A real card,
at your own pace.
The Scuba Diver certification qualifies you to dive to twelve metres in open water alongside a diving professional. Three modules, done separately or in one go, with the pool training here in Bangalore — so there's no clock running and no holiday being burned while you find your feet.
Certification card
Three modules. Take them apart.
This isn't a fixed weekend you have to clear your calendar for. The course splits into three pieces, and you can do them one at a time, weeks apart, in whatever order your life allows.
Academic development
The physics and physiology behind what happens to a body underwater — pressure, gas, buoyancy, why you ascend slowly. Self-study material is assigned to you online, so most people finish this before they ever arrive. If you'd rather do it here, we'll run it as video sessions instead.
Confined water training
Half a day in the pool learning the equipment properly and drilling the skills that make diving safe — mask clearing, regulator recovery, buoyancy control, sharing air. It closes with an instructor-led session reviewing the theory and debriefing what you did in the water. If you need a second session to feel solid, you take a second session.
Two open water dives
The sea part. You repeat the skills you drilled in the pool at depth, and then you actually get to dive — which is the entire point of the previous two modules. This happens on the coast, either on one of our trips or on your own with a centre we've signed you off to.
What we run in Bangalore: modules one and two — the theory and the pool training. Module three has to happen in the sea, and we'll either take you there on a group trip or set you up to complete it independently at a centre of your choosing. Both are normal. Ask us which suits your dates.
Most people should do Open Water instead.
We'd rather say it here than after you've booked. Scuba Diver is not the first level of certification — Open Water is. Scuba Diver is a stepping stone to it, and for the majority of divers it's a stop that isn't needed.
Scuba Diver
- Certified to 12 metres
- Must dive with a professional present
- Shorter — less water time required
- Upgrades to Open Water whenever you're ready, with no expiry
Open Water Diver
- Certified to 18 metres
- Dive with a buddy, no supervision required
- The genuine Level 1 licence, recognised worldwide
- Costs less overall than doing Scuba Diver and upgrading later
Two situations, mainly. You're short on time and can't fit the full course in before a trip. Or you're not yet comfortable enough in the water to be signed off as an independent diver — in which case this lets you keep diving in a controlled setting while you build that comfort, then upgrade. Training here rather than on holiday means you're not on a clock: take as many pool sessions as you need to get there.
What you need to bring.
Note the water-comfort requirement — it's the one that differs from the intro session.
Not sure this is your level?
Try Scuba Diving
Not ready to commit to a certification, or not yet sure you'll even enjoy being underwater. Half an afternoon in the pool answers that question, and part of the fee comes off a course later if the answer is yes.
Session details Certification · to 18 mOpen Water Diver
Comfortable in water and able to swim a little? Go straight here. It's the full Level 1 licence, it costs less than getting there via Scuba Diver, and it's the card that lets you dive without a professional at your shoulder.
Course detailsTell us where you're starting from.
The useful thing to send is your situation, not just a date: whether you can swim, how much time you have before a trip, whether you've been underwater before. That's what tells us whether this course or Open Water is the better buy for you — and we'll say so honestly either way.
Prefer to just message us?
info@bangalorescuba.comOpens your email app with the details filled in, so you keep a copy of what you sent.