Doing A Dive Course On The Great Barrier Reef From Cairns
I’ve thought about trying to learn how to scuba dive my entire life. And with a vacation fast coming in Cairns Australia I thought I’d better get to it.
I contacted a few local dive shops and they made it all sound so difficult and awful as well as being expensive. So a bit shattered I searched for for “Scuba Diving in Cairns” . And what a good move that was. I was given literally 100’s of options of Cairns dive training centres and local travel agents only too happy to help me learn to scuba dive.
afterwards sending out lots of emails with lots of questions I was excited to discover that it wasn’t as scary, confusing or not cheap as I’d antecedently discovered. Basically in Cairns you can do a dive course in four, five or six days. Four days is the mimimum required to get your PADI credential. A PADI certification is the worlds largest and most recognized.The five and six day courses give you more scuba dives and you get to do a liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef.
After a some thought I chose to invest in a 5 day liveaboard dive course. Fistly I had to get a dive medical~medical exam} done. Now this shouldn’t worry anyone who is reasonably fit and healthy. If you have no previous illnesses or respiratory problems you should be OK. The largest issue is bronchial asthma I beleive.
The first 2 days are spent in the swimming pool and schoolroom. This is when you learn the theory behind scuba diving and some basic skills. The most difficult part about this was having to tread water for 15 minutes. And rather unfairly the chubbiest people float better than the muscly ones. Those wines after work daily finally have helped me.
On day three you depart for the great barrier reef. You are taken out to your boat at the reef by a fast boat full of daytrippers, but as soon as you get there they get you into the water. You start your training dives immediately. The initial four dives are part of your course, where you learn a few more skills. After that you get to do five more dives with no lessons included. You are now a certified scuba diver. And I got to do it on the Great Barrier Reef, not in some dark murky city water.
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