For a beginner it is not obvious what a diving course contains and while many scuba diving courses are very good - there are also examples of the opposite. Thailand - in the former days as a haven for backpackers and shell-shocked ex-pats earned a reputation as a risky place to learn diving. These days the industry is massive and overseen by several safety and governing bodies like SSI. Now - learning to dive in Thailand is both safe and worthwhile.
The most common course for new divers is the Open Water Diver. It is designed to teach divers to independently dive to a maximum depth of 18 meters/60feet. No previous experience is needed and most normally fit people will be able to meet the prerequisites. Read on....
Online Learning!
Instead of taking your valuable vacation time to read and study - why not begin your course right now? The new style of diving is looking forward and you will find that you can do much of your theory and reading online - this includes the reviews. You will still need to do the training sessions - and any good dive center will double check your online training.
Introductory Theory
The open water course has a relatively comprehensive section on basic dive theory. The material is well written and straightforward. Each chapter finishes with review questions. and the course finishes with a theoretical test of 50 questions.
Pool training
The course contains 5 pool sessions or confined water sessions. If you do these courses in your home country you will usually three to five sessions spread over a few weeks. If you do your course while on vacation - these sessions can be combined into two days. They are well thought out and focus on teaching a diver basic scuba skills. The goal is that the student should master the skills and if that is achieved all is good. Not many unnecessary skills are included and the sequencing is relevant. After finishing all confined sessions the student will be pretty well off in the open water.
The Open Water Dives
The course includes a minimum 4 open water dives. The first two to max 12 meters (45 feet) and the last two to max out at 18 meters/60 feet. Each dive has some skills to practice, but if you have paid attention in the pool, then it's quite easy to do the skills without "Wasting" any of your dive time!
Other reflections
Anyone doing this course should be aware that one has not mastered scuba diving after completing it. Major bits concerning self rescue and general rescue diving are missing and the requirements do not allow independent diving. That said - it is a good introduction and many people can become surprisingly good after only four dives. I strongly recommend doing 4-6 pleasure dives after attempting any other course simply to build more waterman-ship.
Overall impression
The planning and the material is of high quality. The negative sides includes that some students are targeted with repeated selling which can be annoying. Some courses are also over commercialised which means that the standards are followed only to allow a student to get certified and the quality of the training is somewhat lost Choose your school wisely. But all things said - SSI leads the way in diver training and with a bit of common sense this is an excellent introduction to scuba diving.
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