North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Who would be the best person to do a Dive course with. We done a couple of dives while we were in QLD over xmas and seem to have th bug. Any help would be appreciated.


Cheers Milney

I recently completed my open water with Sash & Suzie of Coral Divers. Excellent intsruction and great advice. Highly reccomended

Darwin mightn't have the best visability at times but love diving here.

Rusty Hook wrote: ...... Sash & Suzie of Coral Divers. Excellent intsruction and great advice. Highly reccomended

Darwin mightn't have the best visability at times but love diving here.

Yep - Sash's outfit may not look as 'pretty' as the newer crowd down at Cullen Bay, but he's the longest operator in Darwin, and what he doesn't know about the harbour & surrounds doesn't need to be known (some may say his PADI non-affiliation is a problem, but IMHO PADI is just a bunch of self interested, marketing orientated w#%&#rs anyhoo ).

If you can dive our harbour proficiently, you can dive ANYWHERE

Is coral divers still around i tried to call with no answer and couldnt find there shop at berimah.
Thank you
Mick

I think the only one left is the attachment at ship stores

One of my daughters did hers with Coral and loved it!

Coral Divers seem to have dropped off the radar a bit in the last few years. I know their boat is still moored up off Vesteys beach but never really see them out and about diving. Rumour is they do a bit of diving for those that are close to them, club members etc.

Even if you did get certified up here you would face the problem of not having anyone to take u out. I know blokes up here that also got the bug, got the gear but no one to take them out.

If you really wanted to do it I would suggest this. Head to Cairns and do a 5 day Open Water Course. with Pro Dive. I used to work for them and they offer a good product. 3 of your days will be on a liveaboard out on the GBR and you will get to do 9 dives, 4 of them for the course and 5 for fun incl a night dive. You can PM me if you want any more info. I think its about $750 which includes food and accom for the 3 days on board obviously.

http://www.prodivecairns.com/

Or dive timor- incredible water. Been twice, would do it again

I am currently working for a company called TEK Ventures who originally was Cullen bay dive but have since gone into commercial side of diving rather then training and amature diving. I asked them the same question about who can do dive tickets here in Darwin and was told that one guy involved in the Darwin Sub Aqua club is the only person up here who has the insurances and abilities to do the training now days. Coral divers is no more apart from people close to Sash and Suzee.

you could ask some questions around the sub Aqua club or do as i was told and go to East Timor or other places that have been mentioned here as a holiday and do the courses there.

Yes, shame about Coral Divers ... in the good ol' days they hosted Asian dive trips to Flores and Kupang ...

Pre-GPS, Sash could find almost every Darwin Harbour wreck using landmarks.

so learning to dive in darwin is pretty much out of the question.

It would be much easier to book a trip to Bali and do it over there. I upgraded to Advanced Open Water last year, when I enquired here I was told it would be around $600 and these courses were not held too often. I ended up doing it in Bali up at the USAT Liberty, it cost me $350, which included all food and accomadation. The instructors were extreemly professional, the visability was amazing and they could cater the course around me. So the entire trip, (airfares + grog + course + a couple of nights in Kuta) cost around $1000... So for an extra $400 I had a holiday....

Id go with PADI mate, i did mine with SSI and they were all scenario dives for ur course so you couldnt blow ur depths etc but then it really screwed u over when u jump in off the GBR and ur in 30m of water and u dont watch ur depth so much cause ur taught 2 dive anytime. i recommend padi