Doing some of the PADI course in advance of holidays in Bali

eoinf

Hi

I was wondering what people thought about doing either the E Learning or the pool dives before you go away and complete the open water portion of the course only while abroad?

Does the theory take a day while abroad? I think this might eat into our holiday.
Is it possible to complete some of the course before i go or will this work out very expensive.

Thanks in advance.

Eoin

locum-motion

When I learned, 8 years ago, I didn't have time to do the whole lot before I went to Oz. I did theory (e-learning wasn't an option @ that time), pool dives and first 2 OW dives before I left, got a referral, and did the last two OW dives in Sydney.

I've always been of the opinion that it's a good idea to learn in colder, poorer visibility conditions: then the warmer, clearer conditions of the tropics will NE more likely to blow you away, and yet you're more likely to continue diving in Ireland when you return. On the other hand, if you learn in someplace like Bali, then you'll find it relatively cold and dark back in Ireland. I suspect that a smaller percentage of warm-water-learners than cold-water-learners remain active divers back in the real world.

My advice: do as much of the course as you have the time/money for before you leave.

Catmologen

The GF did the e learning for her open water a few weeks before we left for the Red Sea recently. It worked pretty well and gave her plenty of time to concentrate on diving skills skills without the classroom bit. You still have to do the final exam on paper though.

It shaves a full day off the open water course as well so you have extra time for diving/sight seeing etc....

eoinf

thanks for the replays , is the elearning done directly through the PADI site?

do i have to have a local club as an affiliate?

crazydaize

eoinf wrote: »

is the elearning done directly through the PADI site?

Yes
HERE

eoinf wrote: »

do i have to have a local club as an affiliate?

No


Two things for you to consider
-if you are booking the diving part of the course before you go make sure the dive centre knows that you have already done the e-learning bit and that they are ok with it
-if your holiday is short try getting the diving done before you go (if at all possible) to give you more time enjoying your dives instead of worrying about learning how to

Rangi

I would do as much as poss here before you go,for the reasons mentioned above. Why pay all that money to go and dive somewhere nice,and have to spend the time training? I'd rather be looking around and enjoying the diving there.

loctite

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned fully here. PADI courses are broken into three sections: Pool Skills; ClassRoom (+Quizzes & Exams); OW Dives.

You can do the first two on that list prior to heading to Bali. You can contact a local dive centre here and start a course with them. Get your manual now (if its an OW course the manual is meaty enough), do all the class work and pool skills here and all you will have to complete in Bali is the OW (sorry that stands for Open Water!) dives.

You can get a referral from the instructor here in Ireland saying what you have completed and then join in on course in Bali. As Far as I can remember that referral is inside the logbook that you will receive at the start of the course and will be filled out as you progress through the course.

With regards to how long the theory would take if you were to do it in Bali. If you are doing a 5 day intensive course, I reckon that the theory would be broken over two days. It would take approx a full day to get through the theory side of things.

The supposed great selling point of PADI courses is the self study. This is supoposed to save time in the classroom but it rarely does. More than likely you will never be doing the course without other students and inevitably there is always one or two who couldn't have been bothered to open their manuals after receiving them prior to the course, (sure they are on holidays!). So you end up having to sit through stuff you already know, which is not neccessarily a bad thing as you may have questions etc.

My advice, do your OW course here. Divers that train in cold water are better trained divers. Honestly, when you go for a dive in Bali it will be like getting into a swimming pool after training over here.

It is a far more stressful experience (as compared to diving in warm water) diving in cold water. Heavier equipment, thicker wetsuits, more restriciton of movement all add to higher stress levels and are a much better training environment for beginners.

However, if you only ever intend on being a warm water diver, I'd do everything in Bali, you'll be jumping on the tail end of a course and IMO it is better to be on a course from start to finish with the one instructor.

Either way, enjoy you lucky b******!

trustcited

eoinf wrote: »

do i have to have a local club as an affiliate?

The last time I checked you do have to affiliate to a PADI centre to use the eLearning. It can be a centre here or a centre you plan to do the dives with in Bali. This allows you have direct access to an instructor by email or through the system in order to help you with questions or queries.

I'd affiliate to one here so that you can drop in if you want help working through stuff. They get a kick-back from PADI so there shouldn't be an extra charge if they're just helping with the theory.

eoinf

thanks for the tips.

we ended up doing the SSI course over 3 days and used the 4th day for another 3 dives.

From talking to the instructors and guides on the island the SSI was a little more flexible in relation to the classroom and theory and didnt have as much sales tactics as the PADI course while still covering all the necessary skills.

We actually were diving on our first day with a bit more theory that night followed by an exam and dives on day 2& 3 .

The course was very straight forward.

We loved the diving so much we ended up completing 13 dives by the end of the holidays.

I am only dissapointed we didnt opt to continue on the trianing and complete an advanced course.

maybe later on this year.

while we didnt do any of the course before we left i culd defo see the advantage in getting the videos and book reading out of the way.
spending a couple of hours 10 metres from the beach with a laptop and book in front of us was a bit frustrating but i guess all necessary.

i think we are now hooked and already planning our next dives.

loctite

eoinf wrote: »

thanks for the tips.

From talking to the instructors and guides on the island the SSI was a little more flexible in relation to the classroom and theory and didnt have as much sales tactics as the PADI course while still covering all the necessary skills.

or did it??

PADI & SSI are as flexible as each other. Either way it is as equally a good a qualification as PADI. Well done to you anyway. You should try a dip on the West Coast next.. just as toasty!!