Open Water Diver
Open Water Diver is your passport to the underwater world — the world-recognised certification that never expires, letting you dive independently with a trusted buddy down to 18 metres, anywhere on the planet. We’ll take you step-by-step through clear theory, confined water skill-building, and real open-water dives, keeping classes small, prices fair, and support personal every step of the way. Whether you dream of exploring UK wrecks, swimming alongside tropical marine life, or building towards advanced training, this is where your lifelong diving adventure begins — don’t put it off another season, get in touch today and let’s get you certified.
Booking
Step one is to book your course, select a date on our bookings page or contact us to see if we can offer a different date/location. Feel free to contact us if you would like pricing/dates for a group booking. Once you have booked or we have agreed dates via email, we will send a payment link.
E-Learning
Before your course date, once you have paid, we will send a link for your e-learning and digital forms. You'll receive the Open Water Diver e-learning in an email from PADI, you will need to complete all the sections and optional modules for the Open Water Diver course. You will also find that PADI will send you a email with some digital forms attached for you to complete online. You'll also have a short in person quick review exam on your final day of the course (psst.... Don't worry it's multiple choice).
If you already have the PADI Open Water Diver e-learning or physical manual, please contact us a head of booking and we can organise a discount.
Confined Water Dives
You'll start off the practical side of your course by doing some training sessions in the swimming pool or confined water (we have some sea/quarry based sites that fit this requirement). In these sessions you will start to learn some of the basic skills like gear assembly, buoyancy control, regulator use and mask clearing plus more. The 5 confined sessions may be run all in one day or split over the course of 5 evenings (feel free to contact us if you have a preference - our preference is to split them over 2 days). The sessions will start with a briefing from your instructor before gear assembly and buddy checks (don't worry our team will teach you how to do these). Once all the checks are done, it's into the water to start learning the skills. Our experienced instructors will first demonstrate the skill before getting you to repeat, if the skill needs any work or improvement our patient team is there ready to help you master the skills. You'll also do a 10 minute treading water in water too deep in which to stand plus a 200m swim/400m snorkel.
Open Water Dives
Once you completed your confined dives it's onto the open water which will likely be a shore based location in the sea or in a recreational diving quarry. For the Open Water Diver course you have 4 open water dives to complete which can be done all in two days or over the course of 4 evenings. In the open water sessions each dive will start with a briefing from your instructor before gear assembly and buddy checks (progressively you'll require less and less instructor input for gear assembly and buddy checks). Once in the water you'll get to go for a swim and practice your buoyancy control among other skills whilst you take in the wondrous things around you. You'll also get the chance to repeat many of the skills from the pool but this time your instructor won't demonstrate first, although they will still help you if you're not quite there with a skill.
Prerequisites and Prices
Prerequisites
Age: 15+ (10-14 for Junior Open Water Diver)
Qualification Level: None
Swimming Ability: Able to swim or float for 10 minutes in water too deep to stand. Ability to swim 200m without a swimming aid or snorkel for 400m.
You must be able to complete the PADI medical questionnaire or have a GP/Diving Doctor sign you off as fit to dive in order to participate in this course.
Once completed you'll be able to...
Dive to the maximum depth of 18m with a qualified dive buddy.
Prices
£750 for confined & open water sessions in the sea (Class size of 2-3)
£850 for confined sessions in the pool & open water sessions in the sea (Class size of 2-3)
£1,000 for confined & open water sessions in the sea (Class size of 1)
£1,300 for confined sessions in the pool & open water sessions in the sea (Class size of 1)
Contact below for one to one dates or for dates and prices for group bookings
FAQs
Please reach us at info@parrottfishscuba.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
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If you are joining us for a pool session please bring your swimwear plus a t-shirt or rash vest that you don't mind getting wet. We also recommend bringing a towel, dry cloths, a drink and a snack for afterwards. If you already own any of your own mask, snorkel, fins etc; please feel free to bring them but if not don't worry as we will also provide these items free of charge.
If you are joining us for a session in the sea please bring whatever you wish to wear under your wetsuit (we recommend swimwear and a rash vest, we also recommend bringing a towel, dry cloths, a drink and a snack for afterwards. If you already own any of your own mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuit (at least 5mm in summer and 7mm in winter) etc; please feel free to bring them but if not don't worry as we will also provide these items free of charge. You may also need to bring money for parking (cash, card and phone are excepted at the sites we use).
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After your course we will certify you though the PADI website, and you will receive an electronic certification card (or e-card) that you can access though the PADI app or website (It will go on the same account as your e-learning was activated on).
For an additional £7.50 you can also receive a Parrottfish SCUBA A4 certificate of completion. Or for an extra £15 you can get a official PADI Open Water Diver A4 certificate of completion.
For a minimum of £60 extra you can get a physical PADI certification card. This price is for the standard card, photo cards and project aware cards are available for extra- please contact the dive centre for prices.
If you would like any of these upgrades please let us know at the time of booking or let your instructor know on your course.
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The next thing you probably want to do is go diving, whether it's here or away we would strongly encourage you to explore the amazing waters around you. If you would like to enjoy some of our local waters here in the UK feel free to book yourself on a Discover Local Diving with Parrottfish SCUBA.
Should progressing to the next course be what you're interested in, the Advanced Open Water Diver or Adventure Diver is the course for you. Or if you wish to sharpen and improve some of those skills from your course we would recommend the following courses: Peak Performance Buoyancy, DSMB Diver, Drysuit Diver, Digital Underwater Photographer, Night Diver. There are no minimum number of dives to complete between the courses, so you can feel free to book on straight away.
Should you not pass the course we will offer 1 additional day of training free of charge and then an additional 3 days of training at £160 per day. After that you are eligible to rebook the Op Diver course with a discount for already having e-learning materials.
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The team at Parrottfish SCUBA may have to postpone or change the location of your course due to the weather or other conditions outside of our control (e.g. pollution events, breakdowns, etc..). Should this happen we will give you as much notice as possible and we will work with you to book a new date that works for both parties. Should you not be able to make the new date or location we can offer a refund less the value of your e-learning which is yours and can be transferred to another dive centre. The e-learning has no expiry date.
Should you wish to cancel or change your booking there is a 14 day cooling off period where changes can be made free of charge (if you have registered your e-learning already, the value of the e-learning will be deducted from your refund), unless their is less than 14 days before the course start date, in which case the cooling off period lasts until the start of the standard cancilation periods. The standard cancelation periods are as follows: to cancel your course 1 week before it is due to start you will receive a refund equal to 50% of the total paid less the value of the e-learning (for example, if the e-learning is valued at £20 and you paid £120 you would receive £50 in refund). At 48 hours notice or less unfortunately we cannot offer any refund. Cancellations before the 1 week period and after your 14 day cooling off period can be made and you will receive a full refund less the value of your e-learning and a £25 cancelation fee.
For changes to your booking date made by yourself (including if you miss your course and wish to rebook, or if you don't complete e-learning and/or medical/waiver forms) fees are as follows. More than 72 hours notice £25 rebooking fee, 72-24 hours notice £50 rebooking fee, less than 24hrs notice 50% of course value (less the value of e-learning materials).
For this course e-learning materials are valued at £150.
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We have the facility to provide trasport to participants but can’t ensure we have the space for observers (please let us know if this is required). We are abble to collect from a 5mile radius around a dive site for free and for £2.50 per mile over this. Public transport has a good connection to some sites but not others. If transport is an issue please let us know at the time of booking so we can arrange a site that works well for you.
We also do not cover the cost of parking at dive sites so please bear this in mind when driving to the site.
"The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish."
— Jacques-Yves Cousteau