Before paying out lots of money to buy equipment and for training it is a good idea to try to go on an introductory scuba diving lesson. You can usually find a local scuba diving club or scuba diving training centre listed in your telephone book. If there is not any listed try asking at your local swimming pool, they may have a contact number in your area. Most introductory scuba diving lessons last one session and include some pool work and a small amount of classroom training, just to introduce you to the equipment and some very basic safety procedures.

If you discover you do not enjoy scuba diving it will not have cost you a fortune, if on the other hand you want to go ahead with your training you can move onto the next stage of your training.

Your basic training will depend on the scuba diving agency you do it with; most of the training is very similar.

Basically your scuba diving lessons will cover something called an Open Water Certification, although not all agencies call it this, it is the first stage of your training to becoming a fully qualified scuba diver.

The Open Water Certification covers all the basics about scuba diving, the equipment you use, safety procedures, some theory classroom work and pool work so you know how to use the equipment and manoeuvre underwater. The last part of your training is to do some instructor led open water dives, usually about 4 where all your training is put into practice and you show you are competent to scuba dive safely.

The Open Water Certification is enough to let you scuba dive in most locations and dive centers around the world. You will be allowed to go on easy dives. If you feel you want to do harder dives you will have to go and do an Advanced Diving Certification.

The advanced scuba diving lessons go into a lot more detail about the physical effects scuba diving has on your body, so there are more classroom scuba diving lessons. You also have to learn about decompression and the use of dive tables. There is further training in the pool building on what you learned in the open water certification. Last of all there are some open water training dives you have to do to complete the Advanced Diver Training.

These two certifications are enough for you and a buddy to go scuba diving just about anywhere you want and to most depths allowable.

If you want to go on and lead your own diving expeditions you could do the Divemaster scuba diving lessons. This course will prepare you for planning and leading scuba diving expeditions.

However if you want there are further scuba diving lessons you can take to specialise in different aspects of scuba diving.

Some of the more advanced scuba diving lessons available are:

• Nitrox Diving. This is using enriched oxygen air to allow you to dive deeper and for longer.
• Rescue Diver Training. This is to do with scuba diving safety for you and other divers and builds further on the knowledge gained in your previous training.
• Cave Diving. This is a specialised form of diving and can be very dangerous.
• Deep Diving. You will get trained to go deeper sometimes using different air mixtures.
• Technical Diving. You will learn about all the different aspects of diving using different air mixtures, different diving conditions and advanced aspects of diving.
• Wreck Diving. Learn how to scuba dive on sunken wrecks safely.
• Night Diving. Learn how to dive safely at night and not get lost from your buddy or dive partners.
• Underwater Photography. There are courses available to teach underwater photography so you can take pictures to show friends and family your dive adventures.

As you can see there is a big range of scuba diving lessons you can take and do.

You do not have to do all the different courses available, the only compulsory one is the first basic course, however you will be safer and enjoy your scuba diving more if you carry on with your training to an advanced level. You never know if you keep training you may become an instructor and be able to teach scuba diving lessons anywhere in the world.