When you’re visiting Zamami, don`t miss the chance to visit its beautiful beaches. The sea is shallow, and the sand is white. The waves are gentle, and the water is warm. No wonder the marine sports are so popular.
These are just a couple of reasons why scuba diving is such a popular activity among tourists visiting the resorts and dive sites.
Don’t worry if you’ve never tried scuba before, it’s easy to get started, and there are plenty of dive instructors ready to teach you the basics.
A beginner scuba class costs as little as 10,000 yen, so it’s not too expensive to get started. The chances are you’ll need to hire equipment too, so allow around half that amount again, a total of 15,000 yen per person per training session.
Of course, if you’re already familiar with diving, you may not need to start with the real basics. There are plenty of intermediate and advanced skills classes available too. If you’ve not competed certification already, here’s our guide to scuba certification.
Some visitors bring their gear with them to the island, so there is less cost involved outside of the instructor led classes themselves. Due to luggage limitations when traveling to Zamami, some choose to bring their personal dive gear, such as their own dive mask and wet suit, and opt to hire the tank from one of the dive shops on the island.
Ask at your accommodation for their recommendations for a local dive center, most have dive shop facilities available at their locations by the beach. You can identify reputable dive center outlets by their PADI dive center accreditation.
The scuba excursions on offer at each scuba school vary, but most will have plenty of introductory dive trips on offer during your stay. If you’ve chosen one of the reputable dive centers on Zamami, you can arrange a single introductory dive to get started.
After this trial dive your instructor will be able to tell you how you’ve got on and recommend further basic scuba activities and give you an idea of the additional training cost involved.
If you’re really new to scuba and are nervous about choosing the right center, ask what kind of scuba certification they’ve completed. Common reputable certification paths include PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and SDI (Scuba Diving International).
Hiring Scuba Gear
Hiring gear is something that can feel like a bit of a waste of money if you’re a regular diver, but for first timers, it’s almost certainly the best option.
Many novices don’t even know what they need, so going through a good center means you can be issued with a reliable and safe full set of dive equipment for a relatively small fee for your first dive.
A quick survey of dive centers shows that they take safety very seriously, and regularly inspect, clean and service the gear that they hire out. While renting equipment is usually in addition to the dive training cost per session, it’s considerably cheaper than buying the items yourself.
Buying Scuba Gear
Buying your own kit for dives is great if you’re going to be taking it up as a hobby for years to come, but the costs can be quite significant. That’s why we recommend hiring equipment for at least the first few dives you undertake.
There’s plenty of time in the future to consider investing in your own scuba suits, masks and tanks, but initially, the cost of hiring them will be a small fraction of the purchase price.
At the very least, give it at least one dive to get used to the sport before you commit too much money. It will also give you time to understand how the equipment works, and which brands you prefer to use.