Most dive outfitters, dive boats and dive sites require you to show your certification card, commonly referred to as the “C-Card,” before they will allow you to dive. Scuba certification courses provide you the necessary education and training to ensure you can safely use dive equipment and follow diving safety precautions.
Find a Certifying Agency
Many organizations exist for the primary purpose of educating and certifying aspiring scuba divers. In 1959, the YMCA offered the first scuba certification course. The National Association of Underwater Instructors was established in the same year as the country’s first organization devoted to scuba certification. Many more certifying agencies exist today, including Scuba Schools International, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors and the British Sub Aqua Club in the United Kingdom. Find a dive shop in your area that provides certification courses through a recognized organization like these.
Prerequisites for Certification
Before you can begin a certification course, you must present the instructor with documentation of a physical check-up indicating you have no underlying health conditions that might endanger you in the water. You will also have to pass a basic swimming competency test before you can continue with the course’s pool sessions. The instructor will ask you to swim a certain distance within a certain time limit and to tread water for a certain amount of time without holding onto the sides of the pool.
Classroom Sessions
All certification courses include some classroom component. Some programs allow you to complete this portion of the course online, while others require you to meet with the instructor in person. The classroom sessions will cover the theory and principles behind scuba diving safety and procedures. You will learn how depth, pressure and scuba breathing gases affect the body. You will learn how to read dive tables to determine the safe duration of decompression stops, surface intervals and second dives.
Pool Sessions
In swimming pool sessions, you will learn certain basic diving skills as well as all important safety procedures. You will learn how to set up and check the safety of your gear before getting in the water. Once in the water, you will practice clearing your mask and regulator, making safe ascents and sharing your safety second or primary mouthpiece with your dive buddy in “buddy breathing.” You will also practice inflating and deflating your buoyancy compensator vest in order to achieve good buoyancy.
Paper Test and Check-Out Dives
To prove that you have mastered all material covered in the course, you will have to take a paper test and perform certain tasks in final check-out dives. These dives usually take place in open water rather than in a swimming pool. The instructor will ask you to demonstrate the skills you learned in the pool sessions. If you successfully complete these final tests, you will earn an official certification card and you can begin diving.
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