padi certification

[kermit 38]

Has anyone done the certification course one a 4 or 5 day cruise? It was listed on the excursions but we cant book it.

[Friscorays]

I think most people would suggest getting certified pre-cruise. If you do it on-board be prepared for class time, studying, pool time and open water check-out dives to eat up much of your relatively short cruise time.

[mystkittsdivebuddy]

Any cruise that offers this obviously has their own Scuba Instructor "on board".
To follow on from the comment made by Friscorays regarding time.
Brief course details:
1) Self study with manual approx 5 - 8 hours of reading and reviews.
2) Classroom sessions approx 3 - 4 hours (Reviewing self study and going through what you do not understand.)
3) 5 Confined Water Dives (About 4 hours in the pool)
4) 4 Open water dives (have to be over 2 days) so at least 2 half days.

Now that is going to take up a lot of your vacation time. The course is designed to be performance, not time, based so you may be slightly faster or slower than average. A larger group of students can increase the classroom and pool time significantly.

There are other options, have a look on http://www.padi.com or my web site http://www.mystkittsdivebuddy.com. If you contact me through the website I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
I am a PADI IDC Instructor living and working in St Kitts.
Whatever your decision, I hope you do take the course and enjoy scuba diving and learning to dive.
Terry

[LubbersLine]

Originally Posted by Friscorays

I think most people would suggest getting certified pre-cruise. If you do it on-board be prepared for class time, studying, pool time and open water check-out dives to eat up much of your relatively short cruise time.

I would definitely agree.

[rednose83]

Originally Posted by kermit 38

Has anyone done the certification course one a 4 or 5 day cruise? It was listed on the excursions but we cant book it.

I'd do it at home before the cruise.

[tombo]

You might be able to do the classroom and pool work with a local dive shop at home and get a referral to do your open water checkout dives with an operator at one of your ports of call.

[mystkittsdivebuddy]

Originally Posted by tombo

You might be able to do the classroom and pool work with a local dive shop at home and get a referral to do your open water checkout dives with an operator at one of your ports of call.

You need 2 days for this. Padi requires 4 dives, as there is a standard of no more than 3 training dives a day, 2 days in the same port would be required.

I think most training agencies have a similar requirement.

[bruce-r]

Originally Posted by mystkittsdivebuddy

You need 2 days for this. Padi requires 4 dives, as there is a standard of no more than 3 training dives a day, 2 days in the same port would be required.

I think most training agencies have a similar requirement.

With PADI you can get the Scuba Certification with only 2 dives, so a person would only need 1 day. Agreed that the Scuba cert. isn't nearly as desirable as the Open Water cert. but it is an option.

[CaribKng]

Originally Posted by mystkittsdivebuddy

Any cruise that offers this obviously has their own Scuba Instructor "on board".
To follow on from the comment made by Friscorays regarding time.
Brief course details:
1) Self study with manual approx 5 - 8 hours of reading and reviews.
2) Classroom sessions approx 3 - 4 hours (Reviewing self study and going through what you do not understand.)
3) 5 Confined Water Dives (About 4 hours in the pool)
4) 4 Open water dives (have to be over 2 days) so at least 2 half days.

Now that is going to take up a lot of your vacation time. The course is designed to be performance, not time, based so you may be slightly faster or slower than average. A larger group of students can increase the classroom and pool time significantly.

There are other options, have a look on http://www.padi.com or my web site http://www.mystkittsdivebuddy.com. If you contact me through the website I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
I am a PADI IDC Instructor living and working in St Kitts.
Whatever your decision, I hope you do take the course and enjoy scuba diving and learning to dive.
Terry

This is if everything goes perfect for everyone. My wife and I got certified this past September and she had some problems and we needed an extra session in the pool to get caught back up. I would highly recommend getting certified pre-cruise. Then you can spend the time enjoying the diving instead of working on skills and passing tests.

[Bellfree Bat]

I also agree with the pervious posters to take the course and pool work at a local dive shop. This is what I did and did my open water dives while cruising in Roatan and Cozumel. I was supposed to do my first dives in Grand Cayman but the weather did not cooperate and missed the dives as we were late to arrive. Thanks to the internet on board, I was able to make arrangements to complete my certification in Cozumel.

[mystkittsdivebuddy]

Originally Posted by bruce-r

With PADI you can get the Scuba Certification with only 2 dives, so a person would only need 1 day. Agreed that the Scuba cert. isn't nearly as desirable as the Open Water cert. but it is an option.

The Padi Scuba Diver certification requires the completion of the first three sections of the knowledge developement, the first three confined water dives and the first two open water dives.
You cannot do the knowledge and confined water dives "at home" and the open water dives on a cruise, that is a referral and is only available for the Padi Open Water Diver course.
There is no way can you do this course properly in a single day. So you are back to a Cruise with its own instructor on board.
Also the Scuba Diver course qualifies you to dive to 40 ft but ONLY WITH A PADI PROFESSIONAL, not with another qualified diver.
I have been teaching Scuba for many years, I have never recommended this course, far better to do the Open Water Diver course and get properly qualified.
T

[bruce-r]

Originally Posted by mystkittsdivebuddy

Also the Scuba Diver course qualifies you to dive to 40 ft but ONLY WITH A PADI PROFESSIONAL, not with another qualified diver.

Which would probably not be a big problem for most once-a-year cruise divers since they either go with the ship's excursion or a private operator, both of which would have a DM in the water with the divers.

The Scuba Diver cert would not be enough if they wanted to dive locally in many places. In the Pacific Northwest, dive operators usually don't put a DM in the water, so you'd have to hire a DM.