Are OW Referral dives less fun than uncertified (Discover Scuba) dives on vacation?

[julie248]

I have a vacation coming up in Thailand and live in New York. I did a few Discover Scuba dives while on vacation at the Great Barrier Reef a few years ago, and I've wanted to eventually get Open Water certified since then. My Thailand vacation will be with a friend who has never been scuba diving at all, so I want to make diving plans that are compatible with her doing Discover Scuba dives on this trip.

I'm debating whether to just repeat more Discover Scuba dives while in Thailand, hoping that the instructors will put me in a group of divers with some previous experience, so it won't be very rudimentary. Alternatively, I could do the class/pool work in New York and then OW dives in Thailand. This is tempting, but will the skill checks during the OW dives make them less fun than just doing Discover Scuba dives? I want to be able to look around and enjoy the scenery too.

I gave some thought to doing the entire OW course in New York, but it's less than ideal given the high local cost and the inconvenience of getting to an OW dive site two states away (when I don't have a car or a desire to spend an entire weekend doing so). Plus, even if I had the OW certification, my friend wouldn't, so I wouldn't have anyone I knew and trusted to dive with anyway on this trip. If I don't get ceritified while in Thailand, then perhaps I could plan a Caribbean trip for that purpose next spring.

Anyway, how involved are the skill checks for the OW dives? Would the dives still be fun and let me see what there is to see? Would OW dives be more or less fun than Discover Scuba dives?

 

[Hawkwood]

Your skills will take only a small portion of each dive - 10 minutes (?), and then the rest of the dive time will be a "tour". We did our referrals in St. Lucia and our four dives were approximately 45 minutes each - plenty of time to enjoy the scenery and "dive".

 

[Cheeky_Dragon]

Do the class/pool at home and after the referral dives you've got a lot more choices for dives

 

[diveprof]

Agreed. do the class work/pool at home and then the ow dives on vacation. Get the certification so on future trips you can go diving vs. training.

 

[racerx_]

+1

i did my open water as a referral course in Tioman island in malaysia.. did 2 fun dives after the course, but actually my open water dives were better than the fun dives lol.. if you're in a good spot, you'll get some cool diving in plus you'll walk out certified.. worth it

 

[DevonDiver]

Your skills will take only a small portion of each dive - 10 minutes (?), and then the rest of the dive time will be a "tour". We did our referrals in St. Lucia and our four dives were approximately 45 minutes each - plenty of time to enjoy the scenery and "dive".

That depends on the number of students in a class. Allowing 10 minutes per diver in the class. With the big 'sausage factory' dive operations who routinely put 8 students in a class, you can sometimes get very little 'fun dive' time on training dives. It's one reason to research your training provider carefully.

For the OP: Some places in Thailand (such as Koh Tao) are ridiculously cheap for scuba diving. A full OW course can cost not much more than a DSD in more expensive locations. Many of the schools will do the course in 3 days. If you negotiate, you can get free accommodation with the course etc. Very competitive market for dive centres - which is definitely to the customers advantage!

If Koh Tao is on your itinerary (or could be), I'd recommend you look at Master Divers, for a small, exclusive service at competitive prices with the sausage factory schools on the island. Ayesha (the owner/instructor) is here on Scubaboard. There's quite a few other Thailand based instructors here on SB...check out the Thailand regional forum

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

I did my open water referral in Hawaii and after doing our skills we also did a swim around. so it wasn't just skills. how involved they are depends on how well you do them. The 2 places I've dove I notice the discover and the OW went out at the same time since both of them were done in shallow water, but with different instructors, if that's the case maybe you can join your friend after you've done your skills. Email the instructor, most of them are willing to work with you. Maybe you should try to get your friend to try discover at one of the dive shops with a pool, or pool access in NY then both of you can get certified togather.

 

[oly5050user]

if you choose to do any of the course or discover scuba here in NY and can get to Yonkers I can get your needs met. I have 24hr 7 day a week access to a indoor heated pool at a dive shop.Pool is onsite, no need to travel anywhere else. Any schedule that fits your needs. Can do required academics and confined water (pool) requirements and issue a referral to you to complete ow training elsewhere.Or I can also complete ow training dives locally out of New Rochelle,no need to travel to Dutch Springs in Penn. pm me here if interested.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

My wife and I did our OW/AOW with PADI eLearning and then went to Mexico for the dives. The key is, as others have said, class size. We hired Alvaro (AlwaysDiving.com) and it was just the three of us. We drifted around the reef, and periodically Alvaro would indicate to one or the other of us that he wanted us to demonstrate a given skill. By the end of each dive, you'd done all that you needed too, but there was never any time where you really felt like you were being tested. It was all very relaxed, and UBER-fun.

 

[RTee]

You got very good suggestions so far. Just keep in mind that in all likelihood, you will only require four dives...ie two half days to complete your certification and after that you will have all remaining time of your stay to do real fun dives as a qualified diver.

Going back to Devon's post, especially if the price is right, your friend could possibly come back with more than DSD experience from Thailand as well.