Got certified years ago? Here’s how to get back in the water

Is my certification still good?

That’s usually the first worry: is the card still valid, or did it expire? The good news is that a PADI certification doesn’t expire, and if you trained with another agency, we’ll check with them. Your skills are a different story, though, and that’s what we look at.

Lost your card? You’re not alone

A lot of people lost their card years ago. Most remember getting in the water, and many remember the instructor and the place, but not the agency. So we piece the puzzle together and hunt it down with you. Bring whatever you have, like an old logbook, a photo of the card, or the name of the shop or the instructor.

Do I need a refresher?

We always recommend it, and here’s why.

We recently did a refresher with a diver who’s been diving for decades but had been out of the water for 5 years. He knew his stuff, but as he said himself, times have changed, and he just wanted to get back in the water safely now that he lives in Puerto Rico.

We met in Vega Alta and went through the knowledge review together. He’d learned on the old dive tables and hadn’t seen the current ones, so we took 20 minutes to go over them, and then we talked about dive computers and how they track all of that for you during the dive.

Then we got in about 3 feet of water, with no rush, just getting used to being in the water and breathing again. We started with mask clearing and worked through a few more skills to bring him up to date. When we could tell he was getting antsy to go diving, we asked how he felt, and he said, “Let’s go for the dive.”

We were down about 55 minutes and got to around 28 feet, and he saw 6 octopuses, shrimp, a barracuda, eels and arrow crabs. When we came back up, he was a different person, completely relaxed and calm.

A few days later he stopped by the shop to drop off his tanks for a visual inspection and hydro, and now he’s figuring out what gear he’s going to buy.

All we can really say is, welcome to Puerto Rico, my friend.

What a refresher looks like with us

It takes about 4 hours, in San Juan or Vega Alta: a quick knowledge review, skills in shallow water at your own pace, and then a guided dive. Any agency, any number of years.