Welcome to Orientation! We're thrilled you've chosen us for your SCUBA training, and we're looking forward to being part of your underwater journey.
This orientation is intended to give you an overview of the training program, both to make sure you're successful, to ensure you have the best possible educational experience!
Nonetheless, before you begin the in-water portion of your training, you will need to sign some forms to ensure tha tyour'e medically fit and that that you're aware of the risks. Please review the following forms to ensure that you're able to sign them befor ein-water training begins. Please pay special attention to the medical form. If the medical forms indicates that a Physician Evaluation is required, you will need to be evaluated by a physicial before beginning in-water training in the pool or ocean.
Your training begins with the academic portion of the course. For Open Water and most other courses, the academic training is all completed online using the PADI ELearning platform, and consists of reading material, videos, and quizzes. For a few courses, a paper training manual is required.
For courses that have ELearning, you will receive an email with an ELearning code that allows you to complete the training on the padi.com website.
For courses that have a manual, we will provide you with the manual after signing up for the course. Please read the manual, and answer all the quizzes and tests in the book. Please bring the completed quizzes and/or tests to your water sessions.
Please note:
The ELearning and/or quizzes in the manual must be completed before in-water training begins.
For advanced students, you only need to complete the ELEarning chapters for the 5 dives you'll be doing.
If you have any problems with any of the material, please phone or email us .. we're here to help!
The in-water training begins in "confined water", which usually means a swimming pool. The goal of pool session is to each you all of the underwater skills you'll require, and to make you 100% ready and confident to jump in the ocean.
After checking that all the forms are filled out, the in-water training begins with the safety swim and treading water/surface float.
200m Safety Swim - You must be able to swim continuously for 200m, without stopping. This is 8 lengths of a standard-length swimming pool. The swim is not timed, you can take as long as you like, and you can use any style of swimming. This is done without mask, fins, or wetsuit, but you can use swim googles if you have them.
10 Tread Water/Float - You must be able to comfortably stay at the surface of deep water for 10 minutes continuously, without touching the bottom or holding on to the edge of the pool or using swim aids
Please note:
If you're unable to complete these two skills, we cannot continue the in-water training.
If you're unsure of your ability to complete these skills, please visit your local swimming pool to practice before attending the pool session.
If desired, we are able to provide private swimming lessons at $200/hr.
Once the safety swim and treading water is completed, we will learn about gear set up, get our wetsuits on, and start the SCUBA training!
The scuba skills we learn in the water include important skills that you use all the time as a scuba diver, such as how to do a safe descent and ascent from the bottom, as well as how to deal with gear failures and emergency situations.
The pool session typically takes about 6 hours, but may be as short as 4 hours or as long as 8 hours depending on student skill level. We recommend eating before the class, and bringing a swimsuit and towel, swim goggles (if desired), and a light snack.
At the end of the session, the instructor will determine if you're ready to descend into the ocean. Safety is our primary concern, and the instructor won't sign you off to continue to the ocean unless he or she is confident that you're ready. Some people need to come back and do a second or third pool session. If this is you, it's no problem at all: the price you pay includes all the pool sessions you need to be ready for the ocean.
The Open Water training consists of 4 dives spread across 2 or more days.
On your ocean days, you'll arrive at the shop at the appointed time, and start setting up your gear and donning your wetsuit. Depending on the course, we may cover some new academic material and skills, such as how to use a dive computer and compass.
Once everyone is set up, we'll do buddy checks, and then walk to the beach and get in the water!
During the first three dives, you demonstrate the skills you learned in the pool, as well as some new ones, such as compass navigation. The last dive has no specific training skills; this is your opportunity to use all of the skills you've learned to explore the beautiful underwater environment that the Monterey Bay has to offer!
Once the 4th dive is complete, there's a short written test to help lock in the dive theory and academics. The instructor will work with you to ensure that you understand the answers to all of the questions in the test. After the test, you're fully certified!
In the days after completing the certification, we will register your new certification with PADI. At this time, you will receive a temporary certification card by email, and the real certification card will be sent to you at your mailing address on file.
Please note:
You must upload a photograph to the PADI website before your certification can be processed.
We recommend that you do this when you're doing your ELearning.
Scuba diving requires a lot of gear!
We divide the gear we use into two categories:
Personal Gear - This includes your mask, snorkel, fins, gloves, boots, and surface marker buoy.
SCUBA Gear - This includes the Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), Regulators, tank, weights, and wetsuit.
For Open Water, the enrollment fee that you paid includes a $225 gear fee that covers the SCUBA Gear rentals and air fills for the duration of the course.
You are expected to provide your own Personal Gear. If you don't have your own personal gear, we hope you'll buy it from us, and we provide you with gear cards to help reduce the cost. If you already have personal gear, you are welcome to use it. Please note that wetsuits should be at least 6mm thick because of the cold Monterey water, and any SCUBA gear must be in working condition, and must be up-to-date with servicing requirements.
For Open Water, Advanced, and Rescue students, we give you $225 worth of gift cards that you can use towards purchasing your scuba gear. These cards can be used at any time, even after you have completed your certification course.
The cards include:
$50 gift card - Can be used with purchases of $500 or more. This is a great way to reduce the cost of your personal gear.
$175 gift card - Can be used with purchases of $1000 or more. This provides you with a significant discount when you decide to buy your own SCUBA gear. This can also be used towards the annual rental program, which provides you with unlimited gear rentals for an entire year.
The majority of students rent some gear from us. Please note the following expectations regarding gear rentals:
When you rent from us, you will be provided with a bin with all of your rental gear, and a rental card that lists the gear being rented. When you receive the bin, please check that the gear included matches the gear on the rental card. You will be expected to return all of the gear that is listed on the rental card. If any gear is missing, you will be responsible for its replacement.
Please ensure that you return to us the same amount of weight that you left with. You will be responsible for replacement of missing weight at $4.50/lb.
Please ensure that your weight pockets are secure in your BCD. If you lose your weight pocket while diving, you could have a dangerous ascent! You will also be repsponsible to replace the lost weights at $4.50 / lb.
When returning your rental gear, please ensure that it is clean and free of sand, and (except for the regulators) that the gear has all been rinsed in fresh water.
Please ensure that regulator have their dust caps replaced, and that the dust caps are clean and dry. Regulators returned without their dust caps on will incur a $50 service fee to cover the cost of water and contaminant removal.
Please do not rinse the regulators in fresh water; we put every regulator through our disinfectant protocol every time it is returned.
We recommend coming to the shop to try on gear before your first in-water session, so that we can ensure that you have gear that fits correctly.
If you're unable to try on gear before your first session, we will do our best to provide gear that fits, based on the size information you provided in the course signup form.
When you purchase gear from us, you can return it for store credit within 30 days, as long as it has not been in the ocean. Feel free to try our new gear in the pool to make sure that it fits correctly and is comfortable.
Once you've signed up for a course, our scheduling department will be in touch with you to schedule the various components of the course.
We understand that you have a busy scheduling, and we strive to schedule your course to work with your busy schedule! When you are scheduled for a pool or ocean session, we arrange for the pool and instructor to be available, we reserve for you all the gear you need, and we arrange for it to be transported to the course or session location.
If you need to cancel or change your schedule for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible!
We require a 3-day notice to reschedule a training session. If you reschedule a training session within the 3 days, or if you miss a session for a reason other than a medical emergency or illness, then you will be responsible for a rescheduling fee of $200.
There are risks involved with scuba diving, some that you don not even think about, like slips and falls when climbing up the pool ladder. Luckily, there is also a great organization called Divers Alert Network (DAN) that offers medical support. DAN is the largest association dedicated to scuba diving safety and has served divers for more than 30 years. They provide emergency assistance, medical information resources, educational opportunities and more. As a new student, we sign you up for complimentary medical insurance through Divers Alert Network (DAN) while you are going through the scuba class.
Up to US$25,000 coverage for medical expenses for injuries occurring during entry-level training (for scuba or breath-hold diving).
Coverage ends 180 days after registration or until the last certifying dive, whichever comes first.
Coverage begins when you receive a welcome letter from DAN. Processing time varies.
Once your training is complete, we highly recommend that you get DAN dive insurance to cover dive-specific injuries and to provide Dive-specific medical advice to medical professionals around the world. DAN insurance also covers emergency medical and evacuation while traveling. To get more information, scroll to the bottom of this pacge and click "Insurance".
Once you've completed your certification, you'll be looking for opportunities to see new dive sites, meet with other divers, and to expend yor skills. Here are some options for you:
You are automatically invited to be a member of the Monterey Bay Dive Tribe dive club! The Dive Tribe meets roughly every month at locations around the Monterey Bay area to explore the underwater world together. Join us to meet new (and old) friends, and to explore some of Monterey's best dive sites! The Dive Tribe dives are free. You can find details on our website, or in our monthly newletter.
For every dive club day, we have a planned dive site, and a backup dive site, in case the weather doesn't cooperate. See below for our upcoming dive locations, and please fill out the form below to sign up to join us!
You can continue with your training adventure immediately after completing your open water certification.
Advanced Open Water Diver - The Advanced Open Water Diver certfication is designed to improve your underwater knowledge and skills. You can enroll immediately after earning your Open Water Diver certification. The course helps you build confidence in navigation, fine-tune buoyancy skills and introduces you to different diving activities such as wreck diving, night diving or underwater imaging. After completing your eLearning, you'll make five Adventure Dives: a deep dive (beyond 18m/60ft), a navigation dive, and three additional Adventure Dives of your choice to earn your certification.
Rescue Diver - The Rescue Diver course teaches you techniques to avoid and manage problems and improve your confidence as a diver. During the course you'll become a better buddy by enhancing your ability to identify potential problems and by practicing dive emergency protocol. The subject is serious but the training is fun - many divers tell us the Rescue Diver course was their favorite!
Divemaster - Take the first step in your dive career and become a Divemaster. Working closely with a Instructor, you will expand your dive knowledge and hone your skills as you become a dive professional. Divemaster training develops your leadership abilities by training you to supervise dive activities and assist instructors with student divers.
We have many specialty certification courses available to give you the tools and experience to enhance your underwater exploration. Our speciality courses include:
Drysuit Specialty
Deep specialty
Night Specialty
Navigation Specialty
Full Face Mask Specialty
Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty
Enriched air/Nitrox specialty
Search and Recovery Specialty
Boat Diver Specialty
Underwater Photographer Specialty
Diver Propulsion Vehicle Specialty
Please fill out the following form.
