What is involved in the stages of scuba instruction? Is it all merely jumping into the water or is there too much to learn?
Theory instruction
Your diver instruction will possibly start with a brief prologue to how the course will be structured and then you will be shown a series of instructional DVDs round all of the skills you will be learning during the training. After each DVD segment, your instructor will then spend time talking you through what you have seen, making sure that you understood what was discussed and ending with a short multiple choice examination to ensure that it has all sunk in.
All aspects of the instruction are mentioned in the classroom based work, from how to kit up, the safety drills and procedures and some dos and don'ts.
Pool training
After the classroom work you are set to proceed to the pool work. You will be given for the first time the gear that you will be scuba diving in and taken to a suitable swimming pool to discover how to safely use it. But, there is something to do before you start to kit up and that is the swimming checks! Nothing complicated - you only have to show that you could propel yourself through the water for a approved distance and then float for a approved amount of time. It does not matter whether you are a fast or slow swimmer.
Once this is completed, you could then assemble your scuba diving equipment with the help of your teacher. There is a set order to put everything together in and you will need to discover this. Next you will enter the water, probably with only the mask and snorkel, and start the basic exercises.
These start with mask clearing. It is essential that you might clear water out of your mask whilst still underwater and you will study and practice this technique. Once you and your teacher are happy, you will then completely remove the mask and replace and clear it.
There are then a few exercises to carry out with the full scuba gear, let's say taking your first breaths under water, practicing altering your buoyancy to get it unquestionably spot on and buddy breathing. They are all a fun afternoon in the pool!
Open Water instruction
Finally you are ready to take your scuba gear into the water for real. The first dive will be quite shallow and you will begin with practising a few of those exercises again - mask clearing in the sea and so on. After that your teacher will take you on your first dive followed by logging it and then using the tables to calculate your nitrogen saturation.
After a suitable break you will return to the water for a further 3 dives, each one taking you deeper until on dive 4 you should reach round 18 metres.
Final Exam
The final exam can follow the classroom work, but finishing with it is better as there are a few aspects to the examination that you may just fully remember when you have tried them out. It is a simple multiple choice exam and once all of these stages are complete, it is photograph time and you are a qualified diver!
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