Hi mate......

Crystal Seas are goooood! My mate Adie dives with them (NCFC Season Ticket holder!)

Say hi to Polly for me!

They run PADI courses (I'm with a different agency - BSAC) - both are great (I AM Hoot off of off here is a PADI Divemaster, I dived with him in the red sea and he's a fantastic diver - but dont tell him i said that!)

Basic differences:

PADI - franchise, pay a fair amount for each element/course
BSAC - join a a club, instructors teach you for free once you've bought the training pack...

PADI - much quicker to get through course so they can sell you the next one! tend to be group sessions, one instructor to 3-4 students.

BSAC - much slower, one to one instruction, go at your own pace

PADI - Open water course (first level) - costs around ?300-350, qualifies you VERY basic diving (but good enough IMO) without teaching any rescue skills, qualified to dive to 18m

BSAC - Ocean Diver course (first level) - costs around ?100 to join BSAC plus a local club, encompasses rescue skills (learn at next level with PADI's system) - qualified to dive to 20m.

For me, and Jamie might disagree, it comes down to what you may progress to... MOST PADI divers go on to do the next level (Advanced Open Water) which qualifies them to 28m.... this is excellent as most stuff you want to visit is between 15-30m.... but it will cost a further ?350ish, with the next BSAC rade (Sports Diver) you develop the rescue skills further, including navigation, DSMB deployment and dive management AND you can get qualified to 35m..... for a further ?100.
Just takes longer....

Cant go wrong with Crystal Seas though, but before you take the plunge to commit to a course, worth checking out/visiting:

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hth.

Posted By: Cheltenham_Canary, Mar 28, 09:38:01