FAQ
General Diving Questions
8 years old for your very first experience, 10 years old to start your first certification.
For your Open Water and above, yes. Taken directly from the PADI Instructor Manual:
“Before Open Water Dive 2, have student divers demonstrate that they can comfortably maintain themselves in water too deep in which to stand by completing a 10-minute swim/float without using any swim aids.”
“At some point before certification, have students complete a 200 metre/yard continuous surface swim or a 300 metre/yard swim with mask, fins and snorkel.”
You will see that there are no time limits on the swim portion, so you can take it nice and easy. My recommendation is to practice until you can comfortably do the above. Comfort in the water is a key trait of good scuba divers.
Diving can certainly be scary for first time divers. We all have differing levels of anxiety, especially when first learning to dive. The vast majority of people find that the excitement of being underwater soon overtakes any anxiety felt at the beginning of the course. Also, different people find different parts of the course challenging; there is no “hard” part to pass. Most people say that overcoming any anxiety they had makes receiving their certification all the more rewarding.
I wish! There are very few sharks in Hong Kong waters these days, so much so that I’ve never seen one here. When I dive abroad, I’m always searching for dive sites that increase the chance of seeing these beautiful animals in their own environment.
Loads! You just need to know where to look. Hong Kong actually has one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world, with hundreds of species of coral and fish. What we don’t have is a lot of dive sites where we can see pelagic fish (think rays and sharks). We do get the odd ray here and there, as well as some schools of barracuda, but these are generally rarer sightings.
Yes, more often than not. Sometimes we get up to 20m, although this is rare. An average day would be around 3-5m of visibility. On bad days, it can be less than 1m, but we do our best to avoid diving when it’s like this.
Diving with DW Scuba
In general, the quality of the course you receive will be determined by your instructor. There are good and bad instructors out there, so you must decide who you put your trust in to deliver your dive education. If you choose DW Scuba, you will learn to dive with me, a native English speaking PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, and I will be your contact point throughout your entire course, and hopefully for your entire diving education.
Hong Kong is not a 24/7 dive operation, therefore planning and logistics are not necessarily as easy as in other parts of the world. Dive specific resources are limited, meaning the physical products you encounter are relatively similar (see below section on boats and pools). There are also operators whose focus is more biased towards quantity rather than quality. My advice is to therefore choose your dive education provider based on the quality of education you believe you will receive, rather than the largest or cheapest.
Absolutely not. Many would, in fact, argue that if you learn to dive in Hong Kong, you will emerge a more well-rounded diver than if you were to learn in the “perfect” environment of Philippines or Thailand. We do, however, have to be realistic to the restrictions we face here. An example would be that the dive boats here tend to be more crowded than those you find in Philippines. The actual dive education is taught to the exact same PADI standards as I would teach anywhere, and your certification is valid globally.
I operate a simple business model; you pay the costs that I incur, plus a fee for my time and experience. That’s it. Sometimes that might be cheaper than the operator you are comparing to, sometimes it might be more expensive.
No. Those resources are sub-contracted from other operators. It simply doesn’t make financial sense to have those resources in house. Again, as an example, there is no current dive operator in Hong Kong with their own pool; all pool space is sub-contracted to the dive operators. Some operators do have their own boats, but many do not.
Everything you need to be certified, which generally includes standard scuba equipment such as regulator, mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuit etc. I recommend that you purchase your own mask, purely from a comfort perspective. Ask me more about this when we are planning your course.
When are you free? I don’t run a schedule of courses, but instead teach when students require a course. Whilst this isn’t ideal if you are looking to learn as an individual, my private courses (1:1) are very competitively priced. Alternatively, it is always fun to dive with a friend, so if there are two of you, not only is the course fee less per person, we can schedule at your convenience.
We have a few choices but generally, we go wherever there is space. As I mentioned above, all pool space is subcontracted and there isn’t a huge range out there. Whilst there are thousands of pools in Hong Kong, those that are equipped for and allow scuba diving are few and far between. We’ll discuss the exact location when we determine your course schedule.
Sai Kung and the surrounding waters. The vast majority of recreational diving in Hong Kong takes place from Sai Kung, as that is generally where the best water is. You’ll need to plan to get to and from Sai Kung for each day of your course where we are doing open water (boat) dives.
Once we are booked in, we are generally at the mercy of the dive operator we go with. Whilst always unfortunate, even if you fall ill on the day of your dives, many things have already been put in place that are “consumed” as soon as the booking is made, therefore the costs are incurred. Depending on the amount of notice given, there may be the chance to reschedule, but this cannot be guaranteed to fit with your (or my) schedule. Also, there may be additional rebooking fees. Cancellations for events such as black rain, or typhoons are rescheduled for another date. Please see the current full Terms & Conditions for further information.