Next beginners' course starts Tuesday 6 October · eight places

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Columns of silver bubbles rising through deep blue water towards the light.
Pool · Tuesdays 19:30Warm water · twice a year

You learn to breathe underwater four metres from the vending machines

Below has no boat and no beach. We have the deep end of the Castle Street pool from half past seven on a Tuesday, two instructors, sixteen sets of kit and a whiteboard.

Six Tuesdays gets you your first certificate. Then, twice a year, we go somewhere warm for a week with the same people you learned next to, and you do your open-water dives there.

A diver in black giving the OK sign with a torch in hand, other divers behind in blue water.

First breath

One evening in the pool, no commitment. You try the kit in water you can stand up in.

£35 · two hours

A smiling diver close to the camera making hand signs over a reef.

Six Tuesdays

The whole beginners' course: theory on the whiteboard, skills in the pool, a written test.

£290 · kit included

Two divers beside a coral wall surrounded by small orange fish.

Four open-water dives

Done on a trip, with us. Once they are logged you can dive with a buddy anywhere.

£180 · on top of the trip

Twice a year

A week somewhere warm with the people from the pool

We pick a dive centre we have used before, book a block of rooms and go as a group of twelve. You pay your own flight. Nobody gets put in a boat with strangers on their first day.

NovemberRed Sea, seven nights

MayCanary Islands, six nights

Grouptwelve divers, two of us

What you need first
A diver in a pale wetsuit with a camera, bubbles rising, next to a reef lit from above.
A single diver seen from far below, small against the light at the surface.

Read this before you book

Before you get in the water

1

The medical form

Ten yes-or-no questions. One yes — asthma, ears, heart, recent surgery — means a doctor signs it before your first Tuesday. We send it the day you book, not the night before.

2

200 metres, any stroke

Without stopping and without touching the side, and ten minutes of floating. Nobody times it. It is the only thing we ask you to already be able to do.

3

24 hours before flying

No flights for a full day after your last dive on a trip. We plan the last diving day around it, so you do not have to.

Questions

Do I need my own kit?

No. Mask and fins are yours to keep after the course; everything else is ours.

What if my ears hurt?

You stop, come up a metre and try again. Nobody goes down faster than their ears.

How deep is the pool?

Four metres at the far end. Deep enough for every skill on the course.

Can I wear glasses?

Not under a mask. We have three masks with prescription lenses to borrow.

I missed a Tuesday

Join the next course for that one evening, free.

Is there an age limit?

Twelve and over. Under sixteens come with an adult who dives too.

Do I have to go on a trip?

No. Your pool certificate is yours; the open-water part can wait years.

Can I bring a friend?

Book two places and we put you on the same kit rack.

What does it cost in total?

£470 plus a trip. We would rather you knew that now.

Two divers silhouetted against bright blue water near the entrance of an underwater cave. A diver's tank and head seen from behind with a stream of bubbles rising. Sunlight falling through clear water onto a coral garden with small orange fish. A freediver in black fins gliding through dark blue water lit by shafts of light.

Castle Street Leisure Centre, pool entrance at the back
+44 7700 900 614

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Below is a fictional example. The school, the pool, the courses, the trips and the prices do not exist, and nothing on this page is diving or medical advice — learn with a certified instructor. Photographs are stock images and were not taken by this school.