My niece is at school in Edinburgh and, while my first choice would be for her to train at one of the dive shops I know here (Canada) or in the states, she is really keen on getting her credentials before a planned trip in June to Africa. Does anyone have suggestions of a dive shop they would recommend for PADI open water training there?
Mel
It might be worth her going along to "Fresher's Week", and looking for the Universities own student dive club.
Edinburgh University Sub-Aqua Club - About
The diving will be 'cheaper', she could put the money towards a drysuit. The university probably subsidises a lot of the trips/training.
It will mean she will qualify with the BSAC
www.bsac.com.
The initial qualification, Ocean Diver is very similar to PADI OW. The big difference is in the second qualification, Sports Diver.
Sports Diver includes a lot or rescue stuff and is a full decompression diving qualification. The vast majority of British divers do compulsory decompression as part of their diving.
The other thing is that there is some truly world class diving around the Scottish coast. In addition, just up the road is Scapa Flow (in Orkney), just up the road is slightly over selling it, its off the top of Scotland.
Orkney is where the remains of the German First World War Fleet is. Scapa is the equivalent to Truc....but in cold water rather than tropical water
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If she can qualify as a sports diver, it might be worth you visiting her and doing some Scottish Diving, especially if you can do a trip to Scapa Flow.
Cheers
Gareth
NOTE - Sorry, just realised the date of the original post. Still, if she's still at Edinburgh it would be worth her going along to Fresher's Week and joining the University club, if she did qualify with PADI, she can cross over to BSAC and do the Sports Diver Qualification.