If you do your PADI Open Water in Greece......?

Question

Is it true that you can only dive in waters of the same or higher quality? If so, do you have to redo the Certificate in the UK???

Thank you in advance, you sooper people you x*x

Answer 1

What it entails is that your OW earned in Greece is the same as an ( I assume PADI) OW, anywhere else. The same restrictions apply. I have a problem with that. It's not the same and really shouldn't be treated as such but I don't run a dive training agency nor am I making money from one. In my opinion ( and previous experience with diving with warm water AOW even) warm water certs ought to do some additional training before they're allowed to dive cold. PERIOD, no questions. Stats show that most of our Great Lakes fatalities happen to be warm certs thinking that the vacation course in warm water they took means they can dive here with no transition. Doesn't work that way. It works in the reverse. Cold water certs transition easier to warm environments. It's usually an easier dive.

What IS different is how some of your fellow UK divers  that earned their Certs at home, may treat you. If they consider you a warm water diver, don't expect to get many invites locally until you've earned their respect. That's just the way it is. Personally, I'd think twice before diving with anyone warm certed and I would NEVER dive with anyone without their having some local water experience. Diving costs money. Mine. When a warm water cert aborts for a silly cold related, totally avoidable issue, it costs me and them. Been there and dunnit too many times to have patience anymore .Aborts for just cause, fine. They happen on occasion.

Find someone willing to show you the ropes and get at it. Totally different diving in the UK. Sorry to be blunt, but that's usually how it is if you plan on diving with a club or someone that has local water experience. Cold water divers tend to focus on wrecks ( the temperature preserves them better) and in most, not all, cases, there are no reefs to cruise cold. A majority of cold water cert UK divers are wreck hounds. That's what there is to dive and there is an abundance of them.

Answer 2

I am PADI certified and it is my understanding that this certification is good anywhere in the world, no matter where you take it.

Answer 3

With a PADI Open Water certification, you are qualified to dive any where in the world.

PADI recommends (as do all the training agencies) that you only dive in water type and conditions to which you were trained.  For example, if you are trained in the warm, clear waters of Greece, coming to the Great Lakes in the US will be a different type of diving as it is cold and low visibility.  Additional instruction or at the very least a Discover Local Diving is recommended before diving.

She short answer is, no you don't have to re-do the certification process.  If whoever you dive with in the UK knows what they are doing, they will realize that you are not experienced for UK diving, and should take you to dive sites to ease you into the different diving conditions.