Open Water Diver
Explore The Other 75% Of The World By Becoming A Scuba Diver.
 When people are looking for scuba lessons in Decatur and surrounding areas, Dive Sports is the logical choice. Dive Sports provides the most popular scuba diving class in the world, and certainly the most popular in North Alabama. The PADI Open Water Scuba Diver program is the beginning class for new participants in scuba diving. In this class, you learn all of the basic skills necessary to be a safe, fun scuba diver for life. This class is a combination of home-study academic skills development, in-water skills development in a local swimming pool, and open water check-out dives to test your skills learning and to advance your skill level. Upon completion of this class, you will be awarded the PADI Open Water Scuba Diver certification, the most coveted scuba diving credential in the world. When you present the PADI Open Water Scuba Diver card at a dive store, dive charter operation, or exotic resort, you are recognized as being among the best trained divers in the world. Your PADI Open Water Scuba Diver certification card give you access to all scuba services, including equipment rentals, dive boat charters, cylinder fills and rentals, anywhere in the world. When you receive this training credential, you will number among the large majority of scuba divers in the world that have the prestige of learning through the PADI training system.
Open Water Scuba Training is Completed in 3 Easy Steps:
1. At Home Academic Knowledge Development. When you enroll in your PADI/Dive Sports Open Water Diver Scuba class, you will receive the PADI Go Dive Student Crew Pack or will purchase your seat in the PADI eLearning virtual classroom, the most scientifically based training materials for scuba diving available anywhere. Your home study will be completed using the patented PADI training process, a "knowledge acquired" program that measures your mastery of skills against an established set of standards, instead of mandating certain number of hours or days of training. This system assures you that you learn all of the academic essentials necessary to be a safe and confident scuba diver. The companion PADI Go Dive DVD provides video and audio companion material, paced with the Go Dive text book, for further enhancement of your at-home learning experience. The five chapter Go Dive manual that comes with your student kit provides you with the information necessary to advance to the confined water skills development sessions. Each chapter includes a written quiz to measure your skills acquisition and learning of the materials presented. Upon completion of the home study process, you will be ready to begin the second phase of your training.
 2. Confined Water Skills Development. Upon completion of the academic study, you will meet your other classmates for one of our scheduled Confined Water Skills Development weekends. These sessions are typically offered at least monthly throughout the year. The Confined Water weekends include two days of work on academics and in-water skills. Each of the two mornings begin with a 2-3 hour classroom session where you review your academic home-study material and learn about additional topics unique to our typical diving locations. Traditional home-study students will also take the PADI Final Examination on the second morning. The afternoons are spent in the indoor pool learning the actual water skills necessary to progress you to your final goal. During these two afternoon sessions, you will learn all of the basic water skills necessary to make you a safe scuba diver for life. The Dive Sports instructors are PADI Professional Master Scuba Diver Trainers and they follow the time-tested PADI in-water teaching process. These pool sessions make you well prepared to move to the final part of your scuba diving training.........open water training and checkout dives.
3. Open Water Check-Out Dives. The dives necessary to complete your scuba diver training are conducted at an actual open-water diving venue. Here you demonstrate your mastery of the skills previously learned in the confined water sessions as well as learning a few additional skills unique to the open water environment. We also reserve plenty of time during these dives to simply swim underwater, have fun, and enjoy your first sights of the underwater world. These dives are again offered on the weekend, and are comprised of 4 training dives over a two-day period. We offer these dives at various locations during the year, often dependent on local water temperatures and diving conditions. We are currently using the facilities at Vortex Springs, Florida and various local commercially operated dive sites. The Open Water Checkout Dive weekend is not necessarily conducted on the immediate weekend after confined water training. You can schedule your open water weekend from many offered throughout the year.
Open Water Course Costs.
We want to make sure that you completely understand what you will be spending in you efort to become a certified Open Water Diver. While we cannot definitively say what each student will spend (due to differences in personal tastes when purchasing personal equipment), we can provide an accurate estimate based on past buying habits by our customers.
Course Tuition. Your tuition fee covers the instructor fee for both the Confined Water training and the Open Water Checkout Dives. The tuition fee also covers the cost of a rental regulator, buoyancy compensator, diving gauges, wetsuit, and tank rental and air fills for the entire length of your training course. However, the tuition DOES NOT include the personal equipment that each student must provide or the cost of travel expenses for the Open Water Checkout Dives.
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Course Tuition Fee........................................... |
$220.00 |
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TOTAL........................................................... |
$220.00 |
Home Knowledge Development. Each student must also complete advance home study prior to starting their Confined Water skills development session. This requires study materials. Most students choose the printed study materials, called the Go Dive Crew Pack. We also offer a completely internet based home study program called PADI eLearning.
Go Dive Printed Crew Pack Option * The Go Dive Crew Pack includes the PADI Open Water Diver Manual, the PADI RDP, and the PADI Open Water Student Log Book. Each student must have their own personal Go Dive Crew Pack.
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PADI Go Dive Crew Pack *............................ |
$64.00 |
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TOTAL............................................................ |
$64.00 |
* To assist you with better understanding of your home study materials, you may also choose to purchase the companion PADI Go Dive DVD for only $42. This DVD contains lots of video clips and other materials to assist with understanding the material in the Open Water Textbook as well as a preview of the skills you will learn in the Confined Water portion of your training. When used along with the Go Dive Crew Pack, this DVD will make the material much more understandable and fun.
PADI eLearning Option. You can now take advantage of the new PADI eLearning option to complete your home study requirements. Those who purchase PADI eLearning must also purchase a PADI RDP and a logbook. We sell these items in a kit called an Open Water eLearning Enrichment Pack.
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PADI eLearning Fee........................................ |
$120.00 |
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PADI Enrichment Pack.................................... |
$44.00 |
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TOTAL........................................................... |
$164.00 |
Personal Equipment Costs. Each student must provide certain equipment items for the Open Water Course. Each student must provide a scuba quality mask, snorkel, fins, neoprene boots, and soft weight equal to approximately 10% of their body weight. Additionally, some students also choose to buy their own wetsuits or other items. Due to the variety of equipment available and different style and choices made by individuals, we cannot exactly predict what each student will spend on personal equipment. However, using our historical sales data, we can identify what a TYPICAL student might choose. Those typical items are used for the demonstration below. Please ask us about specific prices on other models and brands.
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Tusa Liberator Mask........................................ |
$42.00 |
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ScubaMax Dry Snorkel.................................... |
$29.00 |
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TUSA X-Pert Zoom Split Fins......................... |
$99.00 |
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ScubaMax Molded Sole Boots........................ |
$49.95 |
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Soft Bag Weight - 16 Pounds........................... |
$64.00 |
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TYPICAL TOTAL COST.............................. |
$283.95 |
*These Prices Subject to Change With Market Conditions
Check Out Dive Costs. During the second weekend of your Open Water Scuba Training, you will travel to an open water dive site to complete your open water checkout dives. These dives are done under actual dive conditions and are all under the direct supervision of your instructor. While the instructor's fee is covered in your course tuition, you will be responsible for the costs of travel and entry fees for the location we choose. We typically conduct these dives at one of two places......Vortex Springs Dive Park in Ponce De Leon, Florida or at local scuba parks during the warmer months of the year. The Vortex Spring option requires an overnight stay, and we offer a single rate for the diving entry fees, lodging costs, as well as other amenities. For the local park weekends, you will be responsible for entry into the park for each of the two days. No overnight stay is required for local park weekends.
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Vortex Spring Weekend................................... |
$180.00 |
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Local Park Entry - 2 Days................................ |
$40.00 |
Optional Costs. Many students choose to purchase additional items for use in their training. Often times, students prefer their own personal wetsuit instead of using the suits from our rental fleet. These are available in many styles, colors and prices. In addition, many will purchase mask defog, a mesh carry bag, dive watches, hoods, or diving gloves. If you have any questions about the required or optional equipment, please give us a call at (256) 350-1122 or visit the product pages of this website by using the category links in the left hand navigation bar.
 Health and Fitness, Liability Waivers, and Other Issues. Even though scuba diving is not a strenuous activity sport, you must be in reasonably good medical health to learn to dive. A doctors physical examination is not required to learn to dive, unless you have an identified risk condition in your medical history. Prior to attending your class, you will complete a PADI Medical Statement that asks specific questions about your past and present physical and health condition. If you are able to answer NO to each of these questions, you simply sign the statement and you are ready to attend class. If you must answer YES to any of the conditions indicated on the Medical Statement, we will need you to obtain your doctor's signature stating the you are cleared to learn to dive. We seldom have a student whose doctor is unable to give the clearance. In many cases, your family doctor will know enough to determine your fitness to dive without an examination. You should also be in good physical condition. Learning to dive does involve some lifting (the scuba tanks which weigh about 40 pounds), walking, and of course, swimming. You must also have some surface swimming ability and that ability will be tested as a natural part of the confined water training. The Medical Statement is available for download by clicking the link below.
You will also be required to complete several additional documents prior to beginning your scuba class. The PADI Liability Waiver and Express Assumption of Risk document is a legal contract where you agree that you are undertaking an adventure sport that has some risk. The document is your agreement to waive your rights to recover monetary damages from PADI, Dive Sports, or your instructor in the event of an accident during your training. The PADI Standard Safe Diving Practices and Statement of Understanding is a listing of 10 guidelines you should follow anytime you are conducting a scuba dive. Your signature on this document is your agreement that you will abide by these rules during your training and during any subsequent scuba dives. These two documents are available for download by clicking the links below.
Pre-Class Checklist: We have developed a checklist to help prospective Open Water Students know exactly what is required of them before the first day of class. Please print both of these forms and make sure you have completed all of the items required before the first day of your class.
Availability of Classes. One of the most unique aspects of the PADI/Dive Sports Learn to Dive program is that you can begin your scuba diving learning process anytime you desire. While we do require you to enroll in one of our regularly scheduled Confined Water Weekend classes to reserve your place in this space-limited event, your dive training begins as soon as you sign up! You leave our store with your PADI Go Dive Student Kit or your PADI eLearning "seat" in the virtual PADI online classroom. You can then begin the home study portion of your skills development immediately. Throughout your home study process, the Dive Sports PADI Instructors are available by phone or email for consultation on any study issue that may arise. Sign-up for the Open Water Checkout dive weekend can be accomplished a the time you enroll in the Confined Water Class, or you can make your choice for this final weekend after completion of the pool work.
Still Have Questions About Learning to Dive? We are always willing to spend as much time as possible helping you fully understand the Dive Sports training process. We have assembled a rather exhaustive series of frequently asked questions. You can follow the link below to access those questions. If you still need further information, call us at (256) 350-1122.
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