Scuba Steve Gets You Certified Under The Sea

Getting my Open Water Padi Certification has been on my list of things to do for ages and I’d been stalling all this time waiting for my chance to go back to Koh Tao, Thailand or Sipidan, Borneo to do the required testing and training and then I met Steven Schwankert aka Scuba Steve.

What I realized finally is that I should not waste precious vacation time studying for a test, but I should get all that over and done with in Beijing so that I can actually start diving straight away once I finally did make that trip.

Scuba Steve is founder of SinoScuba, Beijing’s first professional dive operator, and they’ve been around more than 8 years and while he’s officially certified over 300 divers, he’s prepped over 800 to complete their over water dives abroad (divers like me).  Divers can start as young at 10 years old and courses can be taught in both English and Mandarin.

“Our PADI Open Water Diver courses allow people with little or no diving experience to become certified divers in approximately three weeks. The course is divided into three units: knowledge development/academic, confined water/pool, and open water. We conduct open water dives near Beijing seasonally (June-October).”

In preparation for my 5 day holiday this coming weekend, I started my under water sessions about a month ago and this past week, I just aced my final exam with a score of 49/50 - boo-yah! Phuket, Thailand - here I come!!

And the coolest part of it all was the the confined water skills sessions were all in Beijing’s Blue Zoo Aquarium where you get to swim with monstrously large sharks, turtles, eels and other exotic aquatic creatures. Pretty badass if you ask me.

LumDimSum Spotted in the Blue Aquarium:

Removing and Re-strapping Weight Belt Underwater

For all instruction, all equipment rental and use, all necessary documentation, all materials and all pool use and fees, the cost is RMB 2800 per person. And let me tell you from personal experience, it is worth every penny. Scuba Steve is a patient, skilled and professional instructor and the experience you have learning all your practical skills under water swimming next to sharks in the aquarium is priceless.

To sign up with Scuba Steve, you can email him directly: stevenschwankert@gmail.com