Which is the best PADI scuba diving centre for you?

There are over 200 PADI dive centres in the UK, plus a lot of individual dive instructors pretending to be dive centres by having a website, a few sets of dive kit and a mobile phone. Deciding which the best UK dive centre for you, isn’t that black & white.

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There are quite a few factors to consider when deciding which is the best diving centre in the UK is for you.

  • How close it is to where you live, and how easy it is for you to travel there
  • Their pool facilities e.g. how big is the pool, cleanliness and quality of things like the changing rooms
  • How much time do you spend in the water with your instructor – pool hire costs money so many dive centres try to rush students through
  • How many students they have in a group
  • How much they charge
  • Quality of diving equipment they use in the school
  • What level of dive centre are they and can they teach instructor and technical diving courses
  • How quick they are to respond to your questions after you’ve signed up to the course
  • Do they have a physical and online store to serve you once you have learnt to dive
  • How good are their instructors? Not all dive centres pay their staff, so how motivated would you be to teach a course if you are a volunteer?
  • Do they carry adequate liability insurance
  • Have they completed vigorous risk assessments and have emergency action plans in place
  • Do they have their own lake and how many other dive centres use it
  • Do they have an active dive club that does UK and overseas holidays that you might be interested in
  • Have they won any awards
  • How good are their reviews

We are happy for you to judge for yourself but we do genuinely believe we are the best dive centre in the UK for the following reasons:

  • We are a PADI 5-star Instructor Development Centre, the highest education level you can achieve. We teach everything from beginner courses to professional as well as Speciality Courses, technical and freediving.
  • Nearly all the theory is completed on line allowing you to do it at your convenience and at your own pace
  • We regularly go to 6 different pools, all of them are great for learning to dive. This means there is a good chance we have a pool near you.
  • We generally use Aqualung equipment which has an excellent reputation and is also the worlds largest scuba manufacturer. All our dive gear is replaced frequently and serviced in line with the manufacturers’ guidelines.
  • Our confined water sessions for open water last around 5 hours but are dependent on the ability of the students. For an additional fee you upgrade to our ‘pass guarantee’ which means if you are struggling or need more time, they you can return for no extra cost
  • We never have more than 6 in a group, but typically it is less than this
  • All our instructors are paid. We tend to pay more than the other dive centres around us so we believe we have the cream of the crop
  • We have a fully stocked shop in Brighton, we can bring gear for you to try on at any of our pools and we have a very user friendly online store that stocks the major brands. Our professional instructors are happy to offer free advice too.
  • We have a £5m public liability insurance through PADI’s preferred insurance partner
  • We have a huge file containing risk assessments and emergency action plans should an accident happen. Thankfully (touch wood) we have a really good safety record in the 17 years we have been operating
  • We have our own exclusive lake. No other dive centres are allowed to use it which normally means better visibility, no queuing to get in the water. We even have hot showers at our lake!
  • We have an active dive club that includes regular boat and lake dives in and around the UK. We are the only PADI dive centre as far as we know that is fully bonded and has their own ATOL
  • We have twice won the prestigious SportsDiver magazine’s ‘UK dive centre of the Year’, and several of our instructors have either won or come runners-up as ‘Dive Instructor of the Year’
  • We have over 500 reviews on Google, more than any other dive centre in the UK. Our average review value is 5.0, also higher than anyone else.
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So our advice to you when trying to work out which is the best dive centre in the UK for you, do your research and don’t just go for the cheapest! Look at the reviews, talk to your friends and even chat to them on the phone to sound them out.