Becoming Certified - What's Involved?

Learning to dive requires a sense of adventure, a time and energy commitment, and a clean bill of health.

Course work generally includes academics in diving physics, physiology, environment, equipment, dive planning, problem management, and diving techniques and skills. There are also quizzes and a test to check for understanding.

Every diving course is usually conducted in 2 sections. In the first section, the academics are taught in a classroom setting, and the diving skills are taught in a pool/confined water. Then the practical application section is conducted in the "open waters" of lakes, quarries, or the ocean. The entire course will take from 20 to 30 hours, and requires anywhere from a few days (here in Hawaii) to a few weekends (at your local dive shop) to complete. Although taking the entire class over several days is common practice here, for many people we recommend dividing the course into two parts - taking the first half with one of your local dive shops, and then completing the course with us for your final 4 ocean dives (commonly referred to as: Open Water Dives, Referral Dives, or Check-out Dives). Many benefit from doing the bulk of the learning at home, and then completing the course with us. This means that only 10 - 12 hours of your vacation is required for dive certification, and there's no homework and no tests!

Diving certifications are offered worldwide by various professional associations. They are known by their acronyms and include the organizations called PADI, NAUI, SSI, NASDS, IDEA, and YMCA. We are PADI instructors (Professional Association of Diving Instructors), and we offer PADI full and referral certifications. We also offer universal referral certifications for non-PADI student divers.