Open Water Course

Are you ready for your underwater adventure?

Open Water Course, Open Water Course, Dive Point Koh Tao Thailand - Tauchkurse und Sporttauchen

Open Water Kurs bei Dive Point

With the beginner Open Water course you will do your first important step into the underwater world of scuba diving. This course will open you a door to an entire new world of scuba diving and recreational diving. Are you ready to archive the necessary skills to start enjoying this new sport?

The Open Water Course is the first step, beginner course or also called level 1 course.

Enjoy the amazing underwater world with all it’s wonders and colors, different animals and the feeling to fly. Being weightless is a feeling that you usually can not archive. Many diver with more than 100 dives are still fascinated by this felling, the quietness and peace underwater. Another fascinating thing is to enjoy the many thousand fish and sea creatures. Around you who have no fear to come closer. To be surrounded by colorful tropical fish, seeing a turtle fly by and getting a climbs of some rare underwater creature is so beautiful and peaceful. You will never want to miss it once you have tried. Breath normal as you would on land, dive down, relax and enjoy the colorful tropical reef. 

 

This is a short overview over the Open Water Course at Dive Point and why it differs in quality and quantity of dives to other dive schools.

The Course has a higher standard than other schools offer.

  • – We conduct 6 not only the 4 mandatory dives
  • – The maximum student to dive instructor is 4;1 to ensure highest quality and safety standards
  • – My dive instructor have many years of experience in different teaching systems and work since years for Dive Point.
  • – You will only be charged accordingly to what you have done. Should you have to stop the course after half the course than we charge only half of the price and so on.
  •  – We will give you a referral in case you have to stop the course. With this referral you can go to any other dive school within the next 6 month and continue the course with them.
  • – All our dive students and diver have an insurance included in the course!

Open Water course schedule:

Day 1: Check-in

17:00 the Open Water Video and prepare the knowledge reviews in the book.

Day 2: 9:00 academics till around 11:00, small lunch break

11:45. Confined water training in a shallow bay + one small fun dive, change of dive sites and a second fun dive to a maximum depth of 12m.

Day 3: 9:00 academics till around 11:00, small lunch break

academics till around 11:00, small lunch break

Confined water training in a shallow bay + one small fun dive, change of dive sites and a forth fun dive to a maximum depth of 12m.

Day 4: 6.:45, dive 5+6 up to the maximum depth of 18 m.

11:00 Certification to Open Water Diver.

* This is only an overview over the Open Water Course schedule and can be changed by the instructor.

 

How is the course structured?

Open Water Course, Open Water Course, Dive Point Koh Tao Thailand - Tauchkurse und Sporttauchen

Fun in the Open Water course

Once you booked the course through the online booking form you will receive a booking confirmation with further instructions. One of them being to create a online profile with SSI. Once you have done that you will have access to the basic teaching material. The first 3 chapter of the Open Water Course are accessible for everyone who wants to learn a little bit up front about how the course is structured and what they will teach in the course.

If students want to access the entire Open Water teaching materials online than that is also possible but requires a down payment as Dive Point has to pay for the access code. Once that is done the student can study in any language the entire Open Water Course at home. Even switching the language package is allowed. So you could study the entire program in your mother language first and than try to do it again in English as it is the international language spoken on most dive boats. The online training is sufficient for most diving organisations to only do the practical diving part in your holiday. 

 

Dive Point Open Water course

Dive Point does not 100% agree with that practice and welcomes customer who want to come here informed and did the online training. But sitting with a dive instructor, being able to ask questions and being able to assemble the dive equipment in the classroom is much better than doing 100% of the academics online. So what we do is, We promote and encourage the Open Water students to be informed via the online training but ask them to still follow the academics in the classroom. That can cut down the classroom time but not fully eliminate it.

If you have not done any of the online training than your class would start on the day of arrival around 17:00 with the Open Water training video. This will be accommodated with the Open Water book and some knowledge reviews. This preparation would take about 1 h to ensure that all the participants of the Open Water Course are on the same page. The classroom part will than start the following day at 9:00 in the morning. Where you meet your diving instructor and he will go through everything you have prepared in the self study session the evening before. We have a full set of equipment in the classroom including scuba tank.

 

Our Open Water Instructor

Your instructor will help you to get familiar with the scuba equipment in the classroom. This way you have time to train the equipment setup on land and it will be much easier for you once you get on the boat. The instructor will also explain all the skills that have to be done in shallow water in the afternoon. After a small lunch break he will take you to the Dive Point Boat and will help you with the equipment setup again. Normally we go to a shallow bay in the afternoon like Japanese Garden, Mango Bay or Twins. This sites are perfect for beginner because the instructor can take the students close to the beach in 2m deep water for the skills. The student will kneel down in the sand to practice the necessary skills.

Should the student fell uncomfortable or is in need to talk to the instructor all they need to do is stand up and stick their head out of the water. Dive Point has a very slow system to teach the skills. Unlike most other dive schools on Koh Tao we only do half of the easy skills on the first day. That has the big advantage that the student is not completely overwhelmed from all 18 skills and we have time to do a small taining dive after the first set of skills. On the second day we will go again to another nice bay and do the second part of the confined water training. Second advantage is that you use 6 tanks and do actually 6 not only the 4 mandatory dives. So you get a better diver because you have a little bit more time to train.

 

Confined Water Training

Open Water Course, Open Water Course, Dive Point Koh Tao Thailand - Tauchkurse und Sporttauchen

Open Water course group

The confined water training split give the advantage to do a small training dive right after the skills are finished. So you would do about 20 min of skills and than probably another 20 min a dive. Starting the dive from 2 m going down to a maximum depth of 12 m along the sand is another advantage of this approach. Most beginner have trouble holding the depth and doing the equalization. Both are very easy if you just follow the sand from 2 m deeper. No way you can sink too fast and equalization is easier if you go down slowly. Your body and you have time to feel what is happening and when to equalize. Both afternoons will prepare you for the final 2 dives in the morning which are basically fun dives.

You should be done with all skills and have all the knowledge after the second afternoon. The last 2 morning dives will not be in a bay but a proper dive site like Chumphon Pinnacle, Southwest Pinnacle or the Wreck. This dives will than go down to a maximum depth of 18 m. That is also your maximum certification depth.

 

Want to go deeper?

Would you want to go deeper than have a look at our Advanced Courses like the Advanced Adventure course which can be done right after the Open Water Course. Once you have done the last 2 dives you will be ready to dive for fun. That means you can dive with a buddy and a dive guide. No need anymore for a dive instructor. In most countries you will always go with a Dive Master or Dive Guide. This is a diver who is trained to take certified diver for a dive. They know all safety procedures and the dive site. All you need to do is follow them and enjoy the dive.

AND congratulations!!!
After 2 and a half day and 6 dives in the sea you earned your Open Water certification.
Congratulation!

Many students continue their study and do the advanced adventure course, a deep dive or some more fun dives to harden their knowladge. Dive Point offers 10% discount on following education! So please ask your instructor if you want to have some more information.

If you want to have more information please don’t hesitate to ask us.

 

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