I've been teaching diving in Seoul for about five years now. It's strictly part-time for me, as my full-time occupation is English Professor at a university in Seoul. However, I really enjoy teaching diving and believe in doing my best to prepare students for their open water dives. In this way, I keep my own diving skills up to date, and for me, seeing the look of happiness and accomplishment in my student's eyes makes it more than worthwhile. From both my personal experience as a student, as well as casual observation, I've seen quality instructors and not-so-good instructors. I hope to be counted among the former.
A lot of visitors to this page contact me with questions and I find myself writing very long emails in response. A saner way to handle this would be to offer you the answers to the most common questions here
Q&A
Q: How much does the course cost?
A: The course I offer is priced at 290,000 won. This includes all training materials, pool entry and tank fees, and the use of a full set of scuba gear. (I own and maintain five full sets of gear at varying sizes.) You will, of course, need to bring a swimsuit, and towel. Please remember that this does not include the four open water training dives.
Q: Isn't it just cheaper to do the entire course in the Philippines or Thailand? What are the advantages to doing this type of referral course, and doing the Open Water dives elsewhere?
A: You can certainly find cheaper fees for the full course in the Philippines or Thailand. It depends on which dive shop you go to and how many students are in your class.
Doing the referral course here with me and then finishing up your open water dives elsewhere will cost about $450 total. For example, you can complete the open water dives in Sabang, Philippines, for about $US 160. That means that if you do the first part of the course with me and then finish up for that price, the total would be about $US 450.
The main advantage to doing the knowledge development and pool training here in Seoul is that you don't waste your vacation time doing these things at your vacation destination. That benefit by itself was attractive to most of the students who have trained with me over the years, even if it meant a slightly higher overall cost. (So far, I have trained just over 150 students here in Seoul on the referall course.)
Add to this the vacation time you save, and the fact that I rarely teach more than two students at a time. Cheaper PADI courses, especially in Thailand, usually have 6-8 students in the water with one instructor. It's really hard to get personal, quality training with large groups.
Q: When can I begin training?
A: My specialty is to work around your schedule, so it's really up to you. If I'm free, we can begin tomorrow! My specialty is to work with one or two students at a time, and this is a big advantage for those who are a bit nervous about "the whole breathing underwater deal". So don't worry about fitting your schedule into a class with 6-8 students. You will be my class!
Q: How long does the course take?
A: The typical course is as follows:
1) I meet with potential students for about 30 minutes either at a coffeeshop near their home/office or at the Coffee Bean across from the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon. (your choice) Students receive the textbook, dive tables and a copy of the DVD for self-study. (At this time, I ask for a W50,000 deposit towards the total fee of the course.) Students also receive the paperwork they need to complete before entering the water (medical questionnaire is attached). Finally, I show students on a map where the training facility is and we work out a schedule.
2) First day at Olympic Park Swimming Pool. On Saturdays, the pool is open from noon to 5 p.m. On Sundays, the pool is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then again from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
For the first day of training, I highly recommend Saturdays. We meet at 11:30 at the "Hans Coffeeshop" just in front of the pool, in the same building. We begin pool training at noon and do confined water dives 1 and 2. If we have time, we will do some skills from confined water dive 3, and practice swimming around. (The pool is quite large!) We may also do the 10 minute tread water and 200 yard swim at this time.
Then we get out of the pool, and return to Hans Coffeeshop. There, we go over the Knowledge Reviews for chapters 1-3 in the book and take the corresponding quizzes. Then I teach students how to use the dive tables. Depending on your comfort level in the water, and ease of grasping the theory, we will finish anywhere between 5 to 8 p.m.
3) Second day at Olympic Park Swimming Pool. Arrive for morning session at 9:30 a.m. or afternoon session at 1:30 p.m. (your choice) Do confined water dives 3, 4 and 5. We may also do the 10 minute tread water and 200 yard swim at this time.
Then we do Knowledge Reviews for chapters 4 and 5. Students take a quiz for chapter 4 and the final test for all chapters. In almost all cases, students pass everything and are given the standard PADI referall form from the Instructors Manual, and also a "PIC" which your open water instructor will fill out upon completion of our open water dives. Either you or your final instructor will mail this to PADI headquarters, and you will receive your PADI Open Water Diver card within 4-6 weeks.
Q: Do I need to buy a book?
Yes. PADI requires all diving students to own their own book and keep it after the course. This is why I have had to raise my instruction fees to 270,000 won from a previous 250,000 won.
Q: How many students will there be?
A: I usually take one or two students at a time, but it is possible to have four students at one time. If there are more than this, it takes a lot longer, and for safety's sake, I don't feel comfortable with that many students in the water at once. However, in my experience, most students train alone or with a friend or spouse.
Q: Do you give group discounts?
A: I used to, but I found out that having large groups is actually more difficult and time consuming than teaching one or two students at a time. It's fine if everyone is a "natural" at the get-go, but this is rarely the case. I prefer to take time with students to make sure they are comfortable in the water so that when they hit the ocean, they know what they are doing. Sometimes this takes more personal attention, which is fine, but it makes teaching large groups almost impossible. So I don't offer group discounts anymore.
Q: Will I be a qualified scuba diver when I finish the classroom training and the confined water training?
A: No. You will still need to complete the four Open Water training dives required by PADI. I give you a referral form which you can take to any PADI dive shop in the world. They will only have to take you on the ocean dives. You will not waste any of your vacation sitting in a hot humid classroom watching a video or spending your evenings studying instead of enjoying the nightlife like everyone else!! This way you can get straight into the ocean and maximize your dive time. Vacations are short and rare--make them stress-free and worth every minute.
Q: Why don't you do the Open Water training here in Korea?
A: Actually, I have done it, and I might do it again. But there are several reasons I would advise against it:
1) Logistics: the nearest location to do this training is near Kangnung, an almost 3-hour drive away. The last two times I went to do training there, the wind prohibited us from diving because it made conditions too dangerous. I have tried to do a training dive at Inchon, only 40 minutes away from Seoul, but low visibility (about 6 inches), combined with tricky tidal conditions made it impossible to do some skills. I will not attempt Open Water training at Inchon again.
2) For most of the year, it's COLD!! The best time to try diving off the east coast is between May and September.
3) Cost: it's just crazily expensive to dive in Korea. Beach dives (just walking into the ocean) are 10,000 won each person including instructor (me). Boat dives are between 20,000 to 30,000 won each, including me. On top of this, tanks are 10,000 won each including instructor (me again). If we stayed overnight, figure in cost of accommodations and food. Then there's transportation. I don't have a car, and if you don't have a car, we need to pay for transportation there and back. That alone costs about 40,000 won per person (express bus and taxi). I find myself having to charge students between 250,000 won to 300,000 won each just to break even for Open Water training, and I haven't even considered my instruction time. In August 2006, I went to Cheju-do to finish the Open Water training for two of my students through BigBlue33 (an excellent dive shop--German owned and managed). However, I only charged my students the fee that BigBlue33 charged for the use of their boat and tanks--about 160,000 won each (and like most dive shops outside of Korea, they don't charge for the instructor, which is really just common business sense--so I didn't have to pass these costs onto the students). However, I did need to pay my airfare and hotel out of my own pocket. Because of this, I can't take students to Cheju to finish up their open water training--it would just be too expensive.
On the other hand, the owner, Ralf Deutsch, might have a PADI instructor on staff who can do your open water dive training. Contact him at:
http://www.bigblue33.co.kr/english/diveshop.htm
If you want to finish your training with me, the best alternative I can offer at the present time is for you to come with me on my trips to the Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia. As a professor, I have winters and summers off, so I'll be making trips at these times.
Finally, if you have any more questions, please contact me.
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