Vandit Kalia, 5 February 2025
The Open Water course has 3 components – academics, confined water training (done in a pool or shallow water) and open water dives.
Academics are a mix of self-study and an instructor-led session, either online or in person, and are fairly easy to knock off – the theory isn’t rocket science anyway. The open water dives have to be conducted while on vacation (unless you live somewhere with diving that is locally accessible – in which case, this entire article is moot and you are best off reading something else). But the confined water sessions? You have a choice of where to do them.
You can combine them with the rest of your training and do the entire course as one block while on vacation. Or, if you live in a city with a local dive center (Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay, Pune – to name a few), you can split your course by doing your pool training (and academics) in the city where you live, and do the open water dive on vacation.
Here are the pros and cons of each:
DOING THE ENTIRE COURSE IN ONE GO
This would be the typical holiday certification – go somewhere and do the entire open water course there. Typically, one day is confined water and then two days of two dives a day – totalling 3 days in-water and you are done.
Here are the advantages of this approach:
- It is efficient – 3 days and you are done
- While the course is modular in theory, every instructor has their own approach to teaching, and so there is some benefit to doing the entire course with one instructor
- If your confined water is done in the sea, it is an easier transition to the deeper open water dives
- You are on vacation and so not distracted by work, errands and other aspects of your daily life
- Often, it can be slightly cheaper to the entire course in one location as opposed to splitting it up
SPLITTING THE COURSE
This is where you complete the theory and pool sessions in your home city, get documentation of this completion and then go to a destination with diving, and do your Open Water course there
The advantages of this approach:
- You can work at your own pace – if you need more time for training, you are not constrained by the time limits of your holiday, and come back for additional sessions, as needed
- You typically get more water time, allowing you to build more comfort in the water (thereby offsetting the slight disruption of changing instructors)
- You free up vacation time to actually dive – by not spending 1-1.5 days doing theory and pool work on vacation, you can use that free day to do other things (or to dive some more on actual reefs).
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
There is no single answer that works for everyone.
In general, if you are comfortable in the water, then doing the entire Open Water course in one go works very well. There are also plenty of good dive centres that take pride in their teaching, who will provide extra sessions to students if needed.
On the other hand, if you are a little more nervous in the water, spending the time in a pool at home and really building your skills and confidence goes a long way towards making your ocean dives more fun.
The main thing is to ensure that your training leaves you feeling reasonably confident and comfortable in the water – if you lack this, you will not want to dive and your entire training has gone to waste. Too many student divers start thinking immediately of wanting to see cool stuff during their dives – and while that is absolutely fine, it shouldn’t be at the expense of your training.
So whatever you choose – make sure you have a clear path towards gaining this confidence, be it based on the reputation of the dive center you are training with, or the possibility of adding additional sessions if needed. THAT is what matters most – regardless of how you achieve it.