As if the sea wasn’t appealing enough, it turns out there is an entire watery realm of worldly proportion hiding underneath our hulls. What’s more, as well as being blessed with some spectacular wildlife and geological formations around our shores, thanks to our illustrious history of being competent seaman who sank anything that looked vaguely valuable or foreign, the UK has the largest amount of shipwrecks doting its coast than any other nation.

In short, we boaters are floating above a veritable treasure trove of underwater delights that are really worth exploring. Plus once you can dive, there’s always the option of globetrotting off to exotic waters to stare at neon coloured fish. Having flirted with snorkelling for years, I decided it was finally time to become an amateur aquanaut and put down a course for my local PADI centre.

Homework

Think of the PADI Open Water course as the equivalent to Powerboat Level Two – you’re going to get the skills of the entire discipline delivered in a single package and though it will make you a competent beginner diver, it is only the start of the journey and you’ll learn many more skills afterward. Courses are taught different ways but typically you’ll spend about a day in the classroom and two in a swimming pool before heading out to open water to finish the course.

But when you sign up to the PADI Open Water course, it’s not simply a case of plonking yourself down in a classroom, hooking yourself into a coffee machine and watching ‘how to dive’ videos. Prior to the start date, you’ll be supplied a large amount of homework so by the time you get to your day in the classroom, you’ll already be familiar with all the basic concepts of diving from how to choose your equipment, ascending and descending and even how to calculate and plan your dives either using a dive computer or a dive planner, the latter depending on where you learn. PADI has also launched PADI eLearning, so you can now do the theory part of your course completely online. Head over to www.padi.com and look for the elearning tab at the top of the page for more details.

For the full article on the PADI Open Water course, and to take advantage of our unique reader’s offer, make sure you pick up the October issue of Sports Boat and RIB, out from the 15^th September.

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