Diving For Certified Divers

For certified divers, we have a VERY exciting array of options – the biggest choice of courses in Asia.
This includes all PADI, NAUI & SSI continued-education courses – Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Specialties as well as some special combination of specialties.
The Advanced Open Water course (also called Advanced Adventurer by SSI and Advanced Diver by NAUI)- This consists of 5 (PADI/SSI) / 6 (NAUI) dives- two are mandatory (Deep Dive and Underwater Navigation – Night is also required for NAUI). For the remainder, you can choose from 15 options, including Night, Multilevel & Computer, Underwater Naturalist, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck, Boat, Underwater Photography and lots more.
This is a practical course (emphasis on in-water training) and is meant to give you experience in diving under different conditions, as well as provide you with a deeper understanding of dive theory, planning and techniques.

It is also a good course to combine with the Open Water course, as it has the following benefits:
– you learn more and become a significantly better diver when you do both the OW and the Advanced
– you retain your skills longer, as you are better able to internalize the diving skills
– you are able to dive to 30m and thereby visit some of the best sites of the Andamans
– our Open + Advanced combo works out to be very good value

The Rescue Diver course is rated by most divers as the single most useful course they’ve taken since Open Water. In this course, you start to expand your horizons by learning more about diver safety – both yours and others. You learn about common causes of accidents, how to anticipate them as well as how to respond to them. This greatly improves not only your skills, but also your confidence in the water. This course takes 3 days, and also requires certification in general CPR and First Aid (with we offer in the form of NAUI CPR/First Aid Training and the Emergency First Responder or EFR program)

Our Specialties allow you to increase your skill base in a particular area of interest – we offer specialties in Deep Diving, Wreck Diving, Underwater Photography, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Underwater Search and Recovery, Underwater Naturalist, Nitrox and lots more.

For those with interests in specific areas, we offer packages that bundle a group of related specialties.

For those interested in moving on to the more challenging and disciplined field of technical diving, or simply improving their own dive skills to the highest possible level, we offer what we call the Tech Fundamentals package -which includes Deep Specialty, Nitrox Specialty and Wreck Specialty. This course builds the fundamentals that you’ll need to do eventually get into technical diving, and is taught by an instructor who is a very experienced trimix/deep wreck diver.Even if you do not plan to strap on a twinset and start exploring the fun world of DIR vs strokes, this course is an excellent way to develop and refine your diving skills. We will improve your kicking technique, air consumption and practical diving knowledge to an extent that few other courses anywhere in the world can match – that is guaranteed!

The Master Diver Program
If you are an experienced diver and interested in taking your dive skills to the next level, consider our NAUI Master Diver program. As part of this course, you will complete a buoyancy boot camp, where you really work on precise buoyancy and trim. You will also do 9 different dives – deep, wreck, navigation and more, continuing where you left off after the Advanced course. And you will also complete NAUI’s industry-leading academic curriculum, thereby ensuring that you have a thorough grounding in both theory and practical diving skills.
This is one of the best Master Diver programs in the industry and is for serious divers who want to become better and take their diving to the next level.

Go Pro – Divemaster, Assistant Instructor or Instructor
Interested in becoming a dive professional? DIVEIndia is proud to present a variety of options to suit your needs.

We offer Divemaster/Assistant Instructor courses with PADI, SSI and NAUI, where you get to work with our team of instructors and learn all the skills needed to take a successful first step as a dive pro. Unlike most dive schools, we don’t treat our divemaster candidates as a source of cheap labor – at the end of the course, you will be responsible for other people. It is an important, and highly rewarding, responsibility and we take it as seriously as you.

Along with the standard Divemaster course, we also offer a “Go Pro” training internship, which takes you beyond the typical Divemaster curriculum and gives you experience on the practical side of being a dive professional, as well as counseling on career choices. Thus, you go into the dive industry both qualified and experienced. The benefits of this program become clear when you look at the fact that all our divemasters to date are now working successfully in the dive industry.

The DM/Go Pro programs typically takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 40 days, depending on your experience level. To enroll, you need to have an Advanced Open Water degree and around 20 dives.

We also offer NAUI and SSI Instructor Courses – the first and only instructor training facility in India with full-time Instructor Trainers on staff.

Please visit the Go Pro section for more information on professional scuba certification.

The Andaman Sea offers one of the highest counts of fish and coral species on the planet.
So far, there hasn’t been any large scale commercial fishing here – and the result is a mind-boggling array of fish and a profusion of healthy, colorful coral. Sharks and mantas can be spotted on trips to the outer sides of the island, and we’ve found a reef where a family of dugongs can be seen quite regularly.

Our Dive Trips
For certified divers, we run daily 2-tank trips out to the best sites in the area, including both Neil and Havelock. On our 7m speedboat, we run day trips to destinations as remote as Barren Island, Invisible Banks, Campbell Shoal and more… sites that were formerly visited only via liveaboard (another first for the Andamans). So you have access to the largest selection of dive sites in the Andamans – and you get to dive them with the team that discovered them (and even get a T-shirt to that effect, if you want! ).
Most of our sites are accessible to all diver levels and certifications, but a few require advanced open water certification and some experience. We try to take into account special needs and interests of our divers. Our groups are small – usually no more than 4 divers per divemaster – and as far as possible, arranged by ability, experience and interest.
For typical day trips, we meet at the dive shop at 7:30am , and return between 1:30pm and 3:30pm or so (depending on site, length of dive, etc.).
Packed breakfasts are available through the hotel for those who like to hit snooze once-too-often. We also provide complimentary snacks and beverages (water, soda and tea) on the boat.
Our dive professionals have more dives in the Andamans than anyone else on the planet. We were the first to dive most of the reefs of Havelock and we continue to lead the way in finding new sites and expanding the diving potential of these islands. All our full-time guides have thousands of dives in these waters – this expertise makes a difference when it comes to the number of dive sites that we visit, as well as knowledge of these dives sites – come and see for yourself.
If you would like to visit other parts of the Andamans with us, please have a look at our Safari page for more info.

Our Equipment
We use Aqualung/Seaquest Wave BCDs & Scubapro and Aqualung regulators with standard 80 cu ft Al cylinders for our rental gear – the equipment is in metric units (meters and bar). We replace our gear regularly (the median age of our equipment is 1.5 years old), and all rental gear is serviced regularly by trained technicians, using original spares. The water is warm enough that a lot of people don’t even wear wetsuits. Still, for sun protection, we provide 3mm shorties. All BCDs are equipped with a whistle and safety sausages. We have tanks fitted with standard international/yoke valves as well as DIN valves,
but
if you have DIN regulators, we suggest bringing an adapter anyway (just in case). Diving is done off one our customized 12m local-style boats (called dunghie), our 7m speedboat Mako or our 45 foot comfort cruiser, the Pink Cadillac.

Our Approach
We believe in treating our divers like adults. Consequently, we do not impose any arbitrary depth or time limit on the divers. Each buddy team dives for as long as it has enough air, and at whatever depth is comfortable (contingent upon the site and conditions). However, in the interest of safety and due to the remote nature of the islands, we do request divers to stay with the group, dive within the limits of their training and experience and to follow safe diving practices – no deeper than 30m, well within no-deco limits, ample reserve air (start ascent at 50 bar, surface with 30 bar). Your safety and comfort is our concern. If you are doing several dives with us, we will provide a FREE basic scuba tune-up covering basic theory and skills – we can also provide a more thorough refresher if needed, for a nominal charge. In addition, if you want to work on specific skills, our team of experienced instructors (with trimix, deep wreck and cold water diving experience) will be more than happy to work with you to improve those skills.

Despite being India’s largest dive center, we are not a high-volume dive factory – quite the opposite. We believe in small groups, personalized attention and an enjoyable time for all. Please tell us what you want out of your dive, and we will do our best to accommodate you.