SCUBA divers do it underwater
by Roderick Eime, Cruise Weekly

Expedition cruisers thrive on discovery, learning and fulfilment. What's more, as long as you're healthy and retain a reasonable level of fitness, you're never too old to learn SCUBA diving.

Many of your favourite expedition cruise ships offer SCUBA diving as a rewarding and exciting onboard activity. To fully experience everything your destination offers, going underwater exploring is a natural part of enjoying your next cruise.

SCUBA diving is, however, a "safety first" activity and to fully enjoy this exhilarating sport, your vessel must have a PADI-qualified instructor or you should already have your PADI Open Water Certificate (OWC).

Local operators offering SCUBA onboard include Coral Princess Cruises, North Star Cruises, Captain Cook Cruises and Blue Lagoon Cruises. Orion and Aurora will liaise with local operators in destinations such as PNG and Solomon Islands to ensure ticketed divers are catered for.

Where to dive?

Tufi in PNG and Gizo in Solomon Islands are some of the best wreck and reef diving sites in the world. Vanuatu and Fiji both have diving aplenty too. Serious divers can even dive beneath the ice in Antarctica on specialist tours through operators such as Quark Expeditions. Reef diving on Great Barrier Reef is hard to go past, while WA's famous Rowley Shoals off Broome draw divers from around the world.

PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is the world's leading SCUBA diving training organisation. With more than 40 years' experience and 5,300 dive shops and resorts worldwide, PADI training materials and services let you experience diving from nearly anywhere. With just an internet connection, you can complete most of your theory work in the comfort of your home, at your pace; then make a time with your dive shop to complete the final assessment and practical tests.

Going on your next expedition cruise with your OWC in hand is assurance that you will enjoy the full adventure experience. Exploring the kaleidoscope of colour on the coral reefs of Queensland or Fiji, observing the fascinating marine life at Rowley Shoals, discovering shipwrecks in PNG or underwater archaeological sites need not be reserved for National Geographic scientists and documentary filmmakers. By SCUBA diving, you can experience it for yourself.

Contact your nearest dive shop before you book your next adventure cruise and ask them about introductory dives. Some stores offer these pool dives at no charge and you'll know well in advance if SCUBA diving is for you.

Cruise Weekly provides you with all the latest cruising information, including news, deals, competitions and much more. Click here to check it out.