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Course Summary: This is your entry point to your underwater adventure. The PADI course is very well supported with excellent quality textbooks and video making the concepts easy to absorb. Bookwork can be done independently, utilizing the instructor to explain and reinforce concepts.
Confined water training to practice basic skills is done in a pool, or in calm, shallow water such as Osezaki. Following this, there are four required open water dives. There are also several multiple-choice tests.
Duration: If a students is well-prepared for the academics, the course could be completed in a 3-day weekend. More usual is two weekends of diving and classroom.
Costs: Instructor fee is JPY 40,000 for single students, or JPY 30,000 each person for groups of 2 or more. The total costs for PADI Open Water Diver would be:
| Instructor Fee (PADI Cert Fee included) single/group |
JPY 40,000 |
| Textbook/Dive Tables/PADI Log Book |
JPY 9,000 |
| Confined water work (generally 2 days) |
JPY 14,000 |
| Open Water Dives (4 shore dives, generally 2 days) |
JPY 14,000 |
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| Typical Total 4-day course |
JPY 77,000 |
Note: Equipment fees are included, except wetsuit use, which will be rented from the dive center at JPY 2,000 per day. Overnight stay is often required for training locations and will be an additional cost.
Open Water referral Courses, instruction fees (dives/eq extra):
Academics only - JPY 10,000 (materials extra)
Academics and pool - JPY 20,000
Ocean dives only - JPY 20,000
Pool and Ocean dives only - JPY 40,000 (No discount)
| PADI Nitrox Diver |
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Course Summary: Nitrox is an often misunderstood gas. Most students (myself included) initially believe that Nitrox is for deep diving. Actually, nitrox is simply gas with higher amounts of oxygen that is used at recreational depths. The higher level of oxygen (and lower nitrogen) allow divers to stay underwater longer and have shorter surface intervals.
In this course, divers will learn how to use nitrox mixtures from 22% to 40%, though 32% and 36% are most common. This is also a chance for divers to learn more about diving gasses in general and why certain gasses are used for certain purposes.
Until recently, PADI required two dives for this certification. This is no longer the case. There is study, a test, and practice with testing gas for amount of oxygen. Students may also do two dives with the instructor in which they will do the actual dive planning and gas testing.
Duration: With a bit of study beforehand, this course can easily be done in one day, including dives. Another option is to meet one evening over beers or wine to go over the classwork and do the test. Dives, if desired, can be done another day.
Costs:
| Instructor Fee (PADI cert fee included) |
JPY 10,000 |
| PADI Textbook and tables |
JPY 7,000 |
| Two optional shore dives (including nitrox gas surcharge) |
JPY 10,000 |
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| Typical Total (without/with dives) |
JPY 17,000/27,000 |
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| PADI Advanced Diver |
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Course Summary: This is when I start to have fun as an instructor! PADI requires students to do 5 dives for this experiential course. A deep dive and a navigation dive are required. Aside from these, the student can choose 3 other dives to complete the certification. Common choices are peak performance buoyancy, wreck diver, drift diver and night diver.
Students will also have lectures and practice in other areas of advanced diving such as gas management, assorted task during buoyancy and shooting a lift/signal bag.
Duration: Since there are five required dives, this course must take at least two days. It can be done in a weekend if there is enough time to complete three dives on one of the days. This is a good course for Osezaki or Oshima, since night diving can be done year round, making the 3rd dive on Saturday a breeze.
Costs:
| Instructor fee (Including PADI cert fee) |
JPY 15,000 |
| AOW textbook |
JPY 5,000 |
| Dive fees (2 dives one day, 3 dives the next) |
JPY 15,500 |
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| Typical Total |
JPY 35,500 |
| PADI Rescue Diver |
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Course Summary: Without a doubt, this course is always a favorite of anyone who takes it! This is guaranteed to be one of the most exciting diving challenges you can train for. In this training, participants will learn to identify and prevent hazardous situations while also learning to deal with true emergencies. Though these dive emergencies are thankfully infrequent, preparing for the caring of other divers is a tremendous confidence booster. This will take your diving skills and attitude to a new level.
The course consists of scenario-based skills practice in confined water (pool or Osezaki) followed by one or two days of exciting and realistic simulation practice. As a Rescue candidate, you will be on high alert for one or two entire dive days when a simulated emergency could arise at any moment.
Duration: Independent study, including video. The confined water practice can be done in 3 to 5 hours depending on student number and experience. Open water scenarios will take one or two days mixed in with fun diving to create realism.
Costs:
| Instructor Fee (Including PADI cert fee) |
JPY 25,000 |
| Textbook |
JPY 5,000 |
| Confined water practice (Osezaki/pool) |
JPY 7,000/15,000 |
| Open Water Scenarios (if done over two days) |
JPY 14,000 |
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| Typical Total (Osezaki Option) |
JPY 51,000 |
Note: If pool training is done at a military pool, there will be no confined water training fees.
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| PADI Dive Master |
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Course Summary: Welcome to the first level of a dive professional. As an "intern" Dive Master student of mine, I can personally guarantee that you will be a highly knowledgeable and skilled diver by the end of your 2 to 3 month training. While many canters do churn out dive masters in 2 to 3 weeks, in this program you get our what you put in, which is a lot.
PADI requires candidates to have a minimum of 20 dives to enter the program and a minimum of 60 dives to complete it. However, these are minimums and are at the discretion of the instructor, me. I will help you become the diver you want to become. You will be involved with every aspect of dive training and leading, including equipment.
Aside from the skills practice and knowledge and tests that PADI requires, candidates will also have practice in DIR dive concepts and skills, advanced buoyancy skills, advanced gas management training, training is use of lift bags and Surface Marker buoys, limited orientation on the basics of decompression, and more.
Divers who are up to the challenge, please contact Jim to map out your plan.
Prerequisites: Before training begins, candidates will need to have completed Rescue Diver certification and hold current CPR/AED/First Aid training. Also, participants will need a medical statement from a physician.
Duration: Varies, but 2 to 3 months is a good target.
Costs:
| Instructor Fee (Including PADI cert fee) |
JPY 30,000 |
| Course Materials (Excluding video and instructors manual, which can be borrowed) |
JPY 30,000 |
| Diving (to be paid for by candidate at usual dive prices) |
Varies |
Required materials list:
- PADI Divemaster Manual
- Divemaster Slates
- Diving Knowledge Workbook
- The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
- PADI Divemaster Video DVD (I can loan you this)
- Recreational Dive Planner (eRDP)
- Recreational Dive Planner (Wheel-Metric)
- Recreational Dive Planner (Table-Metric): (If you don't already have one).
- Instructor Guides for the programs that may be conducted by PADI Divemasters. You may purchase these guides or you can download PDF versions by clicking on the links below.
1. Discover Scuba Diving
2. Discover Snorkeling/Skin Diver Course
3. Scuba Review/Discover Local Diving
Dive Master Training Special note:
There are a great variety of Dive Master programs out there so I’d like to say something on the subject.
As with most PADI programs, the Dive Master course has requirements that are rather well spelled-out. The candidate must have a minimum of 60 logged dives, complete knowledge reviews and tests, satisfy swim requirements, accomplish several tasks, assist in dive leading and teaching, and demonstrate mastery in a number of dive skills.
While this sounds like a lot to cover, it is often possible for certification-minded dive operations to crank candidates through this process in a couple weeks if they do a “skeletal course”. These courses do minimal teaching and the Dive Master that is produced is not much different than the diver that began the course. I fail to see the value in this certification.
I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to have a wide variety of scuba instruction from all kinds of instructors. My diving and training experience in technical diving have given me a better grasp of recreational diving. It is my goal to create Dive Masters that have a wide range of knowledge and experience to draw upon, as well as having above average to excellent buoyancy and dive skills. I want to be sure that any of my Dive Master graduates would be fully prepared to continue on to the instructor level, or technical diving if they chose to do so.
If a hypothetical diver were interested in simply paying their money and getting a fast Dive Master certification, there are places to do so. Thankfully, Discovery Divers Tokyo is not one of them. We feel that we would be doing both the diver and dive industry a disservice by producing a DM in such a manner.
I look forward to providing challenging, high quality training to motivated candidates!
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