This globally-recognized certification program is the best way to begin your life-long adventure as a certified Open Water Scuba Diver (ISO 24801-2). Personalized training is combined with pool-based in-water practice sessions to ensure you have the skills and experience required to become truly comfortable exploring the underwater world.
East Coast Divers’ scuba certification course is a three-part program: classroom, pool, and open water dives. All of which are required to obtain certification. This course covers the first two, as students commonly complete pool and class training with East Coast Divers and finish the certification dives on one of our group trips or at another dive facility in warmer water.
What Scuba Certification Part 1 covers
Learn how to configure your diving equipment during an in-person workshop session. Attend three web conferences to cover valuable ECD specific programming and the remaining academic material. Four pool sessions take you from snorkeling fundamentals through emergency management scuba skills.
Why learn with ECD?
Most of our divers come to us after reading all of the 5-star reviews on Yelp!, Facebook, or Google.
Unlike most shops, ECD teaches the whole pool program with students maintaining neutral buoyancy, hovering in the diver position. Our divers come out more comfortable and efficient in the water and are better prepared to apply the skills they learned during their real-world dives!
Our program is high-touch, we maintain small student to instructor ratios (maximum 5:1). We offer students an opportunity to repeat the program without incurring extra costs if they are not successful in their first attempt to master the required skills.
Alex and Nick have dedicated their lives to developing the highest quality Open Water Diver program in the industry. The program undergoes annual evidence-based review and the instruction team is updated with the latest techniques in training methods and skill development.
Important Notes:
Please check over the “Diver Medical Statement Participant Questionnaire” Medical Form ahead of time and get a doctors’ sign-off as necessary. If you answer “YES” to any of the questions on the second page of the form, a physician’s sign off is required.
Once your Pool & Class training is complete you are eligible for the Open Water Certification Dives, Part 2 of the Open Water Diver Program. The cost of the certification dives is not included in the price of this program.