This summer is the perfect time to experience Bermuda’s beautiful underwater world. More abundant, colourful, and bursting with life than on land, our coral reefs are some of the healthiest that remain in the world. It’s possible to boat, swim, or snorkel in our pristine waters, but you won’t get the full experience unless you dive.
Diving is an expensive sport, with a full, safety certified kit of your own possibly costing hundreds of dollars. In addition, buying a reliable diving kit is no easy undertaking, as this comprehensive guide outlines. Still, there are many dive shops on island that cater to avid divers who want to go down this route.
If you don’t have your own kit, or your own boat, or maybe aren’t even certified – not to worry. There are plenty of options for every experience level to get PADI certified in Bermuda, and to go out on dives. The levels of PADI certification allow divers to experience different things, and open up a larger world than simply snorkelling.
Discover Scuba Diving or PADI Scuba Diver – these short trips get you into the water immediately, and give you the skills necessary to dive safely. A magical first time experience for any novice diver, participants will breathe underwater for the first time, and get to explore the underwater world. These courses can also form the first steps for becoming further certified.
Open Water Diver – after spending time familiarising yourself with equipment in shallow bays, divers must traverse open water for their next set of dives. Here, PADI students can explore Bermuda’s shallow reefs and wrecks, no deeper than about 18 meters. In four dives over two days, accompanied by online modules and your dive master, you will achieve your Open Water Diver certification.
Advanced Open Water Diver – this course gives you the chance to specialise after completing your previous certifications. It has two required dives – a deep dive more than 18 meters below on the terrace reef, and an underwater navigation dive. You can also choose from specialised dives, like night dives and underwater naturalist dives.
From here, you can go on to gain experience in order to get certified in any specialty area, or as a rescue diver, or as a dive master. Once certified, you can dive almost anywhere, as long as you keep up to date on your scuba diving knowledge, and always take a buddy!
To book PADI courses in Bermuda, visit Blue Water Divers, or Dive Bermuda.
