Scuba diving is an excellent sport for so many reasons, and scuba diving allows you to explore a whole different environment in a safe and fun way. One can discover all kinds of wildlife, from sharks, rays, turtles and too many fish species to mention. One can take a swim through the past by exploring shipwrecks stuck in time, only for divers to experience what was left of the ships of our history. When 70% of the earth’s surface is covered in water, one can plan to scuba dive almost anywhere they choose to travel, even if you are landlocked, as diving lakes, quarries and caves have too much for a diver to discover. With all this opportunity for adventure and discovery, what’s the entry price? How much will it cost?
How expensive is scuba diving? It is a common question, and it isn’t a straightforward answer because yes, it costs money to scuba dive, and yes, it can get expensive. However, how expensive it is relative to how much scuba diving you want to do and how much you value recreational time. For example, scuba diving may be considered expensive if you like activities that don’t require a lot of travel or equipment, like knitting, reading, and going for walks. Still, if you like to golf, hunt, fish, or ATV, just to mention a few, scuba diving may or may not seem expensive.
I am going to break down this article into different portions from the cost to do a Discover scuba and what that is, the cost to be fully certified Open Water Divers allowing you to dive on your own with a buddy and the cost of being a regular diver who regularly dives to escape the everyday grind. So let’s take a look.
Discover scuba
Because scuba diving does require some basic skills to keep yourself safe and to have some practical function in the water, scuba diving always involves some level of training. Discover Scuba is a concise and easy course that introduces anyone interested in scuba diving to the experience and some of the most preliminary skills.
The Discover scuba course requires 4 hours of basic scuba theory. You will have to demonstrate some essential underwater skills, such as knowing how much air you have in your tank and communicating that, clearing your mask if you get some water in it and get your instructor’s attention during the dive. The discovered scuba course does have limitations.
- you can not dive on your own after this course
- You can not dive deeper the 40ft but also up to your instructor’s comfort
- You can only dive with an instructor
So with these limitations, who is the discover scuba course for?
Discover scuba is for anyone who has no exposure to diving and isn’t sure if it’s for them but wants to try it out with the least financial and time commitment.
Discover scuba costs will vary depending on where you do them. Usually, the price will include everything, including instruction and equipment rental.
Mexican resort diving with Pro Diver international $130
Tobermory Ontario Canada Divers Den $199
Tavernier Florida Keys Dive Center $190
As you can see, there is a cost just to get a little exposure to diving. It’s not a lot of money for a single dive experience, but it would quickly add up if you wanted to do this every weekend. Also, you can only go out with an instructor and only to a minimal depth compared to an Open water diver. Most shops will offer a Discover Scuba, and this is always an available option if you choose not to be an open water diver.
Pro tip: if you feel that you want to learn to scuba dive and are planning a resort vacation, you can often get a free trial of scuba diving in the resort pools. I say take advantage of this as this will give you an idea whether you still want to try a discover scuba or jump right into becoming an open water diver. This will require more money and more time but allows you to dive wherever and whenever you want with some limitations. First, let’s look at the cost of an open water certification.
Cost to be an Open Water Diver
Now there are people, including myself, who know that no matter what, I wanted to be a scuba diver the first chance I got. You may be that kind of person, too, and if so, maybe skip discovery scuba class and get right into the real stuff by becoming open water certified.
Open water certification will allow you to dive independently with a buddy within recreational dive depths of 60 ft for open water and down to 130 ft once you have your advanced open water.
To become an open water diver, one must take a book/online learning portion of the course taking approximately 40 hours. Then, there will be two confined water (pool) dives where you will practice many of the skills and principles that you learned in the knowledge portions of the course. Finally, there will be four open water dives where you will demonstrate some of the foundational skills a diver must possess. Once you have done that, usually over two weekends, depending on how your dive center handles it, you are a certified open water diver.
Being an Open water Diver will allow you to rent your equipment and dive any time you want, including being able to dive any time you go on vacations anywhere in the world. In addition, you will have the necessary skills to plan your dives without the support of a divemaster or dive instructor.
The only caveat is that if you aren’t driving frequently, more than 3-4 times a year as an open water diver, you may be asked to do a dive refresher with some operators simply to confirm you are not rusty on your dive skills.
Open water course costs vary depending on the dive operator and dive locations. I will give you some idea of the cost of the open water course at a few places. When you are ready for your open water, make sure you have a good discussion on the cost of the open water course as many shops will quote you one price for the course. Then you will quickly find out that there are extra fees for things like “crew park” (physical coursebook and table) or different costs for the open water dives because of the shop’s location to do the open water dives.
I only mention this because shops advertise $99 Open Water Courses. Unfortunately, these prices typically do not include everything you need to become open water certified.
Open water course certification.
Dan’s Dive Shop St Cathrines Ontario Canada $650* CAD
Divers Den Tobermory Ontario $849* CAD
Pro Divers Playa Del Carmen Mexico $427.50 USD
Florida Keys Florida Keys dive center $590.00 USD
Getting your open water certification is just the beginning of your dive journey. Next, let’s take a look at equipment rental costs. Depending on how frequently you think you will dive, renting is a good option. Later, we will look at how much it will cost to purchase complete warm water and cold water diver setup.
It is far more likely for a diver to dive often when they own your gear/equipment. As you will see, once you have all your gear for diving, there will be quite a bit of initial investment put forward, but after that, I think you will realize that the cost per dive drops drastically because you own all your gear let’s take a look.
Cost to rent a full setup for an open water diver.
Renting gear usually is an option anywhere diving is available. If you are in a warm water region, I would say that it typically requires less equipment than cold water. If you are diving more than 10-15 times a year, it may be worth considering buying your equipment, and if you are in a cold water region, diving between 5-10 times a year will save you money and get you diving more often if you bought a complete setup.
Cost of renting equipment for a full set up including an appropriate wetsuit;
Per Day weekend
Dan’s Dive Shop St Catherine Ontario Canada $55-60*CAD $75-85
Divers Den Tobermory Ontario Canada $150 CAD
Pro Divers Playa del Carmen $78.30 USD**
Florida Keys Florida Keys dive center $25/trip
*Dans dive shops have a selection of setups between standard and progressive (DIR)
**includes a single dive with the equipment rentals.
So now you have an idea about how much it would cost to rent your equipment for a single dive or if you were planning a dive for a weekend. This doesn’t include the cost to get to the dive site because you will have to pay for the charter if you take a boat to a dive site. If you’re planning on doing a shore dive where you just walk in, then the cost of your rental gear and air are basically all the dive will cost you.
As an example, if someone were planning on diving 15 dives a year and all those dives were to be shore dives over six weekends of diving in one year, it would cost approximately:
Using dan’s dive shop prices for the example as this would be local for me.
$85/weekend X 6= $510
16 dives X 16 tanks of air $10/ tank = $160
Total approximately $670 a year for 16 shore dives.
Cost of becoming a regular scuba diver
Now let’s take a look at all the costs of becoming someone passionate about the sport of diving and is committed to doing this as their regular hobby, and use diving to escape our everyday lives for a bit of sense of adventure or to get closer to nature. For some, it’s all about the serenity that comes with being submerged. Those reasons are enough to invest in equipment to take the plunge.
As you can see, there can be quite a bit of money to get started in diving just for the certifications side of the sport. What does it cost to buy a complete equipment setup, and how much to maintain each year?
Owning your equipment will not just have the upfront cost of buying it, but some equipment components will need to be serviced annually to be safe to use. All these hidden costs will be mentioned, even whether it is beneficial to own your tanks or not?
There is also a difference in cost between being a cold water diver and a warm water diver. The main differences are in the exposure suit you choose from a 3mm wetsuit versus a 7-14mm and a dry suit. Also, the construction and operation of a cold water dive regulator and a warm water regulator. Let’s look at what you will need and the difference in cost between setups.
To dive regularly with your equipment in warm or cold water, you will need:
Personal equipment
Mask
Snorkel*
Fins
$150-300 CAD
These pieces of equipment can be purchased if you are an open water diver but don’t want to own a complete equipment list. These you can take with you every time you go on vacation or rent equipment. The main reason is these pieces of equipment will be needed every dive, and it’s good that they fit nicely to your face and feet as they should be a personal fit. Typically shops will give you a discount if you buy these personal pieces of equipment when you do your open water.
*snorkel is optional if you are diving a progressive configuration
Scuba equipment
BCD/ backplate wing and harness $600-1200
Warm or cold water regulator set $800-1200
Pressure gauge $80-120
Depth gauge $80-120
Weights $25-40
Dive knife/cutting tool $20-50
Dive computer $300-1200
Exposure suit
3mm shorty wetsuit $60-120
7-14 mm wetsuit with neoprene hood and gloves $400-600
Drysuit with dry gloves. $3000-5000
Tank
80 cf $250-300
The total potential cost of a complete dive equipment list everything bought off the self will be approximate. (most dive equipment can be bought custom-sized for an added fee)
Personal and equipment $2055-4190
Plush exposure suit
Coldwater wet suit 2055+400= $2455
4190+600= $4790
Dry suit 2055+3000=$5055
4190+5000= $9190
Finally, if you own a complete set of dive equipment, some components will need to be serviced annually or according to the manufacturer’s specifications. Components such as your regulator are one of our great’s primary life support components that need annual service. Depending on the brand of your regulator and the hourly service rate getting your regulator serviced will cost approximately $100-130. Also, all your hoses, O rings and BCD dump valves need to be checked semi-regularly if they need service.
Also, if you own your tanks every year, they need to have a visual inspection on the inside which will cost between 70-100 and every four years, they will need a Hydrostatic (pressure) test costing 50-100 on top of the visual check of that year. When considering buying a tank, factor in how far you are from a dive shop and how often you will be diving because sometimes it’s not worth owning your tanks if your shop has a cheap tank rental fee that already includes an air fill. As many shops will Charge $10 to fill your tank but $25 to rent it for the day with an air fill.
Cost per dive
Once you have your complete equipment kit, including a tank each time you dive, it will cost you $10 for the air you breathe. That is a small price to pay to be able to dive to escape the terrestrial world!
Wow, so you are probably looking at this list and thinking this could be anywhere from $300-9000 dollars to get my complete dive equipment is a lot of money, and it is lucky if you take your time and do your research on what you want to use in you dive kit. However, most dive equipment, even entry-level equipment, is well built and lasts long. Many items in my dive kits have lasted well over a decade with hundreds of dives. So most of your equipment will last a long time, provided you take care of it. Hopefully, Dive To Escape will help you pick the equipment and dive style that will suit you best, thus saving you some money and time to dive to escape as much as you would like.