If you are staying in a Maldives resort you can easily go for a scuba diving session. All resorts have scuba diving schools. They have all the equipment for scuba diving and experienced diving instructors. Many people who come to the Maldives are scuba diving fans who come to see the beautiful underwater life. Maldives has over 1100 species of marine life.
The reefs of Maldives are very colourful. You will find both hard and soft corals, sponges, anemones, star fish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, jelly fish, ascidia, molluscs, crustaceans, seaweeds, fusilier squads, brown chromis, parrot fish, butterfly fish, squirrel fish, soldier fish, damsel fish and many more other schools of fish. Many divers in Maldives also come across turtles, moray eels, manta rays, sharks and whales. In some diving spots, you can also see wrecked ships which are very exciting.
Going for a dive in Maldives
All internationally recognized diving certificates are accepted here. If you have a PADI open water certificate or equivalent and fewer than 20 logged dives, you will have to dive with an instructor. Remember to bring your log book and copies of certificates. If you are a beginner, just go to the diving school in your resort, and do a course in open waters. You may also require a medial certificate issued by your doctor, certifying your fitness.
If you are a first time scuba diver, your instructor will first take you for a shallow waters and then move up to deeper levels. Almost all dive schools follow PADI certification or equivalent.
If you are an experienced scuba diver, you have many choices. These include sheer drop-offs, drift dives, night dives and coral cave diving.
Almost all resorts of Maldives have scuba dive schools. However the facilities, equipment and the scope of activities are different at each resort. In many resorts, scuba dive school instructions are given in English, German, Italian, Japanese and other European languages. You can get the basic dive equipment from the resorts. Some even rent out underwater cameras. Most dive schools will conduct daily dive trips to selected locations while other dive schools will have a number of dive trips every day to many different locations.
