I’ve thought about trying to learn to scuba dive my entire life. And with a holiday fast approaching in Cairns Australia I thought I’d better get to it.

I contacted the local dive centres and they made it all sound so confusing and dire as well as being unaffordable. So a little shattered I did a search on the internet for “Scuba Diving in Cairns ” . And what a good idea that was. I was given nearly hundreds of options of Cairns dive schools and local booking agents only too happy to assist me learn to scuba dive.

After sending out a few emails with lots of questions I was happy to find out that it wasn’t as frightening, difficult or expensive as I’d previously ascertained. Pretty much, in Cairns you can do a dive course in four, five or six days. Four days is the minimum to get your PADI credentials. A PADI certification is the worlds largest and most recognised.The five and six day courses give you more dives and you get to do a liveaboard on the Cairns Great Barrier Reef.

After a bit of hard decision time I chose to do a 5 day overnight dive course. Fistly I had to get a dive checkup done. Now this shouldn’t worry anyone who is reasonably fit and healthy. If you have no serious illnesses or lung related problems you should be OK. The largest issue is Asthma I beleive.

Days one and two are spent in the training pool and Classroom. This is when you learn the theory behind scuba diving and some simple skills. The most difficult part about this was having to tread water for 20 minutes. And rather unfairly the fattest people float better than the muscly ones. Those drinks after work everyday finally have helped me.

On day three you leave for the great barrier reef. You are taken out to your boat at the reef by a smaller boat full of daytrippers, but as soon as you get there they get you into the water. You start your training dives immediately. The first four dives are part of your course, where you learn a few more skills. After that you get to do six more dives with no training included. You are now a qualified scuba diver. And I got to do it on the Great Barrier Reef, not in some dark mirky city water.