Week 10: Scuba Diving
It’s summer. It’s hot. Here’s an activity that takes place in a pool: diving with Big Blue, a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) center in Shanghai.
You can choose from five different courses. If you just want to try diving, sign up for the Discover Scuba class, which you can use later towards your Open Water certification (OW), the first stage of becoming a qualified diver.
What you need
A swimsuit and a towel. They provide everything else, but you’ll have to wear a swimming cap so if you have one of your own you can bring it along.
Who goes
When we went to the weekend OW class there was an American guy and a French girl plus the Serbian instructor, “Miki as in Mickey Mouse. Now you no forget.” The class size (maximum is eight people) depends on who signs up. If no one else comes you get the instructor to yourself.
What happens
We met on a Saturday at 8am at their diving school, which is out by Shanghai Zoo , got sized for flippers, boots and a wetsuit and then they drove us half an hour to a school swimming pool out in Minhang -- somewhere where taxis are sparse, so you know it’s far.
As soon as we stepped out of the van we could smell that pungent, overly chlorinated pool smell. OK, no surprise there. The surprise came when we walked into the reception area and saw a packed pool; so we’d be learning to dive in a single swimming lane with kids flopping around us and people swimming laps. However, they all seemed used to divers so no one really paid any attention to us.
The first thing Miki had planned for us, was four laps of the pool and a 10-minute float; just to test whether we could actually swim. Afterwards, we started learning the lingo and how to assemble and disassemble the gear; the oxygen tank, regulators, the jacket, hoses, valves, pressure gauge and so on.
Miki slys away from the classroom vibe by making jokes and occasionally scaring you into remembering. At one point he instructed someone to manually inflate their lifejacket by blowing into the tube and only after the guy also sucked in a bit of the air did he tell us that the bacteria in the lifejackets can be fatal. Lesson? Don’t breathe the air from your lifejacket. Ever.
After our poolside class we put on all the gear and got into our swim lane, learned hand gestures and basic skills like what happens if you lose your breathing tube, how to get water out of your mask and how to defog your goggles (spit on them).
We then practiced floating underwater without dragging along the bottom of the pool to learn how to maintain buoyancy, trying really hard to avert our eyes away from the Speedo’s barely containing saggy old butts.
There’s a lot of information but after it’s explained it’s sort of hard not to remember. Just like when you go home and drive a car again – once you learn how to do it you don’t forget.
If you’re on the Discover Scuba course, that’s about where it would end for you. But if you’re going for your Open Water certification, you’ll now be driven back to their center for a session in the classroom. To get your Open Water qualification takes two days and includes two morning pool sessions, an afternoon of classroom work and a test at the end.
This is the “Theory and Confined” part of the OW certification. To complete the course – which allows you to dive anywhere in the world - you need some practice outside of the pool. You can go with Big Blue to Qingdao Lake (three-four hours away) or Anilao, in the Philippines. Alternatively, you can finish your course at any other PADI center in the world.
How much of your life will this take up
To get your Open Water certification will take about five days altogether, including the two confined days then the open water diving trip. The two confined days are 8am-4pm, then 8am-1pm, but it depends on how many students partake – the skills are demonstrated then each student practices them one at a time.
If at the end of the two days, you happen to fail the test (that’s unlikely) you can immediately retake a different version.
How much does it cost
To get your open water PADI certification you’ll pay about 6,000rmb which includes the actual open water dive part of the class in Qiandao Lake or Anilao, Philippines but not the transportation costs. If you want to do the open water bit in the Philippines you have to pay the flight yourself, but everything else – food, accommodation - is included.
For just the OW theory and confined part of the course it’s 3,400rmb with a cheaper rate during the week and a 10% discount for groups of four, then you’ll pay a varying amount to finish at a different PADI center.
Plusses
Big Blue manages to stay in business because they offer courses in Mandarin, Shanghainese, English, French, Spanish, Swedish and Dutch, which would be hard to find in just any one center, and because their instructors are good. Miki was very attentive, patient and it was obvious that he was a very experienced teacher.
After you’re certified you can take advantage of the cheap flights to the Philippines where the diving is recommended because of the warm, clear waters.
Although Big Blue can be a bit disorganized, they allow you the same courtesy. If at the last minute you can’t make the class, they’ll let you reschedule. They’re friendly, thorough and accommodating. Can’t really expect more than that—expect maybe a private pool.
Minuses
Once you’re qualified, there aren’t too many places close to Shanghai where you can dive. It used to be possible to dive around the ancient underwater city of Qiandao, in Zhejiang, which was flooded last century to make a reservoir, and the Changfeng Oceanarium in Shanghai. But those have both recently closed. So, if you want to scuba, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anywhere near Shanghai without getting on a plane.
For a full listing for Big Blue, click here. To get there, take Line 10 to Shanghai Zoo and then it’s a 10-minute taxi ride. Big Blue is across the street from the foreign health clinic where you go to get your visa medical.