Vandit Kalia, 13 May 2025
Picking a dive center for fun diving requires a whole different set of criteria from picking a dive center for learning to dive.
In general, picking a dive center for learning to dive mainly involves evaluating the dive center, and a center that meets the criteria is a good option for nearly every person. However, when it comes to picking a dive center to go diving with, this involves understanding your requirements and mapping them to the dive center – so a dive center that is good for one type of diver may not be good for a different type of diver.
In this article and video, we will discuss how to pick a dive center if you are going on a diving holiday and just want to dive.
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What To Look For In A Dive Shop For Fun Diving
Let’s review some criteria to assess – and I re-iterate, the answers to each of these is going to vary depending on your personal preference:
- Experience of the Dive Guides: my single most important factor: how long have the dive guides worked there? I want guides who know the waters inside out, who know where to find interesting subjects, what to expect in specific conditions, and so on. And generally, I find local dive guides to be better at this (of course, there are plenty of exceptions).
- Certification Level of the Dive Guides: many places in the world don’t always have agency-certified Divemasters leading the group, but dive guides – these latter are very experienced spotters and often very experienced at group management and safety, but may not have the education/language skills to complete the theory part of the Divemaster course. Does this make them any less qualified to lead divers around and show them fish? Remember: as a certified diver, YOU are responsible for your own safety and are qualified to dive without professional supervision. Many experienced divers – myself included – don’t particularly care if the dive guide has a professional certification or not, as long as s/he knows the practical side of leading divers around safely. On the other hand, newer divers may prefer a certified Divemaster leading the dive, for assistance with skills/knowledge.
- Degree of Supervision & Control: newer divers may prefer a dive center where the dive guides are regularly checking up on their divers – experienced divers likely don’t value this as much (or sometimes actively prefer not being asked for their air/NDL every 10-15 min). Experienced divers, on the other hand, may prefer dive centers which give them freedom to do their own dives – or at the very least, some flexibility during the dive. Different centers have different policies here, so do check to see that there is a match with your preferences/requirements.
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- Diver Ratios: smaller groups = better. You get more flexibility on the dive, and also better supervision. However, smaller groups generally also comes at a higher price. So you decide how much that is worth it for you. Personally, I find the cost difference of picking a dive center with smaller groups is relatively small compared to the overall cost of the trip and always prefer to pay the premium. Your mileage may vary.
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- Cancellation Policy: some dive centers are relaxed about their cancellation policies and you pay for what you do. Others are more strict. Please make yourself aware of this before you sign up – because complaining about this afterwards just makes things awkward for everyone. If you aren’t happy with the cancellation policy, book elsewhere. As a general industry standard, you pay for what you have booked, even if you don’t do all the dives. Some dive centers ARE more relaxed about it, and if possible, I personally try to pick those, as a way of thanking them for their flexibility.
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- Dive policies: this varies significantly from dive center to dive center. Some dive centers have a hard limit on dive times (sometimes for safety and logistics, sometimes for less apparent reasons). Some dive centers have a more rigorous policy on air management – when one person hits the ending pressure, the whole group comes up – while others are more flexible, sending buddy teams up as and when they run low on air. I am not a fan of arbitrary “45 minutes and done” dive limits, unless required by law or logistics. Similarly, I prefer dive centers which dont force me to cut short my dive because someone else is low on air (except for where conditions/safety warrant bringing the whole group up). So I check their policy on this.
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- Process vs Flexibility: some dive centers are very process-oriented and for good reason (this ensures smooth operations). As divers, you have to follow their process. Others are more flexible when it comes to accommodating diver special interests, choice of dive sites, etc. For newer divers, this probably doesn’t matter so much but for experienced divers, a flexible dive shop that can accommodate their needs is often nicer – however, the flip side to this is that this often require a bit of flexibility on your part as well. Some divers – regardless of experience – want structure with everything planned out in advance. So make sure you understand your own preferences and pick a dive center which matches that.
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- Vibe – for me, this is huge. I am on holiday. I want to have a fun time. I want a dive center where the team is also enjoying themselves, and not going through the motions or having “just another day at the job”. I mean, I can deal with this if I have to, but if I had to pick, I’d always pick the dive center where the crew is also having fun. No one wants to see bored or joyless faces before, between or after dives!
Conclusion
There are many ways to run a professional, competent, safe dive shop and there are pros and cons to each. So when speaking to a dive center, either in person or by email, take the time to understand how they run their diving and how that matches your preferences.
A word of warning, however: just because you are used to diving one way in one part of the world doesn’t mean that you should expect the same process followed elsewhere. I had a diver once tick me off because our dive guides didn’t create the same super-detailed plan as what she was used to elsewhere. Only thing was – the other place had 12-14 divers per guide. We had a maximum of 4 per guide. And the nature of our diving conditions meant that our dive plans had to have a certain amount of flexibility set within certain boundaries (max depth, max time, air management and NDL). So of course, our processes were going to be different. But nope… my explanation fell on deaf ears and I think there is still a 1-star review from her (never mind the 20+ years without a single incident following this approach).
So understand that sometimes things are the way they are – different from what you are used to or prefer – for a good reason. Those differences, you should accept.
But that aside, there are enough other differences in dive centers operate that you should be able to find one which better suits your preferences.
