Browsing Category PADI
GUE vs PADI: What’s the difference?
GUE and PADI are two different organizations, right? Whose certification is more recognized internationally? Which is better?
At Living Seas, we’re often asked these questions when newcomers dive with us.
Yes, GUE and PADI are two different organizations that are unrelated to each other. GUE stands for Global Underwater Explorers, and PADI stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
As a certification body, PADI is more well known internationally because it has been around for a longer time. It also spends a lot on marketing. GUE is a non-profit organization with the primary goals of advancing aquatic education, conservation and exploration. That being said, GUE is widely recognized as being the best in the industry because of its emphasis on quality control and stringent standards. Increasingly more people are beginning to know about GUE, too.
The PADI certification will allow you to dive around the world (within the limits of what you’re certified for, of course). You could think of PADI as a key that grants you access to the underwater world.
Once you walk (or more literally, swim) through that door, your dive education should continue. Going through a GUE course, in my opinion, is more about the skills and the knowledge that you acquire in the process. The certification that comes with it is secondary.
That’s why Living Seas offers both PADI and GUE courses. We believe in being qualified for the diving that we do, beyond being certified to do those dives. (If you’re curious about our diving philosophy, read our earlier reflections on what it means to be an “advanced” diver and the fundamental skills all divers should have.)
For those who believe in challenging themselves to dive better, I urge you to think in terms of qualification instead of certification. Forget chasing certificates, and instead focus on being more competent and comfortable at the dives you want to do!
True competency isn’t measured by the number of certificates you have or the equipment you own. It’s gained through time spent in the water, practicing and improving.
Why are Living Seas courses so expensive?
At face value, the Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses offered at Living Seas are more expensive than other dive shops.
We are priced higher for a number of reasons, and we encourage you to read on and decide for yourself whether the extra you pay is worthwhile.
1. We teach a longer course
We conduct our Open Water course over four days instead of the typical three. This includes two days for a theory lesson and a pool practice (confined water dive) session , followed by another two days of ocean (open water) dives.
Our Advanced Open Water (AOW) course includes a theory class and a pool session on top of two days of diving. For certification bodies like PADI, the AOW course requires the student to complete five leisure dives with the instructor. This is typically done over two days, and the e-learning component is done in the student’s own time.
Between the ocean dives, Living Seas instructors take time to introduce and discuss concepts that would be relevant when you proceed to do leisure dives in the future on your own. We believe in preparing our students well and ensuring you are real divers, not just people who can do drills underwater.
2. We teach face-to-face, not online
You get more time learning with an instructor by your side, as opposed to doing much of your learning online by yourself. In our classroom, you’re able to ask questions, get feedback, and work through difficult concepts with your classmates and instructor.
Our instructors are also trained to guide students through the material, instead of just delivering what’s in the textbook. We think it’s important that our students truly understand what we teach, and be able to tease out the connecting threads between different concepts.
Diving is ultimately a sport, so practical training gets special emphasis. After our students understand the theoretical basis of concepts like buoyancy, we systematically guide our students through drills with thorough explanations of good diving practices.
We do not adopt a traditional “Just do as I say” method of instruction, and we don’t think it’s something that anyone should stand for these days.
3. We keep classes small
Our student to instructor ratio is always kept low—no more than four students are assigned to one instructor for any in-water activity. Safety is our priority, and keeping classes small means our students get more focused attention from our instructor.
With fewer students to supervise, your instructor is more likely to catch and correct your mistakes as you make them. With timely feedback, you’ll learn faster and more effectively. You also spend less time waiting, whether it’s for the other students to complete their drills or for your instructor to check your gear one by one.
Learn well during the pool session and you’ll have more time during the open water dives to swim around, get comfortable in your gear, and hone your diving skills.
This is Elaine who learnt how to dive in early 2016. Although this video shows her third-ever dive, she looks comfortable and controls her position well.
4. We include your hotel stay
Our Living Seas Open Water course package includes theory and practical lessons, gear rental and your hotel accommodation. The hotels we partner offer comfortable stays and decent amenities. If you opt to take the course in Bali, the hotel is also where our Indonesian office is based. The hotel pool spans 100-plus metres and is four metres deep. As it’s a big pool, you’ll have more opportunity to swim around and gain more experience before diving in open water. In Bali, no traveling is required on the days the course is conducted. Your room, the classroom, pool and restaurant are less than two minutes away from one another.
For courses based out of Singapore, we’ve also chosen a hotel partner that offers us the best logistics in terms of diving, accommodation and transfers. Who wants to go on a trip where more time is wasted on traveling than diving? Rimba Resort on Sibu Island is our base of choice as it allows for smoother transfers, a more relaxed schedule and a more comfortable stay.
5. We don’t upsell
As an ethical business, Living Seas believes in fair pricing. We do not support the practice of using open water courses as loss leaders. We would rather focus our attention on teaching our students to dive well, than on our bottom line.
Your learning is our priority
We believe that learning has to come first. We go the distance to make sure you have ample time, space and practice as well as comfortable accommodation, so you are less stressed and more focused on learning to dive safely.
It’s our commitment at Living Seas to make sure that you get the best learning, in the best way and format possible.
Is the Advanced Open Water course just about going deeper?
Most new divers will be excited to do and learn more once they’ve gotten their Open Water certification. From here, there are two easy next steps: Book another dive trip and/or take the Advanced Open Water (AOW) course.
(Note: A number of diver training agencies offer an advanced open water course. As can be expected, the syllabuses and prerequisites vary. Wikipedia offers a good overview here. One of the most widely known AOW courses is offered by PADI.)
On the face of it, the AOW course seems to be just about going deeper, past the 18m limit that the OW certification imposes on new divers. And unfortunately, this is how some instructors conduct the Advanced course—where it’s more like a leisure diving weekend than a course—and why some divers complain afterwards that they didn’t learn anything.
While the Open Water course focuses on the basics of diving safely, it doesn’t offer the time or scope to do much else. It makes sense then that the Advanced course should give divers the opportunity to hone their skills—and get more comfortable underwater.
The Advanced Open Water course is also an excellent gateway to inspire imagination and fire up the urge to explore in new divers. Be it deep dives, wrecks, caverns, dives in strong current, open ocean pinnacle dives, photography or videography, the possibilities are endless!
We at Living Seas believe that in order to call oneself an “Advanced” diver, you should have control over your position in the water, so we introduce manoeuvring techniques such as the various frog and flutter kicks, the backward kick and the helicopter turn. After all, if you plan to do more challenging dives, you’d definitely want to have more control in the water!
Besides teaching new skills, the advanced course should involve experiencing different types of dives, such as Navigation, Deep Dives (20m to 30m), Drift Dives, Boat Dives, Night Dives, and more. Exposing new divers to a diversity of dives—under supervision of course—helps to broaden their perspectives of what diving is and can be.
Hopefully, something sparks an intense desire within them to continue diving and exploring. I’ve always believed that if someone is interested and passionate about diving, they can’t not want to care and conserve it for future generations.
Whether you’re teaching or learning the AOW, seize the opportunity to inspire—or be inspired! The AOW is not just about going deeper; it’s an opportunity to broaden one’s horizons, and see what more diving can offer. It’s a really wide world of oceans, after all.
Get Ignored… Stop Moving…
Imagine you’re a fish, going about your daily fishy business, when you see a large bubbling creature with four appendages flailing about. Would you hang around to get a closer look? Most likely not!
By learning to use your equipment and breathing to control your buoyancy, you won’t need to use your hands to maintain your position in the water. Small, gentle movements of your fins will be all you need.
You will be able to get closer to the wildlife, and discover that the fish hang around a little longer. Rather than a fleeting view, you will be able to spend longer watching the action on the reef!
So stop moving, and get ignored by the fish!
Can you stop creating a cloud of silt?
“I saw nothing, the guy in front kicked up so much silt!!”
Good buoyancy and trim isn’t just about dive safety, but also about your comfort level and about not impacting the reef. Sand buildup on fragile coral can kill it, while misplaced fin kicks can decimate a reef.
We believe that there is no reason why good buoyancy and trim cannot be taught at the open water level. We would love for everyone to work towards good buoyancy and trim so they don’t leave a cloud of silt behind as they move around the reef.
At Living Seas, we make it a priority to teach these concepts as early as possible, because it is our duty as good shepherds of the marine environment.
So can you stop creating a cloud of silt?