What you Need to Know about Getting Scuba Diving Certified

Has it ever crossed your mind to enter the deep blue ocean and go down 60ft where there is no direct access to air and your surrounded by water? This TERRIFIED me. Okay, okay you have a regulator in your mouth so you can breathe and you have a mask over your face so you can see, but still it is a dangerous sport where drowning is a real possibility.

I just love snorkeling and my boyfriend is scuba certified so for years now he has been trying to convince me to get certified. So should you do it?

Test out the waters

The first thing you can do if you are interested in getting dive certified, is test it out first without going through the long process of getting certified. You can go on what is called ‘Discover Scuba’ to try out scuba diving without getting certified. They have a short classroom session and take you out into the ocean to go over a few basic skills before they take you on a dive. I did this in St. John, USVI so the water was warm and like bathwater.

The skills that you had to do were quick and they didn’t make you re-do them if you didn’t master them. I had to clear a partially water clogged mask. I also had to throw my regulator off and put it back in. This freaked me out so much, when I got the regulator back in my mouth, I took such a huge breath I shot all the way up back to the surface (air in your lungs makes you float)! Luckily they let me move on and we went on our dive.

The dive was absolutely amazing. I had no problems once I was under water. All the anxiety was gone and I just breathed and enjoyed the experience. I actually found it more enjoyable than snorkeling at times because you always had access to air. No water logged snorkel or chop at the surface. I was about 30ft in crystal clear water and got to see coral and plenty of fish. IT IS AMAZING. It was so surreal and calming, yet exhilarating at the same time. I was convinced that diving is something I would be interested in doing, but I was still nervous about the actual certification. Fast forward to 2 years later and I finally did it!

Getting scuba diving certified

So, how was the actual certification? To be honest pretty terrifying and I was really bad at it. First of all, I did it in Laguna Beach, CA. The cost is around $400 in California because they also make you buy your own gear (mask, fin, snorkel, boots) and for me I couldn’t use my same snorkeling gear because it is different that what you need for dive gear. In other places, such as Thailand, it is very cheap.

It is two consecutive weekends with the first weekend being 1 classroom day and 1 pool session day. The second weekend will be 2 days of ocean diving. Again, if you do it somewhere else it may vary. Most vacation destinations are 3 to 4 consecutive days to get certified.

The skill set that you have to pick up is something I could just not get comfortable with. They make you do the skills both in the pool and in the open ocean, which in my case was freezing water with less than 10ft of visibility.

The regulator

One of the tests is to take on and off the regulator while you blow bubbles out of your mouth (yes bubbles, you are not allowed to stop breathing). The instructor kept telling me to slow down and slow down and not rush. In an emergency situation, I want the thing that is keeping me alive and giving me access to air to get back in my mouth quickly! I understand where they are coming from, they want you to be comfortable and go slowly. I just wasn’t comfortable 10ft under water with no air! I also kept performing how to get the regulator from over my shoulder wrong. I think I was just so nervous at this point I had a tough time following instruction.

The mask

Another test, the test that got me, is the mask clearing. I could clear a partially filled mask no problem. You just look up, hold the top of your mask, and breath out of your nose. I could even clear a completely full mask….but when they made me take off my mask COMPLETELY…for some reason a switch in my head thought I was drowning. I still have my regulator in my mouth so of course I am not, but I just couldn’t figure it out. The bubbles from the regulator kept coming up and my noses and eyes and I would snort in water from my nose trying to breath. I kept chocking and freaking out and kicking my way back to the top where I would cough at the surface.

Finally, my instructor made me just sit there without my mask for 30 seconds and I got it. I went back to trying to take my mask off and clear it. I couldn’t figure it out still. I would get the mask back on and try to clear it and its like I was trying to breath out of my nose and nothing would happen and nothing would happen and I would freak out and go back to the top. Took me forever to get it, and I still can’t say I mastered it.

Other skills

There are other skills that you do. The other ones I was actually all comfortable with. The instructor said there is always one skill and for me it was definitely the mask clearing. The other skills you have to do is practice sharing air with your instructor and swimming to safety sharing air. You have to take off and put back on your BCD underwater. Self inflate your BCD at the surface. Practice an emergency ascent. Jump in the water as if you were on a boat. There were other smaller ones but that covers most of the main ones.

They do make you tread water for 10 minutes and swim either 200 yards or swim 300 with mask/fin/snorkel. I honestly am not a strong swimmer (shocking because of how comfortable I am in the water, right!). I forgot during my treading water that you really just need to be able to float. So I managed to not drown for about 5 minutes before I got tired and started grabbing the side when my instructor wasn’t looking and finally I remembered, I can back float!!! The swimming was not problem as long as I could have my mask, fins, and snorkel!

You can do it!

Well, that was my experience getting certified. The pool and the ocean wasn’t too different as they have you do the exact same skills in both. The ocean was just cold and less comforting than the pool. If you get anything from this though, if I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT. Remember how much fun I had on the discover scuba? How comfortable I was and how amazing and surreal of an experience that was? Yes, so that is the light at the end of the tunnel if you are nervous like me to get certified. The skills are so important to making diving safe and my instructor told me to keep practicing because even at the end he wanted to see me be more comfortable. At the same time, you do only use these skills in case of an emergency, so I do not need to keep taking on and off my mask under water on regular dives.

All in all, I believe in you and just do it! I promise it will be SO worth it. Hopefully this gives you a good overview of what you will go through to get certified. I am already planning my dives in Cabo and Anguilla.