Ultimately, a certified diver is responsible for planning and executing his/her own dive within their own personal diving limits. Ensuring your safety by following your training as a certified diver is your responsibility and cannot be delegated to a dive professional.
Okay, so you were already a little nervous already, and the two sentences above didn’t help at all, so what are the options? Luckily, you have found a dive shop that owns it own boats and has multiple departures each day so that divers of different skill levels can all enjoy diving.
Read about some of the options below. The most popular are listed at the top of the list.
- Two tank certified dive with morning pool session
- Afternoon shallow dives
- Advanced Course
- PADI refresher course
- Hire a professional dive buddy
Two tank certified dive with morning pool session
This is probably the most popular option. It is half way in between the most conservative and aggressive options for people that haven’t been in the water for a while. In this program you would participate in a morning pool session and then do two reef dives in the afternoon to about 40ft. During the pool session you be refreshed on how to assemble the equipment, get some time to practice diving in the pool environment, and go over some basic diving skills like clearing your mask and recovering your regulator with an instructor. The afternoon dives are the same for everyone, so you can mix and match if your group has different skill levels. The cost for this full day program is $185 and includes rental gear if needed.
Afternoon shallow dives
Going directly to the ocean for dives is probably the least conservative option, but our afternoon dives are suitable for beginner to intermediate divers and is a very common dive choice. The dives will not be deep, and the currents, if any, are less than those found in deeper water. If you choose this option, make sure that you identify yourself to the dive instructor on the boat that will be giving dive briefings. Just tell them that you haven’t been diving in a while and that you would like them to look over your gear set up. Ask them to remind you how to do a good buddy check. They will be happy to help and will appreciate the fact that you are taking your personal safety seriously. Remember however, the instructor is there to guide the group, not to directly supervise individual certified divers. If you believe you need direct supervision, we do have that available in other programs (see hiring a professional dive buddy). If you participate in the afternoon shallow dives, then you will have the best kind of recent diving experience. It is likely that certified divers in good physical condition will happily book the morning advanced dive charter the very next day.
Advanced Course
This is a great way to get back into diving as you will be diving with an instructor during your course. It is a 2-3 day course that starts with a shallow charter where you will be doing navigation and buoyancy skills. Toward the end of the course you will be doing Deep, Wreck and Drift dives. If the charters you choose include a Sunday 3 tanker it is accomplished in 2 charters, otherwise in three two tank charters over 2-3 days. Cost is $495 and includes books, certification fee, all dive charters, and all rental gear. Books should be obtained before class so that divers do the knowledge development before the dives. Advanced Open Water diver is a lifetime certification.
PADI refresher course
While this is the recommendation of PADI, as of this writing I’ve been in this business 13 years and can still use my fingers and toes to count the number of refresher programs our business has done. It is a great program that covers all 20 basic scuba diving skills over 3-4 hours. The problem is that it occurs in the pool and people are in Oahu to see fish! We do offer the program however. See the option below.
Hire a professional dive buddy
Here is the exception to the rule that we don’t directly supervise certified divers. With an advanced booking we can provide you or your group of up to 4 people a professional diver that will be present in addition to the regularly scheduled staff on board. This dive professional’s only responsibility that day will be to directly supervise you or your group. The cost is $150 for an instructor in addition to the normal charges for the dive. FYI, with sufficient advanced notice we can provide one of our better photographers. It is possible that we may be able to provide a Divemaster for the reduced rate of $100, but the full time staff are all instructors at a minimum.
When reserving a dive by email, please request a “private professional buddy”.