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Scuba Certification - Feature
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Bucket List Experience: Scuba Certification

Scuba Certification -bubbles

Getting my Scuba certification has long been on my bucket list, But I’ve kept on letting life get in the way. This summer I was determined to learn how to Scuba dive. I love being in the water, love skin diving but I’ve always wanted to go deeper. So becoming scuba certified was an obvious next step for me.

A local dive shop was having a summer special, so I decided to take advantage of it and finally fulfill my dream of becoming a mermaid.  Check out my other bucket list post Swimming With Turtles and my Thalassophile post to understand my love of the ocean.

There are a few steps you need to complete in order to become certified, Knowledge Development, Confined Water Dives & Open Water Dives. Once you complete these steps satisfactorily you will be certified.

Scuba Certification -boat setup

 

Knowledge Development:

This part of the course teaches you the theory of diving and the procedures necessary to do it safely. You can start learning about Scuba diving by either doing the online course, reading and studying from the book, in a classroom or watching the official PADI videos online. It all depends on what your local dive shop offers. My training was a combination of reading the book, classroom time and the PADI videos. To complete the knowledge development section of the course, you must complete the mini quizzes and then at the end get at least 75% or higher on your final exam.

 

Confined Water Dives:

This is where you will learn the function of all that equipment and how to use it safely in a pool. You will learn and practice basic skills in a controlled environment to help you get familiar and comfortable with the equipment. Some of the things you learn and practice during your confined water dives are taking off/putting on your gear in the water, taking off your mask, clearing your mask of water, sharing air and becoming familiar with important hand signals etc.

 

Scuba Certification -Shark Family

 

Open Water Dives: 

The final step to you scuba certification is your open water dives. For this part of the course you will need to complete 4-5 open water dives. During these dives you will demonstrate the skills you learned in the pool portion of your training. Things like flooding and clearing your mask, descending, recovering your regulator, ascending to the surface etc.

Scuba Certification - divers


Scuba Certification -Scuba Selfie

Once you successfully demonstrate all of the required skills you will receive your certification card. Your certification card confirms your training and allows you to engage in recreational open water diving.

I had such an awesome time learning how to scuba dive. The first breath I took underwater was all I needed to get me hooked. For my open water dives we had a variety of sites so each time I got to see something different. The blue hole dive was my favorite, there was the most activity here, sharks, stingrays and loads of fish. Overall it was a great experience and I am glad that I finally completed it.

Check out my video to see what its like below the surface:

 

 

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