by: Danielle Rose

If you have never dived before and aren't sure that you want to spend the money on the certification process, you can still go diving. There are popular diving locations in the Caribbean or the Florida Keys where the resort may offer dives. These are typically one day or weekend crash courses, and they don't allow you the freedom you have with becoming certified, but they will give you a chance to see what it's like.

Getting certified in Scuba Diving can be a lengthy process. Not everyone is cut out to scuba dive. If you are thinking of being certified, there are a few things you should do before you go any further.

One is to make sure you are a reasonable good swimmer. Part of the certification requires you to be able to swim 200 yards and be able to float or tread water for roughly 10 minutes. Scuba diving can be very tiring, so making sure you are in good shape is necessary.

Second, it is a good idea to get cleared from your doctor. Health issues can occur with scuba diving, and you want to make sure that you won't have any problems. You need to be able to breath through your mouth instead of your nose and be able to equalize your ears. You don't want to rupture an ear drum while scuba diving because you were unable to "pop" your ears. Heart conditions and obesity can also make you more susceptible to heath conditions that occur with diving.

You also need to consider your mental health, meaning if you can mentally handle scuba diving. You are underwater and cannot panic. If you are one to panic easily at the sight of something you aren't familiar with, scuba diving might not be for you. There is an abundant amount of sea life, and you need to be able to deal with it whether it's a shark or a fish.

After taking all of these things into consideration, and you are still ready to become certified there are quite a few places you can go to do so. There are about 1,900 professional scuba dive centers in just North America, so you should be able to find one relatively local. These centers should be listed in the yellow pages of the phonebook. You can also look online.

You should find one where you are able to take it and get information on the course. Courses can range in price from several hundred dollars to even several thousand dollars. You may also need to buy your own equipment, so talk to the instructor and know what you will need to have for the class. You may also want to ask about the size of the class, and the length. Some places offer the course in a weekend and others over a few week period. If this particular class doesn't sound right for you, keep looking around. Lots of places offer the class, so you should be able to find one that works for you and your schedule.

In order to become certified, there is a classroom portion, pool sessions, and open water dives. The classroom portion will require you to take a written test at the end that you need to pass. The pool sessions also require you to pass a swim test as talked about earlier. In the open water dives (http://www.starscuba.com/openwatercertification) you will need to show your skills such as setting up and check equipment, planning the dive, ascent and descent, clearing the mask, and more.

All must be done before you are certified and able to venture the waters alone. By alone of course I do mean using the buddy system because you never want to dive by yourself.