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 Centers (IDCs),
others too offer a wide variety of advanced and specialized 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 specialized dives are not
conducted on a daily basis at all the resorts. However on the more
specialized 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. |
