| All the
resorts in the Maldives have dive schools on them. Of course the facilities,
equipment and the staff differ from resort to resort, depending on its size,
its location and clientele. However all the resorts offer beginners' dive
courses and a variety of other courses towards PADI certification. In almost
all the resorts instruction is available in English and German, however
many resorts offer instruction in Italian, French, Japanese and a host of
other European languages too. While some dive schools are Instructor Development
Centres (IDCs), others too offer a wide variety of advanced and specialised
dive courses. It is advisable to check up on the languages of instruction
and courses available, before you book at a resort for your diving holiday.
Equipment wise, all have the basics - compressors, tanks, BCDs, wetsuits, weights and weight belts and can provide a limited number of other accessories such as lamps and dive computers. Only some dive schools rent out underwater cameras and video cameras. Dive schools at all the resorts conduct daily dive boat trips to dive sites around the island, throughout the year. However, bigger schools offer a variety of trips everyday to different dive sites. In these resorts, the advanced diver would have choice of dives daily, to choose from. Night dives and other specialised dives are not conducted on a daily basis at all the resorts. However on the more specialised dive resorts, these too are available. The same goes for night diving in the resort's house reef. The dive schools in all the resorts invariably consist of one or more classrooms - air-conditioned at some, wet room and storage space for the school's as well as private equipment. Some of the bigger schools also have dive shops and video processing facilities. |
