Doing A Dive Course On The Great Barrier Reef From Cairns

I’ve thought about trying to learn how to scuba dive my entire life. And with a holiday fast approaching in Cairns  Australia I thought I’d better get to it.

I visited some local dive shops and they made it all sound so confusing and scary as well as being unaffordable. So a little shattered I searched the internet for “Scuba Diving in Cairns” . And what a good move that was. I was given nearly 100′s of alternatives of Cairns dive shops and local travel agents only too eager to assist me learn to scuba dive.

subsequently sending out lots of emails with lots of questions I was happy to discover that it wasn’t as frightening, difficult or expensive as I’d antecedently discovered. Basically in Cairns you can do a dive course in four, five or six days. Four days is the mimimum required to get your PADI certification. A PADI certification is the worlds largest and most recognized.The five and six day courses give you more dives and you get to do a liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef.

After a bit of hard decision time I chose to invest in a 5 day liveaboard dive course. Fistly I had to get a dive medical {examination~medical exam} done. Now this shouldn’t worry anyone who is basically fit and healthy. If you have no major illnesses or respiratory problems you should be OK. The largest issue is bronchial asthma I beleive.

Days one and two are spent in the Pool and Classroom. This is when you learn the theory behind scuba diving and some basic skills. The worst part about this was having to tread water for 15 minutes. And rather unfairly the chubbiest people float better than the muscled ones. Those drinks after work paydays finally have assisted me.

The third day you depart for the great barrier reef. You are taken out to your boat at the reef by a fast boat full of daytrippers, but immediately they get you into the water. You start your training dives immediately. The initial four dives are part of your course, where you learn a few more skills. After that you get to do five more dives with no lessons included. You are now a qualified scuba diver. And I got to do it on the Great Barrier Reef, not in some dark cloudy city water.