What to Expect When You Begin Your Diving Adventure

So you've finished your open water certification, and explored a small portion of the underwater world, what now?

Taking the first step into becoming a diver is an exciting yet daunting task! It opens up your mind to a whole world that you have never explored before. You experience incredible things that some people may not in their entire lifetime. If you want to really blow your mind, come diving with NEREN in Komodo!

Have you mastered all your underwater skills yet? Some people are able to learn these skills quickly, while others take time to feel comfortable. One of the more difficult skills to master is your mask skills. If you can master these you are one step ahead of most people.

Should you buy all your equipment? Should you feel comfortable underwater? Will it take time to learn all the skills? All these pressing questions answered below!

Don't Expect to be 100% Confident in the Water
Your open water certificate is the first step to becoming a mermaid. With this, keep in mind that this is the very first step. You are constantly learning new things each time you take the plunge into the sea.You may dive with other open water divers that have more logged dives than you. These people have been able to practice their skills and master them one dive at a time. Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Your skills will progress the more dives you have. Being a diver takes a lot of time and patience as you move through your dives.

Speaking of patience…
          

Patience is Key

It may take 20 dives for you to master your underwater skills, it may also take 45. Everyone is completely different in the way they learn. Trust the process and enjoy it while you're moving through. You will make mistakes, which are essential to progress. As a beginner diver, you'll have good dives but you'll also have bad dives. Use the good to keep progressing forward, and the bad to improve your skills and learn what you can do better.

Don't get too down on yourself when you don't have the best dive. Think about the positives and all the amazing sea life you witnessed down below!

Practice Good Buoyancy on Every Dive
To become a great beginner diver, buoyancy is one of the key components that you must master. Work on using your BCD less and your breath more. Make sure you are neutrally buoyant on each dive you embark on. This means that you are properly weighted and you are able to control your buoyancy with only your breath. If you struggle with this, get an instructor to watch you perform the buoyancy test before you go on your dive and ask for their advice.

A tip that helps most beginner divers is to count their inhales and exhales ensuring they are keeping them consistent throughout the dive.

Expect to Dive With Rental Equipment From Dive Shops
When you're a beginner diver, more often than not, you will be borrowing from shops until you are ready to invest in your own equipment.

Buy a Mask!

It's not necessary to buy anything else other than a mask. Having your own as a beginner diver will make fun dives more comfortable. Make sure you clean it a few times to avoid having it fog up during a dive. You will need to break it in like a new pair of shoes. We recommend using toothpaste and smearing it on the front and inside with your fingers. Rinse with freshwater and repeat a few times before diving. (You may need to repeat this a few times, depending how the mask performs during your dives.)

Once you've done all of this you won't need to play around with your mask underwater, allowing you to enjoy the dive and admire the sea life around you. You’ll especially enjoy the underwater life that Komodo National Park offers!

Practice Practice Practice

Diving is like a fine wine, it gets better with age (for divers, it gets better the more dives you log). It's important to consistently dive after you complete your certification. This way you'll remember everything you learned and be able to advance to new diving heights! Eventually, the skills you learned as a beginner diver will come easily, and you'll be able to enjoy the dive sites and amazing underwater life!

Take Your Advanced Course
After your Open Water certification, the next journey is your Advanced course. During your Open Water certification, the beginner diver skills dominate the whole course. Confined and open water skills take up the majority of course time. Fun diving is left until the end and incorporates a minimal amount of the time.

The Advanced Open Water certification focuses on more technical aspects of diving. Your course will be packed in with 5 adventure dives, which are similar to regular fun dives. You have to do the deep and navigation dives, and then three more of your choice! For example: drift dive, underwater photography, fish identification or peak performance buoyancy. NEREN diving offers advanced open water courses where you learn in beautiful Komodo National Park.

Moving from a beginner to advanced diver, your confidence underwater will improve immensely. Which brings us to our most important expectation of beginner diving….

Have Fun
Diving is such an incredible activity, but it is so easy to get lost into the technical side of things. The most important reminder for beginner divers is to have fun while learning new skills. The best place to enjoy some incredible diving is in this beautiful country of Indonesia. Some of the amazing sea creatures around the world are only seen by divers, and those that don't dive will never get to see them. Check out our gallery to see what you may find diving with NEREN.

Enjoy every moment under water and bask in the underwater experience. Take in every moment and be fully present while you explore the underwater world.