“The price of everything is going up”, “we’ve got a cost-of-living crisis” & “everyone is pulling the purse strings tighter”.  These are all phrases we are familiar with these days, and as a small business they aren’t what you want to hear.  So, what has Aquatic Adventures done to try and help the ever-increasing cost of diving?

Well, we’ve dropped some of our prices for a start.  Now we know what you’re thinking – how does dropping a price make sense for a small business?  Doesn’t that just remove any profit and make it untenable to continue the business?  Both very valid points that we’re glad you acknowledge, however in-line with these price drops we’ve also made some key changes which are allowing us to keep afloat (financially speaking).

From October 1^st onwards our Open Water Diver course will drop in price by $50, back to $799/person.  However, on top of the savings we’re also now adding a bonus certification to the course, the PADI AWARE Specialist course.  In line with our increased emphasis on conservation, this course “equips divers with tangible actions and opportunities to bring about positive ocean change, by dismantling the barriers between diving and conservation, making responsible marine conservation accessible to all.”

So how are we able to reduce the cost?  We’ve removed the boat dive component from the OW course.  After lots of discussions with past students, we learned that the boat dive was the part least enjoyed by students.  It is worth noting that it is also the 2^nd most expensive aspect of the course (after the pool training), and therefore removing it, and placing more emphasis on skills development via shore diving is, we hope, going to make the course more enjoyable overall, with the added bonus of saving a few dollars!

In addition, we’ve dropped the prices on a few of the “Core” items needed for your OW, AOW & Rescue Diver courses, cutting our profit margin to assist our customers to have all the correct gear for their levels.  Does it hurt our bottom line?  Yes.  But is it worth it to promote safer divers?  Yes, absolutely, and that’s a hit we take gladly and proudly!

We have also changed the way we will be running our other 2 “core” courses, Advanced Open Water Diver and Rescue Diver, to better reflect the standards to which we are holding our dive centre.  With an increased emphasis on conservation, safety & inclusiveness, these courses have changed as follows:

• Our Advanced Open Water program will evolve into a 6-dive program (rather than the standard 5), with the Dive Against Debris course being taught as part of the program (and adding an extra certification for those completing the training).  We will also maintain the Rescue Adventure dive, which we introduced last year, however we will be removing the 2^nd boat dive to help keep costs down.  The AOW will remain $699/person.

• The Rescue Diver program will continue to include the extra Emergency Oxygen Provider certification as standard, however we will also be adding the Adaptive Support Diver certification to the program.  The most expensive part of the Rescue course is the time spent training in the pool.  We could remove this to reduce cost, and run the whole program in the ocean, however student feedback was 100% positive for the pool experience in this course, so instead we are going to use that expensive time more efficiently by adding extra training to make even more effective and well-rounded Rescue Divers.  The Rescue Diver course will remain $699/person but will now get you 3 certifications!

Lastly for major changes to our course offerings for this summer, we will be reintroducing some of the “half” courses offered by PADI, and bringing back one of the least utilised specialty diver courses:

• Scuba Diver: this is a subset of the OW course, and qualifies you to dive to a maximum 12m, always accompanied by a professional.  For those who want to save a bit of money, and who intend to keep their diving to guided club dives whilst they build their confidence, this is a great option.  The course cost is $549/person and Scuba Diver will run alongside our OW courses.
• Adventure-Rescue combo: for those who are not interested in boat diving, and increasing their depth beyond 18m, but who want to become safer, more independent divers, this combo will allow them to gain the most essential skills to do just that.  Combining skills dives from the AOW course (UW Nav, PPB & the Rescue Adventure dives) into the oft overlooked Adventure Diver certification, and then adding our new Rescue Diver program, this offering will help divers to become the best shore divers they can be, before they think about adding boat diving to their repertoire.  This combo will cost $999/person.
• Boat Diver: with our removal of some boat dives from the OW & AOW courses, it seems prudent to bring back the certification designed to help those who feel they are ready to progress on to boat diving to do exactly that!  The Boat Diver course will cost $450/person.