What to expect: PADI Scuba Diving Open Water Course

I’ve kept a bucket list for almost ten years now, and although I’ve tried to tick as much as I can off over the years, one thing that has always eluded me was learning to scuba dive. Towards the end of last year, I decided that that would be my next item to check off. However, it being Winter in London at the time, I thought it might be best to wait until I arrived on the sunny shores of Australia for a better experience. Read on for my experience of learning to scuba dive!

First things first was choosing a dive school to undertake my course with. I knew I wanted to do the PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water Course, as this is the most widely used association for diving across the globe, and the Open Water Course the base level that you need to have to dive. I also wanted to make sure I was choosing a reputable, not crazy expensive school that was reasonably close to where I was staying, which ran courses on the days I was available, and would also cover transport to dive sites as I didn’t have a car.

With all these pre-requisites, my digging led me to Brisbane Dive Academy, which offers two day Open Water courses twice a week for the cost of $550. Most of the equipment (BCD, regulators, computer, wetsuit, tanks and weights) and transport were included, and it was an extra $80 to hire my mask, snorkel, fins and boots.

A couple of days before the course, I was sent through my e-learning modules which were to be completed before the course to prove I had a basic understanding of how to scuba dive, the different safety elements you need to know before you get in the water, and how all the equipment works. There was a lot of information to cover with each module containing about 14 sub-sections within it. The e-learning is supposed to take 10+ hours to complete, so my first tip is make sure that you have some time put aside for this. I found the videos most helpful as they summarised all the information on the page which was pretty hard to read since there didn’t seem to be a way to download the e-learning onto my computer, so I was reading this all off my phone screen.

At the end of each module, you complete two tests, one which seems formative, and one summative, the results of which are collated to be sent off to your instructors. At the end is a hefty final test which pulls together questions from the whole course, so doing the e-learning all in one day (whilst a pretty boring way to spend the day) was beneficial as I hadn’t forgotten as much info as I might have done if I’d done it over a few days.

Other things to sort out before the course began including getting my wetsuit fitted (which I would have preferred to have done on the morning of the course rather than trekking an hour there and back for a five minute fitting), filling in a medical questionnaire, and doing another ‘diving environment’ test which had some of the strangest questions I’d ever seen.

And so began the course itself. Day 1 had a horrendously early start of 6:45am, which meant waking up at 5am to catch the earliest train across the city to the dive HQ at Tingalpa. Things were a bit hectic as as well as our Open Water Diver group, there was a group of scouts also doing their PADI course, which meant we were a bit delayed in starting. Eventually, we headed upstairs to fill out some forms, sign our life away, and do one final test to prove we hadn’t cheated on the tests and actually knew our stuff. This was pretty good though as we went through the answers collectively, so if there was something you weren’t sure of, you could check it with the instructors.

Ready and raring to go, we piled in the van – 7 students to two instructors, which isn’t a bad ratio. Travelling an hour down the coast, we reached Palm Beach Aquatic Centre on the Gold Coast, which would be our base for much of the day.

Changing into swimwear, the first thing to do was a 200m swim to prove we (probably) weren’t going to die as soon as we hit the water. I actually found this pretty tough, probably a combination of not having swum for any reason than a relaxing hotel pool swim in about 8 years; and being exhausted from spending the day exploring the city the day before, followed by my 5am start.

Nonetheless, slow and steady won the race and after a quick breather, we then had to do a 10-min tread water. Again, not the most fun activity, but the instructors were able to take our minds off of the arduous task by going round the group and getting us to introduce ourselves and explain why we wanted to learn to dive, making the time pass by quickly.

Done and dusted, next up was to learn how to set up the equipment. We were each equipped with a BCD, which is the diving vest everything else is hooked up to; a tank of air; and our regulators and computers. It’s very important to get everything right (again, you don’t want to die), of course meaning it wasn’t the simplest of processes, so the instructors have a rule of getting you to do it four times to make sure you know what goes where and what everything is.

Gearing up meant sliding (more like struggling) into our wetsuits and boots, slipping on a weight belt (they didn’t tell me it would be heavy), and then shrugging on our diving gear. By my estimation, the diving gear was about 20-25kg, the weight belt 9kg, and that’s not including the weight of mask, snorkel, fins, and wetsuit. Needless to say, I was carrying around over half my body weight, which was not an easy task!

Thankfully, getting into the water took some of the weight off, and so began our day of Confined Water Modules. Here we were learning everything we’d need to know in the ocean, but in the comfort of a swimming pool. Initially, it was just getting used to all the equipment – managing your buoyancy between the weight and air that you fill your BCD with, learning how to use fins, becoming comfortable with the fact that you can spend more time underwater than you would be able to holding your breath. It was quite the learning curve.

We also had to learn the different hand gestures (remember, you can’t speak underwater) for checking you’re okay and all the different skills we would need to know – including the ones you hope you don’t actually have to use, such as ‘out of air’ and ‘emergency ascent’. Once they’d been demonstrated, we practiced them – from losing or sharing your regulator, to removing or flooding your mask underwater (I hated that one). Lots and lots to remember – not the easiest thing to do when really all you want to do is sleep.

Once we’d passed all our Confined Water Modules, it was time to take it to the ocean. We hopped in the bus to travel down to Tweed Heads in NSW (new region, yay!) We set up our gear again, and then headed into the water. Here we were to practice what we’d learnt in the pool but in this new environment. Our group split into two, each group with a different instruction, and we descended into the depths.

To be honest, it was pretty grim. Visibility was utterly appalling that day, and you couldn’t really see more than a metre in front of your face, made even worse by the sand and silt we were kicking up when we got to the bottom; and believe me when I say not being able to see while you’re stuck at the bottom of the ocean is a pretty scary feeling. One of the girls in our group had an issue with her mask (which I’m sure would have made me panic – who wants things to go wrong at this point?) so our instructor headed back to the surface with her, leaving the three of us alone at the bottom.

Again, it’s a pretty scary feeling sitting on the ocean floor without anyone around to help if anything goes wrong, and not being able to talk to your buddies at all, just using the hand gestures that we were trying to remember from early. The best idea I had that day was to start playing rock, paper, scissors. Silly, I know, but focusing on something like that was so important in keeping us calm and collected before our instructor returned.

Then, it was time to do our drills. They were significantly less nice than they had been in the pool – ‘losing your regulator’ means getting icky saltwater in your eyes, and flooding your mask means burning your eyes with the salt which stings even after you’ve cleared it out. But good to know how to do it, worst comes to worst.

After about twenty minutes, we returned to the surface. Honestly, the worst part of the day was trying to get out of the water. It’s easy to forget about the weight on your body when the water’s holding it up, but it all came back as soon as I tried to pull myself out; and a few of us needed help to be hauled out of the water because the weight and exertion of the day had taken its toll.

Back in the bus, Day 1 was done. If you’d asked me how I felt about scuba diving after the first day, my response would have been something along the lines of ‘I’m glad I did it, but I don’t think it’s for me’. Having my first dive have been a pretty unpleasant one, due to the awful visibility and the nasty-but-essential drills we’d had to do, the fear that my mask would fill with water and I’d panic or my regulator would be pulled out of my mouth and I’d swallow a ton of seawater with no way to spit it out; it’s not the nicest feeling. I was going home saying ‘it’s only one more day, I’m sure I can get through it’, and was pleased to know I wasn’t the only one in our group thinking that.

Day 2 was even earlier, and I woke up ahead of schedule full of nervous energy about the day. Hiring an Uber to the dive academy as it was too early for trains to run, there was less chaos that morning and it was a simple case of jumping in the van and heading down south.

Tweed Heads was our only destination of the day, and we were to complete the other three of our four open water dives to be qualified. Thank the good Lord, because the visibility was far superior, and it’s amazing just how much of a difference this makes. It’s significantly less terrifying when you can actually see your surroundings, your buddies, your instructors!

Our first dive was more drills, but even these were better as getting seawater in your eyes and mouth seemed a bit less horrible now we knew what to expect. We had to do emergency ascents, which do funny things to your ears; but then got to do a bit of an obstacle course around some of the things on the ocean floor (highlights including a barnacle encrusted trolley). I was having trouble with my buoyancy here, floating up and away no matter how hard I tried to come down; which added to the frustration of not being able to speak and say ‘how do I fix this?!’

Back on the surface, I was told this was probably due to my shallow breathing. I’d noticed I was using less air than my counterparts, probably because my natural reaction was to store that little bit of air that I’d entered the water with and thus only breathe in and out a little amount as I went along – more air in your body means more buoyancy, so my task was to try and fix that next time round.

For our second dive of the day, we learnt to navigate using our compass and scouted a route out to sea, as well as some buddy lifesaving skills and anything else we needed to cover off in the ocean. All our skills out of the way, and it was finally time to do something just for fun. This started off not-so-fun as we had to traipse up the road with all that weight on our backs to get to the beach, but we then scuba-ed downstream, which was actually very nice given the visibility. This was what scuba was meant to be – seeing fish, your fellow divers, and revelling in the fact that you are somewhere that humans are not supposed to be; rather than the icky conditions we’d had the day before. Honestly, I could’ve stayed there for even longer.

We did it! It was a half celebratory / half tired ride back to the dive academy where we were told it was ultimately our choice if we passed the Open Water Course. We’d passed all the drills, but the instructors left it up to us to decide whether we felt able to take that and use it on our own. I thought this was a good thing to do, as even though you may have been taught everything you need to know, of course you can still doubt whether you feel comfortable enough with it, and may be better off doing another course to cement it. However, after the day’s events, I felt confident in my ability, and was signed off as an official PADI diver! We finished up cleaning off our kit, and then it was up to us to take our new diving knowledge and use in the world.

I am indeed glad that I did the course, and hope to be able to use it to explore some of the amazing places around the world and see things that only a fraction of the population get to see. What I would hark to anyone thinking of doing the PADI Open Water Course is the knowledge that the first day of your course may suck! The drills are not the most fun thing to do, and depending on the water quality, your first dive might not be very nice – but this does not mean all dives will be like this! I’m glad I gave it a chance and look forward to using my skills more in the future. 

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! Are there any other experiences you think I should try during my time in Australia? Drop me a message in the comments below and be sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to keep up to date on all the fun things I get up to - thanks for reading!