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Scuba Diving

The word "Scuba" stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Scuba Equipment was invented by Jacques Cousteau and some other guys in 1943. Scuba Diving enables humans to access an environment that is normally not accessible to the human body: The aquatic environment. It offers great adventures and experiences such seeing beautiful corals, fish and shipwrecks.

I am a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) and I have been teaching diving in Thailand and the Philippines. PADI stand for Professional Association of Diving Instructors and it is the largest recreational scuba diving organization. You can find PADI dive centers and resorts all over the world and more then 90% of all dive certifications issued each year is made by PADI dive instructors. Other diving organizations include NAUI, BSAC and CMAS. Basically they are all about the same thing: Scuba Diving, but each with different teaching approaches.

I did my PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses at the Gili Islands, Lombok, at Dive Indonesia.

After about 30 fun-dives in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand I did my Rescue and Divemaster courses at Koh Tao, in the golf of Thailand, at Planet Scuba. After 2 month of intensive dive training, I worked for about 3 month as a Divemaster at the Big Fish and Seashell dive resorts, also at Koh Tao. These great experiences lead me to do the PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) at Crystal Dive Resort.

At this point I wanted to experience diving in another area then Koh Tao, where I had spent the last 5 month. Two weeks later I was teaching my first Open Water course on Boracay Island in the Philippines! In fact, I got my first customer, a Canadian guy, on the plain flying from Manila to Boracay. I spent the next 4 month working as a Dive Instructor at WatorColors Diving Adventures, Boracay, see the following Photo Galleries.

Working as a Dive Instructor in Southeast Asia

Working as a Dive Instructor is a great job, but it can also be hard and demanding. Usually you will work 6-7 days a week, 8AM-5PM (or later if going on a night dive). In the high season you may sometimes do 3-4 dives on a day, but usually not more then 2. After that you feel pretty tired and sleepy; trust me! In the slow weeks with fewer customers you sometimes sit in the shop for several days without doing any work (reading books, playing games, having fun with the other staff, laying on the beach, etc). A large part of most Instructor jobs is being a good salesman. Especially if you work in a place like Boracay where there is a lot of competing dive shops selling the same PADI courses. Then you have to be proactive and get tourists in from the street (beach) and do all the sales talking: 'Our shop is the best place to take the Open Water course because�.bla, bla. We provide the best equipment and service�bla, bla, and so on.' You also need to be professional and trustworthy because people are putting there 'lives' into you're hands for a few days (and pay you a lot of money!). Here is some of the characteristics of a dive instructor job in Southeast Asia (that I have experienced):

You have to be a role-model for new divers.

You sometimes have to be an entertainer.

You have to be able to drink some beers when the students pass their courses (this is maybe 2-3 times a week).

You have to be patient in order to deal with many different personality types, e.g. some people are afraid of water but still want to learn how to dive; thats a challenge! Some times you feel more like a psychologist then an Instructor!

You will have to teach people a lot of (sometimes complicated) stuff in a very short time period (2-5 day) in a holiday environment.

You have great responsibility because you take new people down to sometimes 30 meters under the surface where things may go wrong if you do some mistakes.

You have to go diving even when you feel like lying on the beach or watching TV instead, because it's a job like anything else.

It's a very rewarding job! You are a part of a holiday experience and most people are very happy when they discover the fascinating world of Scuba Diving; and you are a part of this experience. You can sometimes get quit close to the customers because you spend up to two weeks together with them.

You have to be a part of selling dive courses to new potential divers in the area.

The more languages you speak the better! English, German, Scandinavian, Spanish, French, etc. The more languages you speak the more customers you can get.

You live in a tropical environment, most often on a beach, most of the time.

The can earn from US$200 to US$1500 a month (without tax!) depending on the number of customers and the season; thats a lot compared to the local price level most places.

Diving in Southeast Asia

I have been diving in Southeast Asia for about a year and I have about 400 dives in the following areas:

Gili Islands: Lots big stuff like sharks and turtles but the corals are suffering of bleaching (getting gray) and some areas have been destroyed by dynamite-fishing (this has been stopped now). A great effort is done to restore the corals there.

Bali: I have been diving in most of Bali on several occasions: Menjangang Island, Tulamban and the Liberty Wreck, Nuda Panuda (Manta Point and Crystal Bay). Bali offers some of the best diving around both in terms of coral and tropical fish diversity.

Borneo: I have dived around Kota Kinabalu that offers great diving and good possibilities to see turtles, cuttle fish and nice corals.

Thailand: I have mostly dived around Koh Tao whish offers some good dive spot like Chumphon where sharks is seen very often.

Philippines: I have dived around Boracay Island whish offers a lot of diversity, like deep dives, drift dives, etc, nice corals and lots of smaller sized tropical fish.

Diving Education

In the PADI system, basic and continued diving education ("Con-Ed") is essential. Compared to some of other organizations PADI is very focused on getting people into the water as soon as possible, e.g. doing basic swimming pool or confined water skills (skills: e.g. taking of the mask while under water, taking out the regulator, etc). The philosophy is to avoid overloading potential new divers with heavy theory and let get into the water almost 'strait away'; of cause under very controlled supervision by professionals. Then more theory can always be added later when you want to get more skills and knowledge.

The beginning scuba diving courses are:

Discover Scuba Diving: A half day program where you learn the basics about equipment, physics and physiology and learn to do the most basic skills in the pool (or shallow water), followed by a real open water dive to maximum 12 meters depth; everything together with an Instructor of cause. This is just an experience program and you don't get any certification out of it.

Scuba Diver: The first certification level where you get some more theory, pool skills and 2 open water dives including skills also, down to max 12 meters depth (under professional supervision).

Open Water Diver: This is the most popular PADI certification course with enables you to dive with a buddy (friend) without professional supervision down to max 18 meters depth. This course introduces more theory about physics (e.g. what is buoyancy?), physiology, environments, equipment, dive planning and basic underwater navigation skills. In conjunction with this, the student has to master about 20 swimming pool skills (in a number pool sessions) and four open water dives (also repeating some of the skills in the open water environment). Finally the student has to pass a theory exam covering all the theory (everybody can pass this!).

Some divers choose to stay with the Open Water certification and do 'fun dives' after that. Fun dives are dives without any educational purpose, i.e. diving just for fun and pleasure. Fun dives usually include a Divemaster that leads (guides) the divers, because the dive site orientation is usually not known to a new diver. The Divemaster is also responsible for showing all the greatest things on the dive site: Special corals, fish, etc, and do the navigation, so that the divers don't 'get lost' (or too far away from the boat).

Other divers want to continue their education and learn more about environments, special diving techniques, etc. For those the following courses are available:

Advanced Open Water (AOW): This course teaches how to dive in special environments and under special circumstances. This course includes some theory and 5 open water dives, where 2 of then is required: a deep dive (to 30 meters depth) and a navigation dive (more advanced navigation techniques). The student can choose the other three dive types, e.g. night dive (a great choice), drift dive (dives in strong current), peak performance buoyancy (improve the buoyancy control techniques, primarily using the lungs), wreck diving (what do and not to doing when diving a ship wreck), nitrox (more oxygen), photography, videography etc. In some areas of the world you can do more special things like ice diving, lake diving, altitude diving, cave diving, etc.

Rescue Diver / Emergency First Response: This course continues the AOW course and introduces a lot of rescue theory, skills and practice in open water. E.g. how do rescue and deal with an unconscious diver or a diver in total panic. How to handle and respond to physiological and physical stress. This is a very useful course and it's also the first course where you start getting the confidence, knowledge and practice to think about how to assist other people then yourself. This course also includes a regular First Aid / CRP course, also known as Emergency First Response (EFR). If you have the EFR course already, you don't need to take it again.

After the Rescue course you can choose to 'go pro' (as PADI likes to promote it). Basically this means, that by taking these courses you can start working as a professional in the dive industry, i.e. earn money! However, you can also take these courses and continue fun diving afterwards, just with better diving abilities, skills and knowledge. And the courses themselves are actually a lot of fun to take:

Divemaster: The Divemaster course is usually taken as an internship in a specific dive-shop. Here you get to work as an assistant for the shop staff Divemasters and Instructors. A Divemaster is a trained assistant and may assist Instructors during the conduct of dive courses, e.g. equipment preparation, logistics, student flow, maintenance, etc. Divemasters may also independently lead already certified divers on fun dives. The Divemaster course usually takes from one to three month and provides the student with a lot of diving theory and practical in-water training. The Divemaster trainee (DMT) needs to pass exams in physics, physiology, skills and environment, the recreational dive planning tables, and decompression theory. On the practical side, the DMT needs to assist on a contain number of open water courses, do some rescue skills, swimming tests, stress tests, navigation, dive site mapping techniques, and much more. After the Divemaster course as been passed it's possible to get a job in a dive shop and start earning money.

Instructor: After the Divemaster course it's usual to work for a while as a Divemaster to get some practical experience and see how a dive shop works and learn from more experienced Divemasters and Instructors. In order to start teaching courses, e.g. the Open Water course, to new people, you will have to become an Instructor. Only Instructors are allowed to teach courses and certify new divers. The Instructor course is a two week full time program called the Instructor Development Course (IDC) conducted by a Course Director, a person having reached the highest level (rank) in the PADI system, i.e. a very experienced professional. The IDC course is mostly about learning how to teach diving to new students, i.e. teaching techniques. It's a requirement that you have the Divemaster course, plus some extra experience (at least 100 dives), so it is assumed that you already have the needed diving skills and knowledge to become an Instructor. A large part of the course is about getting to know the 'PADI Bible', a 1000+ page manual specifying all PADI rules and standards (i.e. what each course must include). After two weeks intensive training, both in the pool and open water (simulating how to teach new students) and class room lectures, group work and presentations a three day examination awaits: the IE, Instructor Examination. In order to make sure that this exam is conducted in accordance with PADI rules and standards (specified in the 'Bible'), a number of independent PADI examinators, directly sent from one of their headquarters, conducts the examination. The exams consists of written theory exams (in physics, physiology, skills and environment, the recreational dive planning tables, and decompression theory), class room presentations, pool skill presentations and open water presentations. After three days and a lot of exams you know if you have passed or if you will need to attend another IE next month. When you have passed the Instructor Examination you are allowed to teach all courses from Discover Scuba up to Divemaster level. This is also known as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. After this you can continue the Instructor training to become a Master Scuba Diver Trainer, then a Staff Instructor, then a Master Instructor and finally; the 'God' of in the PADI system, a Course Director!

Some adventures people also chose to go into technical diving (Tech-Diving) wish normally means going very deep; beyond 50 meters depth. This kind of diving introduces a number of new dangers, challenges and special considerations and therefore special education, training and equipment is needed.

Diving Equipment

In order to go scuba diving you will need some equipment. The picture below shows some of the main dive gear:

From the top: Dive bag, BCD/regulator/gauges, fins and mask.

Normally dive shops rent out all gear, but like any other hobby, it's nice to have ones own gear. To work professionally it's required to invest in all the dive gear. To begin with, it's recommended to invest in a mask, snorkel and fins. The main dive gear is:

Mask: In order to see anything underwater a face mask is needed.

Snorkel: It's recommended to use a snorkel while at the surface, in order not to waist tank air.

Fins: To preserve energy while swimming at the surface and underwater, a pair of finds is essential.

Wetsuit: To keep the body warm, an insulating layer, i.e. a wetsuit or a dry suit, is needed. Even in tropical 30 Celsius degree water, a wetsuit is recommended.

BCD: A Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) is needed in order to adjust the buoyancy (Danish: opdrift) during the dive, i.e. to stay at one depths level without constantly ascending or descending (floating or sinking).

Regulator: A demand regulator (invented by Jacques Cousteau), is needed in order to supply air to the lungs at surrounding (ambient) pressure. You have the regulator in the month all time during the dive. There is also an extra regulator, called the octopus, which your friend may use in the case of an air supply problem.

Weight belt: In order to be slightly negative buoyant (to sink a bit, otherwise you will stay at the surface), a few kilos of weights is needed. Basically the need of weight depends on the amount of body fat and muscle: The fatter, the more weight is needed because fat floats and muscle sinks!

Air Tank: The air tank contains all the air needed to do a dive, usually around 40-50 minutes depending on depth (the deeper the more air is consumed) and experience level (new divers breath more heavily then more experiences divers).

Normally you don't buy weight belt and tanks; this is provided by the dive center or resort. In addition to the above gear, some additional pieces of equipment are nice to have:

Dive computer: Dive computer is needed in order to observe and record the depth profile of the dive. Using a dive computer looks like a big wrist watch. A dive computer continuously displays the current depths and bottom time. In addition to that it stores all information about the dive, so that you can track it afterwards.

Compass: A dive compass is very nice to have, especially if you dive without a dive guide. It is required to have compass in order to work as a Divemaster or Instructor.

Knife: A dive knife is also good to have in case of entanglement or dangerous animals (the last part is not PADI standard!)

I have the following gear: Aqua Lung Pro BCD, Aqua Lung Titan LX Regulator, Suunto Stinger diver computer, Mares Volo Power fins, Mares Mask and snorkel, 4mm wetsuit, Suunto Compass

Dive Environments

The dive environments are extremely different depending on where on the world you are. Despite of that, most of the basic dive theory and skills stays the same. Usually environments are divided into the following two main groups:

Warm/Tropical waters: This is where most diving takes place, because of the beautiful tropical corals and fish that exists in these areas, e.g. Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Great Barrier Reef, the Caribbean islands, etc. The warm waters also makes diving more physically pleasant and easy for knew diver to start, e.g. because of high visibility (15-40 meters).

Cold waters: Cold water, like here in Denmark, represents another challenge like exploring wrecks, and going down in low visibility to explore. Some places it is also possible to go on ice dives, using special equipment of cause.

Scuba diving gives a unique insight into the aquatic life under the surface. Usually divers are especially interested in environments containing one or more of the following elements: corals, rocks, fish and ship wrecks. Here are come of the things typically found in tropical waters:

Beautiful Corals; they are actually living organisms: