Able to complete my PADI open water certification on site?

[kmaass]

Hello all, I am very new to this and have a newbie question. I want to go diving next month but have never taken any classes or got my certification. If I take the pool classes and the academic portion can I complete an open water dive on my vacation? I will be with an instructor who I believe will be PADI certified, does simply diving with him fulfill the open water part of the certification, or does it need to be an actual lesson?

I also live in Manhattan, NYC. What would be the best place to go? I was just looking at Adventure Scuba NYC.

 

[Codiak]

You can do a referral during your vacation and it's a class sit rep. Contact you local shop for details.

 

[herman]

You can do your pool and classroom/e-learning at home then do a referal once you get to your vacation location, assuming there is a shop there that will do referals. There most likley will be but you need to make sure and make sure you have all the necessary paperwork before leaving home. Once you get there, will need to do 4 training dives that consists of doing the same skills you learned in the pool plus some swimming around. You will most likely also have to do a dive or 2 in a pool for your new instructor to evaluate your skills, no good instructor is going to just take someones word for it. The instructor you are traveling with could do the training as well but if they are on vacation they may not want to take a couple of days of their vacation to work for you, that you have to discuss with them.

 

[oly5050user]

Hello all, I am very new to this and have a newbie question. I want to go diving next month but have never taken any classes or got my certification. If I take the pool classes and the academic portion can I complete an open water dive on my vacation? I will be with an instructor who I believe will be PADI certified, does simply diving with him fulfill the open water part of the certification, or does it need to be an actual lesson?

I also live in Manhattan, NYC. What would be the best place to go? I was just looking at Adventure Scuba NYC.

As other have said you can complete all academic learning in a classroom or complete it on PADI elearning site.The confined water (pool) also can be completed here in NY and you will take a referral with you to the new location. I will pm you with other options.

 

[PatW]

I understand that doing all of the classroom and pool work and then going to a resort and doing the checkout dives is pretty standard. I have seen people at dive resorts doing their check out dives.

The obvious thing to do is to check with your shop and with the resort or dive operator you are going to and make sure that they can handle the situation. Get the whole thing documented in email or email attachments. Obviously, you do not want to get down to the resort and find out that you have to repeat the course and pool work.

 

[Crowley]

The referral is indeed standard and many divers choose this option. It is valid for 12 months and a referral can happen after completing any portion of the Open Water Course - as long as the student diver has met the requirements of each section it can occur at any point in training.

The receiving dive centre or instructor is, by PADI standards, required to assess in-water skills and comfort level and generally assess dive knowledge before continuing the program. How they do this and what they charge for it depends on the centre or instructor, how much of the course has been completed, and the interval between referral and completion. It's a good idea to contact the dive centre in advance.

If a shop is requiring you to start from scratch even though you are half way through the program, ignore them and find a centre that is more interested in you than your money.

If you are bringing your own instructor with you, again, check up front with the dive centre you want to visit. Some will allow a non-staff instructor to teach, some won't. There might be legal or insurance/liability issues behind that decision, so don't write them off instantly if they say no; again, talk to them up front.

Never been to NY so can't help there but if you look around SB I am sure you will find somebody! Don't forget to check out the regional dive travel forums.

Good luck and have fun!

C.

 

[caseybird]

Pan Aqua is a good shop in Manhattan.
Scuba Diving with Pan Aqua Diving in New York City - Home Page

 

[kmaass]

Great info everybody, I appreciate the help and replies!