Cost of your course

[narkosis]

Here in Malaysia, PADI OW = USD315, incl. of RDP, manual, equipment rental, boat rental, meals, but own set of mask, snorkel, booties & fins.

NAUI AOW = $65 incl. equipment rental and all 5 dives with boat

 

[Wyno]

I paid $375 which included all books, 8 nights of classroom and pool sessions. This also included the open water certification on a live aboard boat for the weekend. I had to provide mask, snorkels, fins and booties.

 

[chepar]

I paid about $155, and we had to supply mask, fins, booties and snorkel.

It was a discount from the normal price of about $175, as it was done through our homeowner's association and we used the rec center pool for the confined water portion.

 

[Goldminer]

In 1996 I paid $CDN 149.00 (about $US 100 at the time) for a PADI open water diver. This included all gear rental for the training and the open water dives. They also loaned a PADI manual. I had to pay $35 for the PADI manual if I wanted to keep it (got a new one if I paid for it, used if it was loaned).

 

[jrtonkin]

You could argue that I paid about $3000 Cdn (~ $2000 USD) for my OW course.

Of course, that price also includes a terms tuition studying electrical-engineering at university... The actual cost of the course was
only about $150 Cdn ($100 USD). Slightly cheaper, I think, than the normal going rate, but they didn't have to rent or maintain the pool, or provide classroom space, or any of those other details that would add overhead to a dive-shops costs.

As I recall the actual costs work out about as follows:

Course: $150
Books: $ 20-ish
mask/snorkle/fin $100-ish
bcd/tank/reg rental
-poolsessions: free
-OW weekend $80
accomodations OW weekend $75
boat-fee OW weekend $25

So a total cost of about $450 Cdn ($300 USD)

This was in the spring of 1998.

This was for 10 weeks, one night a week, each night having 2h in the classroom, and 2h in the pool.

The OW was up at tobermory and consisted of:
day one:
beach dive (lighthouse)
boat dive (Sweepstakes)
shore snorkle (tugs)
day two:
beach dive (Dave's bay)
boat dive: Minch

Probably more information than you wanted to know...

Jamie

 

[Kaffphine]

The shop I went through charged 300US for OW and that included all equiment, the book, RDP, log book ... PADI advertisment stickers. Since the shop was about a block from the beach, other than the shop itself there wasn't really overhead for facialtes. And if you wanted or needed extra water time you were more than welcome to grab another tank. As a local though I paid 150US, mask and fins at Kmart (almost two years later they still work just fine) and since I knew all the shops very well I got rotating rental gear pretty cheap too (still works fine). Although with the kind of diving I'm doing here in the northeast, I desperatly need to fulfill my dreams of a SS BP, wings, St100's, upline, and pony.

 

[bwerb]

on Maui. I paid $125 plus $45 for books. Included 6 ocean dives. I had my own personal gear but it was available if someone didn't have it. "Classroom" time was approximately 6 hours of dedicated teaching but since the lessons went from 9:00 until 3:00 or later we were learning the entire time we were together as a group.


This is a total aside...
It was a really neat experience to go out on a charter dive several days after certification and have the captain of the boat comment quite sincerely that my wife and I had great skills. There were three other "experienced" divers on the boat who quite frankly frightened us with their ineptitude...one of them was alternately bouncing off the bottom and then heading for the surface, freaking out when their air dropped to 500lbs, ditching their tank at the surface, another one was climbing onto the swim step with their fins on because they were terrified of the thought of bobbing on the surface. The third one was some guy who weighed like 290 lbs and dove freshwater with 8lbs of weight and didn't think he needed any added weight at all for saltwater. He then spent both dives booting my wife in the head with his fins trying to stay submerged.

I guess what I'm alluding to is that we felt that out OW certification was a great value for really in depth training which allowed us to dive comfortably and be able to recognize poor diving techniques when we saw them.

 

[strfsh]

the cost for my OW course was $245.00. That included the book, boat, rental equipment and tanks. I had to buy fins, mask, booties, snorkel, gloves. I also got a 25% discount on everything because it happened to be scuba month. My BF also received a $75.00 create a buddy gift certificate for referring me...

AOW was much more inexpensive.....the course was $125.00 I got a 15% discount because I had finished thw OW about a month before taking the AOW. I also used the $75.00 gift cert. so the class cost about $31.00. The boat was about $65.00 and all the rental equipment was free because I had just finished the OW course.

The next class is rescue diver, but I'm not ready for that one yet. I want to get more personally diving in first...

 

[Divesherpa]

I charge $400 for OW, student provides own mask fins and snorkel. AOW is $175, Eanx is $185 and usually taught in conjuction with cavern$300.

 

[JDostal]

My BOW was $240USD. It was a three week course, 5 class sessions, 5 pool sessions, 4 OW checkout dives.

It included the little PADI "begin diving" box....the manual, RDP, log book....

I didn't *have* to provide mask, fins, snorkel, booties, gloves...but it was encouraged. Plus, I wanted to dive really bad anyway so I figured I'd buy 'em. Rental gear and air fills were all included.