Scuba at Atlantik in Tenerife

[amancalledrob]

Has anyone done their advanced open water at this dive centre? Trying to figure out what the itinerary would be and it's not clear from their website. It looks like it might be a three day job and I can get that past my OH if it's only up to lunchtime but if it's three full days I don't think it's going to be a goer.

Thanks

[paulmakin]

you'll struggle in 3 half days, not least when you try to fit in your open water qualifying dives (there are 4 and most shops around the world will do a two-tank "day", leaving mid-morning and getting back early to mid afternoon).

you could reduce the time spent on training whilst on vacation by taking a "referral course" in the UK and then completing the open water work in tenerife.

padi courses are modular and the OW consists of theory, testing, confined water dives for skills acquisition and OW dives for certifying. a "referral course" gets the theory and confined water dives out of the way before you travel

having said that, we have certify literally dozens of people in 2 straight days with night study groups but there are very special reasons for the reduced timeframe which would not normally be entertained by a dive operator. these operations are literally bootcamps for quasi military and other armed forces personnel and you're on vacation, not occupational training !

welcome to a new and expensive hobby (just wait, you'll see. scanning the web for exciting dive destinations and that must-have new piece of kit)

paul

[amancalledrob]

Thanks Paul. Sorry, I've missed important info out of my original post - I already have my PADI Open Water licence. Does that change timescales at all?

[paulmakin]

indeed it does.

AOW is 5 speciality dives - "deep", "navigation" and 3 electives. i have seen some shops specifying a 3rd compulsory dive - "night" - but can't remember where or when and padi don't insist on it

you should be able to sort an itinerary with them to fit all 5 within your available time. we usually "package" our AOW students and get them out when there's a suitable day of diving scheduled.

so ,for example, we may be diving on our local wreck (which for an AOW course could count as either "deep" or "wreck" dive). then use the surface interval to do a shallow "navigation" exercise and then 2nd dive which could be classed as "boat" or "drift" speciality dive in our case and for the purposes of the AOW etc. (all our dives are boat and all have currents so students can treat as a speciality dive)

that's 3/5 in just the one day

regards
paul