Your friend just came home from an amazing vacation where they learned how to start scuba diving and told story after story about diving around tropical coral reefs teeming with fish and other strange and fantastic creatures. Now you want to get your scuba certification so that you can experience this entirely new world, too.
When you ask the internet, you get bombarded with pages of scuba diving lessons, but how do you know which beginner scuba diving course is the right one for you?
Understanding the differences between beginner courses is the key to making the right choice. Let’s take a closer look at your options and why most divers choose to begin with an Open Water certification.
How to Start Scuba Diving: Choosing Your First Course
There is more than one way to learn how to start scuba diving. The beginner scuba diving course for you depends on your goals, the time you have available, and your future plans for diving.
Understanding the differences between these beginner scuba diving lessons will help you choose the right path from day one.
Your Beginner Scuba Course Options
If your goal is to learn how to start scuba diving, you have three choices: Basic Diver, Scuba Diver, and Open Water Diver. While each of these courses will take you underwater, each will do it in different ways and give you different scuba certifications.
SSI Scuba Diver
The Open Water Course takes place over several days, so if you don’t have that long, but still want to get a scuba certification, then the SSI Scuba Diver program is a great choice. If you choose to sign up for the Scuba Diver course, you will complete about half of the Open Water course, including online academics, confined water training, and two open water dives.
These scuba diving lessons come with limitations as well. After certification, you will not be able to dive independently with another buddy, and your maximum depth is shallower than that of an Open Water certified diver.
A big advantage of the SSI Scuba Diver program, however, is that it can be a stepping stone to the Open Water Course. If you’re short on time, you can complete the Scuba Diver course at Crystal Dive, and then upgrade to the Open Water beginner scuba diving course at another shop. All you have to do at the new shop is complete the remaining academics, three more confined water sessions, and two more open water training dives.
Certification: Scuba Diver certification, maximum depth of 12 meters.
SSI Open Water Diver
In almost all scenarios, for all travellers, the full Open Water Scuba diver course is going to be your best choice to learn how to start scuba diving. This course is the most well-recognized beginner scuba diving course in the world, especially with people who love to travel.
Once you are Open Water Diver certified, you can dive independently (without a professional) with a dive buddy, to a maximum depth of 18 meters. And while 18 meters may not sound deep enough to visit the coolest dive sites in the world, you may be surprised.
This scuba certification will open up the vast majority of recreational dive sites around the world. This particular scuba diving lesson truly is your ticket to vibrant coral reefs and the underwater history the ocean holds just below the surface.
Certification: Open Water Diver certification, maximum depth of 18 meters.
Why Most New Divers Choose Open Water
The best, and most obvious, reason to choose the SSI Open Water course is the fact that at the end of all of your hard work, you get a real scuba certification. Is it ‘just’ a card in your digital SSI app? Sure, it is. But that digital card can open up whole new worlds for you.
Let’s go through why the Open Water Diver course is the most popular choice to learn how to start scuba diving.
You’re already investing the time in beginner scuba diving
When you take a beginner scuba lesson of any kind, you will need to invest some time. Because it is a sport that requires specific knowledge, every beginner scuba diving course will require an investment of time.
But learning how to start scuba diving is also an investment in terms of money. The Scuba Diver course will cost you money, but not give you any kind of certification afterwards. With a bit more investment of time and money, you will gain the training you need to have more freedom underwater.
Plus, if you get your Open Water Diver certification straight away, you can immediately move into advanced scuba courses, and that’s where things really get fun.
It costs less in the long run
The reality is that many people who choose the Scuba Diver course end up loving diving and choose to upgrade to the Open Water course right then and there. There’s nothing wrong with this, but we should be completely honest about how taking this beginner scuba diving course may affect your travel budget.
You usually end up paying more overall if you go from Scuba Diver to Open Water Diver instead of just doing the full Open Water Course right away. SSI dive centres will usually charge a normal course fee for Scuba Diver, but also charge an upgrade fee should you choose to move up to Open Water Diver.
This may seem strange to many people. If you are doing half the course in Scuba Diver, should it not simply be half the price? If you upgrade, should you not just pay just the second half of the amount?
Logically, that makes sense. However, the combined cost is always going to be a bit higher because there’s more administrative work when planning two courses, more scuba certifications to issue, and the dive centre can’t be as efficient.
Start with the Scuba Diver course if that’s what makes you comfortable. But if you’re looking to learn how to start scuba diving for real, then the full Open Water course is more the scuba diving lesson you’re looking for.
You’ll leave as a confident diver with a scuba certification
Confidence through repetition. It really is as simple as that. Confidence as a beginner scuba diver is not something you’re given. It’s something you earn. In your Open Water course, you will be asked to repeat the same skills several times so that by the end of the course, that skill feels less intimidating and more like muscle memory.
Learning how to start scuba diving includes both confined water sessions and open water dives. Splitting the course this way is actually quite strategic. The confined sessions are either in a pool or shallow water, usually just off a sandy beach.
During the confined sessions on a beginner scuba lesson, you practice the essential skills that every certified scuba diver needs to know, like removing and replacing your mask or locating a regulator that has come out of your mouth.
It opens the door to your future scuba diving adventures
The Open Water Diver course, or any other beginner scuba course, doesn’t have to be the end of your training. For a lot of divers, a beginner scuba lesson is the very beginning of their scuba diving journeys.
Once you have a scuba certification, you can dive almost anywhere you can travel, including world-famous destinations. A certification is the best way to turn a beach holiday into something more special.
After you’re certified, you can also choose to continue your education with the SSI Advanced Open Water course, or one of our speciality courses, which will further open up the underwater world to you.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to dive at night? Sign up for the Advanced Open Water scuba certification, and you’ll find out. Spoiler: it’s incredible.
What Your Open Water Course Actually Looks Like
The Open Water Course is the core beginner scuba course for people who want to learn how to start scuba diving. It does worry people, though, that they may need to prepare or do some physical training at home before they arrive for their beginner scuba course. While being fit won’t hurt, you do not need any specific level of physical fitness or previous diving experience to start the course.
The one thing to keep in mind is that you will need to know how to swim. This might seem obvious since you will be training to scuba dive in the open ocean, but there are people who arrive at Crystal Dive wanting to take a beginner scuba lesson, like Open Water, but have to learn some basic swimming skills first.
Are you one of these people? We have a wonderful swimming school on Koh Tao, Koh Tao Swim, that can teach you what you need to know to get your Open Water Diver scuba certification.
The course itself is broken down into four distinct sections that you will be guided through by one of our expert (in-house trained) SSI Instructors. These sections are designed to build on each other to help students build confidence and overcome any nervousness before moving into the open water portion.
- Theory: Learn the fundamentals of scuba diving, dive planning, equipment, and safety, usually done in one of our classrooms, or right on the beach in our restaurant or bar
- Practice essential skills in our private (and huge) training pool
- Open-water dives: Put your new skills into practice while exploring some of the 20+ dive sites that surround tiny Koh Tao
- Complete the course and earn a globally recognized SSI scuba certification.
Is a Beginner Scuba Diving Course Difficult?
This is probably the most common question we get from people interested in learning how to start scuba diving, but our answer is always the same. No, beginner scuba courses are not difficult, and, in fact, beginner scuba diving lessons are specifically designed for people who have never had any experience with scuba diving at all.
- You do not need any previous scuba diving experience.
- You do not need to own any of your own diving gear. We provide everything you need.
- You do not need to be an elite swimmer. But you will need to be comfortable in the water and be able to meet the basic swim requirements of whichever course you choose.
Your first scuba diving course could be challenging in places because you are learning a new skill, but our expert SSI instructors will demonstrate each skill before you try it, and they will keep practicing with you until you are fully comfortable.
Ready to Learn How to Start Scuba Diving?
They say that every fabulous journey starts with a single step. But we say it starts with a single fin kick.
How to start scuba diving is not as hard as you may think, and it may actually fit into your travel schedule. Sure, you can come to Koh Tao to experience our unique island vibe and energetic jungle parties, but in between, you can also make sure that you leave with something more valuable: a scuba certification.
The underwater world is waiting. Explore our beginner scuba courses or chat with our team to find the scuba diving lessons that are the perfect match for you.
