort in the water. Pass this test and you’re ready for the real deal.
TRAINING
STEPS:
Academics
Know first the levels of awareness through interactive presentations that include videos, audio, graphics and reading. After that are some short quizzes to gauge your progress. This is to understand basic principles of scuba diving including the things to consider when planning dives, choosing the right scuba gear, underwater signals and other diving procedures. In addition to these, your instructor will demonstrate each required skill for you.Equipment
Learn to use basic scuba gears including a regulator, snorkel,mask, fins, buoyancy control device and a tank. The equipment you wear varies, depending upon whether you’re diving in tropical, temperate or cold water.Pool training
Four confined water trainings in a body of water with pool-like conditions wherein you apply the things learned from the two earlier stages, and at the same master the skills required before moving on to open water. The scope of this training includes:-Setting up of scuba gear
-Getting water out of your mask
-Entering and exiting the water
-Buoyancy control
-Underwater navigation
-Safety proceduresOpen Water training
Show your instructor that you can comfortably repeat those skills in five sets of training. If successful, prepare to have your C-card voucher and get certified.
STEPS:
Academics
Choosing from a long list of Adventure Dives where you learn the following skills:
-plan skills for deeper scuba diving
-compass navigation skills
-skills of your interest including photography, buoyancy control, fish identification, exploring wrecks and many more.Equipment
Learn to use specialized scuba gears and equipments including a dry suit, compass and dive knife.Adventure in Diving
Participate in five adventure dives including the required Deep and Underwater Navigation Dives.
Enroll on any advance courses for continuing education and varying licenses. Someday I would enroll on some of these.
Rescue Diver – They say this is the most challenging, yet most rewarding course they’ve ever taken. It prepares you on how to deal and respond with dive emergencies.
Adaptive Support Diver - In this course, you learn how to best support a dive buddy who has a physical or mental challenge.
Master Scuba Diver – For you to be one, you need to have the Open Water Diver certification, then the Advanced Open Water Diver and Rescue Diver (or qualifying certifications). You also need to earn five Specialty Diver certifications and have logged a minimum of 50 dives.
STEEM ON!
Very nice article @shinthesage. Maikog sd ta member man diay ka sa coastal and marine resources team :)
UPVOTED!
Thank you @brokemancode !😊 yes, you knew someone from our team?
I think no @shinthesage. But if ever naa magpatudlo jd ko :) that will be great right?
Why not, would be glad to teach and share.
Wow @shinthesage! I'm counting on it! I'll keep in touch.
Totally agree when you said Rescue Diver is the most challenging. It's very physically demanding with all the dragging and carrying people around. (I had to carry two Brits who were a foot taller than me!) Those were the days I'd eat a full plate for dinner and then just crash into bed because it's just so exhausting.
Diving is plain good stuff. Regardless of which training agency, it all boils down to the diver on how they apply the theory and observe proper diving etiquette ***although I'm PADI all the way haha
Indeed, I agree with you @xaydtrips. The cleaning and sorting out after diving is quite tiring, and yea I ate lots too especially when seafoods are served for us. 😄 Wow, you are very strong huh. 😊 if you dont mind I guess you are master or rescue diver ?
Glad to know we both are PADI licensed 👏 cheers!
I'm currently Rescue and deeply contemplating on becoming divemaster. DM is the first professional level so everything is different once you enter the professional diving world (you become responsible of others). I'm still enjoying my non-pro recreational level. I'm sure you feel the same :D
Oh wow. I just want to share. There was a free scuba diving lesson at our office. You just have to attend the said training. You'll not gonna pay anything. Your office will. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease; and scuba diving is prohibited to me. Agh. Sayang
Sounds interesting, what office is that? Oh, sad to hear, but anyways there more you can do in life especially being an environmental advocate caring dor our nature is truly an amazing thing
Yes yes. Let us all become an environmental advocate. Why? Because can continue existing without us hahaha. And people should take care of its habitat, right? With regards to the office, it's a government office here in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines.
I remember when I first learned to dive. It was a life changing experience for me finding my way beneath the waves. I am jealous that you get to dive as a job, I dreamed of being a marine biologist as a child but life somehow swept me in a different direction. After learning to dive 10 years ago I have always regretted that I didn't pursue those ambitions from childhood into adulthood. I have been diving in Egypt, Mexico, Malta, the UK (where I'm from) and Thailand but have not dived the Philippines as yet. Something to look forward too, I here there is amazing muck diving. Good luck counting all the fish @shinthesage ;-)
Good article @shinthesage, may be useful for the need especially for those who want to learn to dive, by chance I am also a diver and I have a diving certificate published by "CMAS A3 Rescue Scuba Diving.
Mybe later if there are plans to visit the island weh sabang I will wait for you there 😁😁