"Discover Scuba" Courses

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I don't know where you are heading to, but you may find they even have free pool sessions on offer if it is some all inclusive resort. This is how we started: first a free pool session - just for fun because we were bored, that same holiday we did Discover Scuba, and then it all started...
 
I worked at a shop that did DSD's often in a pool, basically as advertising. If you're not sure she's going to love diving, I recommend taking her to one of those. Some people react to water well, some people don't. I've seen people that can barely swim take to scuba like fish....and I've seen water polo players and competitive swimmers freak out over nothing. I also recommend getting her cert before the trip. You don't want to spend your trip in a class, you want to spend it diving. My fiancee got certified in a bit of a rush, in less than great conditions, suffered through it and wasn't too happy about it. She was glad she was already certified, though, when we got to our destination.

I can't remember all of the skills, but (for PADI) I believe they are:
-reg remove and replace
-reg remover, recover, and replace
-mask partial flood and clear
-mask full flood and clear
 
DSDs are great, and I've taken some people on DSDs who ended up loving it so much they are now Instructors.

Caveat - make sure, regardless of agency, that if there is an "Open Water" session, that the shop adheres to all required standards regarding skills taught and maximum depths. There are a lot of places that offer shallow water intro dives and this is fine, but not as complete, and I have personally witnessed these intro dives taking place in locations where I worry about experienced, certified divers, never mind newbies. As a previous poster mentioned, I've seen nervous people overwhelmed with the magic of the underwater world, and I have seen grown men cry when they dipped their heads underwater. Seriously. It's not for everybody.

It's a marketing tool, and it's a good one. It's a relatively inexpensive introduction to the underwater world, even if it's in a pool, helps people to overcome basic fears without having to invest in books or classes or whatever. For a lot of people, it's a box to tick, for some it's the gateway to diving. There is, of course, a great deal of cynicism surrounding the whole thing as a "money making tool", which of course it is, but conducted correctly, by the right person, they are a very good idea indeed.

Cheers

C.
 
Discover Scuba Diving is PADI's name for this "experience" program. Others may call it a resort course. In my experience, the PADI program coducted by a qualified and insured instructor is a great way to experience scuba diving at a limited ( very limited) level. Other "resprt courses" may or may not be as thorough in preparing the novice diver for a limited dive experience. The quality and safety of each program ( including quality of gear provided) varies greatly from one offering to another. But if you get a mainstream certification organization's (PADI, SSI, NAUI, etc) class taught by a qualified and insured instructor, she'll be fine.
DivemasterDennis
 
Thanks for all of the information and suggestions. I've learned that the instructor to student ratio is max at 1:4 but usually only one or two students during the time we are going. I might decline if there are 4 students to one instructor. There is no pool session. They have a video and question session then skills are done in OW (a little concerned about this but that's me, not my GF). The dive is @ "30ish" feet with "the close supervision of an instructor". I'm certain my GF will love scuba, our choice to do the DS course instead of a cert course is time & money. She will want to get certified at some point. We are using Low Key in St. John USVI.
 
The type of dive can make a difference. I did a DS in Hawaii. Had a pool session. Near as I remember I sat on the bottom for a while and remembered to keep breathing. Think it was more to make sure I was comfortable under water. I was.

The dive was a shore dive with no surf. Waded in and dove. Was great. The pool session was so what. The swimming with the giant sea turtle was wow.
 
There is no pool session. They have a video and question session then skills are done in OW (a little concerned about this but that's me, not my GF).

As I suggested earlier, that may be perfectly fine. There are lots of places that have "pool-like" conditions in the ocean. When I did mine in Cozumel, it was in a sheltered area that was pool depth and didn't have a hint of a wave.
 
My first dive was sort of a discover scuba dive, except it was solo.
 
My 11-year-old son did a DS course in Riviera Maya a few weeks ago. He watched a film, did some pool work and then took to the ocean. The instruction ratio was one to one and both my husband and I accompanied them on the open water portion - a boat dive in 40ft of water.
 
As I suggested earlier, that may be perfectly fine. There are lots of places that have "pool-like" conditions in the ocean. When I did mine in Cozumel, it was in a sheltered area that was pool depth and didn't have a hint of a wave.

Sounds to me like this place does skills at the dive site :
Our dive sites are about 15-20 minutes away and once you arrive there we put everyone else into the water and then throw out a floating line for you to hang onto while the instructor individually comes to you and takes you down a couple feet and has you complete a few skills such as how to clear a mask, replacing/clearing a regulator if water gets in and checking to see if you have the correct amount of weight – we also want to make sure they are comfortable with everything before heading out. Once this is completed the diver will go out on their first dive. The dives for Discover Scuba cannot exceed 40 feet and most times are around 30ish feet.
 

Back
Top Bottom