For those of you seeking a different kind of excitement in Goa, beyond its famous sun and sands, Goa offers a variety of adventurous activities.
One of the most popular must-dos here is scuba diving, which is fast catching on among adventure junkies the world over! Why is Goa perfect for scuba diving you may ask? Well, the shallow Goan waters are famous for their rich marine life; plus, they’re safe and temperate, and ideal for beginners or novices due to absence of riptide currents. While scuba diving, you will come across many sea creatures like tuna, eels, goat fish, lion fish, and snapper jacks.
Scuba diving season
In Goa, the diving season is from mid-October to end April. This is the time when the skies have cleared out, the rains have ceased and the sea is calm. The visibility is normally 5-10 m due to River Mandovi and River Zuari meeting the sea. It also depends upon the weather conditions and the nature of the sea. The diving sites all around Grand Island are mostly shallow and the water temperature is around 28 degree Celsius. During the season, there are several tours organised to visit Grand Island, which give visitors a chance to try their hand at diving, fishing or just relaxing on the beach.
Best place to go scuba diving
Grand Island is the perfect place to go scuba diving in Goa. It is only a few kilometres west of Mormugao in South Goa. It is known by a lot of different names: Grande Island, Grandi Island, Ilha Grao and on the map, the eastern region of the island is often marked as Mortar Island.
Suzy’s Wreck (4-15m), Sail Rock (20m), Davy Jones Lockers (15m), Bounty Bay (9m), Turbo Tunnel (7m), Uma Guma Reef (15 m) and Surge City (9m) are some of the scuba diving hot spots around the island.
All you have to do to reach this island is rent a boat. It would take about 20 minutes to reach from Benaulim or Bogmalo resorts and about 40 minutes from Dona Paula.
Courses offered in Goa
The largest diver training organisation is PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors), California, USA. Scuba diving requires proper training and certification. PADI Asia Pacific Australia issues the certification. The PADI system of dive training involves different modules of varying difficulty levels. Different scuba diving courses and PADI recreational dive training programmes are available and they are conducted by experienced, qualified, professional and multi-national instructors.
Goa Aquatics, PADI Scuba Diving Resort based in Calangute, offers good quality PADI courses (if you are passionate about exploring coral reefs and marine life) and certification level programmes such as emergency first response, rescue diver, advanced open water diver and dive master. They also offer scuba diving options for beginners (introductory scuba dive course) and pleasure dives (if you are already certified and just want to dive for fun).
Price
A guided introductory dive for beginners is priced at Rs. 5000/- and a scuba diver course costs Rs. 11,000/-
Why is certification useful?
To get the required certification, you have to acquire the necessary skills for the diving activity you would like to undertake. If you are already certified by the recognised authority, you will easily be granted permission to dive after the instructor verifies your certification. With this certification, you can also obtain tank fills and buy dive equipment.
Goa Aquatics - PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Centre
Email: contact@goaaquatics.com
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