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- What is Padi?
- PADI is The
Professional Association of Diving Instructors
- PADI is the world's
largest and most widely recognized recreational scuba diver
training agency. As a PADI diver you will have earned the finest
and most respected diver credentials available.
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- What is Confined water
Training?
- Confined water
training or diving is basic skill development sessions conducted in
a pool or body of water having pool like conditions.
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- What is a BCD?
- Buoyancy
Control Device is the vest worn by divers used to adjust their
buoyancy allowing them to float on the surface or when underwater
like an astronaut experiencing zero gravity. The BCD also supports
the air cylinder and regulator plus any extra equipment the diver
may carry.
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- What is a SPG?
- The Submersible Pressure Gauge or SPG is an instrument used
by a diver to register the amount of air a diver has remaining in
his air cylinder during the course of a dive. The SPG measures air
in PSI-pounds per square inch much the same way a fuel gauge
measures fuel in a car in gallons.
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- What is a Regulator?
- The equipment used that permits the diver to breath the air
from the air cylinder. The regulator also provides the connection
of the SPG and the BCD to the air cylinder. The quality and
performance of a regulator is measured by how easy it breathes.
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- What is an Open Water Dive?
- A scuba dive made outside away from the confined water dive
site or pool. Usually a student's first scuba dive in the ocean on
a tropical reef.
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- Is it difficult to learn to
dive?
- Not for most
people. If you're comfortable in the water, and a reasonably good
swimmer, you should be able to learn scuba diving. (The only
swimming required by for the PADI certification is a 200-yard swim,
and floating or treading water for 10 minutes.)
- You'll soon
find that diving is actually much easier than swimming, because
there's no need to raise your head out of the water to get each
breath.
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- What does it mean to be
certified?
- It means
that you've learned basic scuba diving skills from a licensed
instructor, and are qualified to dive with a buddy, with or without
a divemaster present. Dive operators will require your
certification card before they let you dive with them.
- The
best-known certifying agency, particularly in the U.S., is the
Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
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- How long does it take to get
certified?
- If you're
getting full-day instruction from a dive shop, at a dive location,
then it depends on their schedule, class size, and how fast you
learn. The standard "Open Water Diver" certification will
typically be a four- or five-day process.
- If you're
just taking evening classes at home, once or twice a week, it will
probably take four to six weeks for this.
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