From zero to Open Water in 4 days

You've decided to learn to dive. Maybe a friend talked you into it, maybe you saw a sea turtle on a holiday snorkel and thought "I want more of that." Whatever brought you here — welcome. In four days, we'll turn you from someone who has never breathed underwater into a certified PADI Open Water Diver, able to dive anywhere in the world to 18 meters.

Here's exactly what that looks like.

Before you arrive

Once you book the course, we send you online access to PADI eLearning. You'll spend about 6-8 hours on it — videos, quizzes, and a final exam — before you arrive. This used to be classroom time; doing it before means more time underwater with us.

Day 1 · Theory finale + pool

We meet at the base at 9:00. Coffee, paperwork, a quick chat about anything from the eLearning that wasn't clear. Then we walk through your gear piece by piece: the BCD, the regulator, your tank, mask, fins, exposure suit.

After lunch, we head to a calm shallow bay we use as our "confined water" — it stays warm and clear. You'll practice the basic skills: breathing through a regulator, clearing your mask, recovering a regulator if it falls out of your mouth, sharing air with a buddy. We'll spend about three hours in the water. Don't worry — you'll feel awkward at first. Everyone does.

Day 2 · More skills, deeper water

Day two builds confidence. We add new skills — buoyancy control (the magic one), emergency ascents, hover, navigation basics — and we move to a slightly deeper part of the bay. By the end of day two, you should feel surprisingly comfortable. You'll know how your gear works and you'll trust it.

Day 3 · Your first two real dives

This is the day you start talking about in years to come. We take the boat to Drepano Reef. Briefing, gear-up, buddy check, giant stride off the boat. Your first descent into clear blue water with sand and rocks below.

Each dive is about 35-40 minutes, maxing out at 12m. You'll do a few skills on the bottom — mask clearing, regulator recovery — then we just swim and look at the reef. You'll see octopus, scorpionfish, schools of bream. You'll also discover that no matter how excited you are, the regulator forces you to breathe slowly. It's almost meditative.

Day 4 · Two more dives, then certification

Two more open water dives, this time to your full 18m max. We add a navigation exercise — swim out a heading, swim back — and we go a little further along the reef. By the second dive of the day, you'll feel like a diver, not a student. That feeling is the whole point.

After the dives, we have lunch, fill out the final paperwork, and we celebrate. You'll get a temporary certification card on the spot, and the plastic one arrives by post a few weeks later.

What it costs

€430. That covers eLearning, all four days of training, all gear (mask, fins, suit, BCD, regulator, tank, weights), boat trips, certification fee, and photos from your open water dives.

What you need to bring

• Swimsuit and a towel
• Sunscreen (reef-safe please)
• A water bottle
• A sense of humor — you'll laugh at your own mask flooding moments later

Is it for you?

You need to be at least 10 years old (with a parent), comfortable in water, able to swim 200m without stopping (any style), and float for 10 minutes. No certificate or special fitness required. If you have asthma, heart conditions, or other medical concerns, we'll ask you to check with a doctor first — and we can recommend one in Patras.

Got questions? We've answered hundreds of "I want to learn to dive" emails. Send us yours — we'll reply within 24 hours.