For a holiday of truly epic proportions, you can come for scuba diving in Netrani Island. The isle lies in the Arabian Sea, about 19 km from the Indian mainland. It is a good place to spot whale sharks, sperm whales, eels, colourful corals and loads of other fish. You will dive from a boat as tourist activity on the island is restricted by the navy. If you do not know how to dive, you can first take a sort of a crash course from experienced and Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)-certified trainers. You do not even have to know how to swim to enjoy this thrilling activity; only you are needed to be physically fit and comfortable in the sea. Netrani scuba diving is a one-day fun engagement in which you will be properly briefed, trained and then taken to the sea for your first dip.

You should first know what is scuba? SCUBA stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus or the equipment that you will have with you. It contains a cylinder, filled with a mixture of oxygen and other life-sustaining gases. A tube heads out from the cylinder to the mouthpiece to allow for smooth breathing. The mouthpiece is attached to a full-face mask, meant to keep salty water, soil and weed away from your eyes. A gauge, recording the pressure of the gases being supplied is fixed to the tube. The tube also has a regulator to control the amount of the gases, flowing from the cylinder to your mouthpiece. Another pipe heads out from the mouthpiece into the sea, carrying the exhaled carbon dioxide.

Please go through this form to quickly check that you have no medical conditions that would make it unsafe for you to go scuba diving. Print, fill out and sign the statement and bring it along with you when you come to Goa.

Medical Fitness: Before you sign up, please click here to download the medical statement

FAQs

1. How long do I have to wait to take a flight after the diving?
It is imperative that you wait for at least 24 hours after the dip to board a flight to even out the effects of the pressure that the sea will exert on you.

2. What does this programme do?
This one-day engagement is designed to let you have your first experience of deep sea plunge under the supervision of trained divers. At 8:00 am, the activity will begin in the swimming pool to make you comfortable under and in water, along with educating you about the SCUBA equipment. On being given the green light from your instructor, you will head to the isle for your first open water plunge.

3. Who can enrol in the programme and what is the entry process?
The most important thing to undertake such an excursion is complete physical fitness and being comfortable in sea water. Before you go for to Netrani Island, you will be handed a PADI medical form, containing a list of ailments that may bar you from the engagement. If you do not have any of the listed ailments, you will be given a form of acceptance. Should the medical statement show that you suffer from any of the health risks, a doctor will be needed to assess you and label you fit for the excursion.

4. What does the completion of the Discover Scuba Diving programme signify?
If you want to be a full diver, the completion of this programme will be counted as the first stage of the PADI Open Water Course.

5. What will be taught to be during the training session?
Your training session will begin with knowledge development. In it, you will be first briefed by a PADI qualified diver about the safety aspects and procedures. Then to help you understand it better, you will be shown a representative video of the sport.

Confined Training
This is the most important part of your crash course as you will now learn some basic and important skills. You will learn to take your breather out of your mouth, clean it and put it back again, and all this, while you are submerged in water. Another necessary skill, taught to you during this training is how to clean your full-face mask if any harmful thing gets inside. The last skill that you will learn can prove to be potentially life-saving at times. You will not take the plunge alone, but with a partner. Your scuba equipment is after all a machine, which may malfunction without prior notice. If it so happens, you should know how to share the Oxygen supply of your partner to survive, and hence you will be trained for this in the swimming pool.

Open Dive
After being properly prepared for this exciting expedition, you will head to the island to experience your first dive. During the engagement, you will be under the watchful eyes of expert divers, who will help you if anything goes awry. After the completion of the activity, you will move a step further in the ladder of becoming a full diver.