Can I fly after diving or climb a mountain?

Flying after diving or going to Mount Kinabalu Park can be risky, and you need to know and understand this. Anytime you have been scuba diving, you should not go above 300 metres above sea level until you have met the following requirements: A minimum of 12-hour surface interval was recommended for the single no-decompression dive.A minimum of 18-hour surface interval for multi-day repetitive diving.Substantially longer than 18 hours after diving involving compulsory decompression or using heliox and trimix. Further information can be found on the Divers Alert Network site or DAN - Please click here.

PADI Scuba Diver Course in Kota Kinabalu

Rated 5.00 out of 5 based on 2 customer ratings

(2 customer reviews)

From: RM925

Fancy learning to dive during your holiday in Kota Kinabalu but having limited time? Then the PADI Scuba Diver Course could be the ideal choice for you. During this 2-day course, you will learn to dive in the tropical waters of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. Upon completing the course, you’ll be certified to dive to 12 metres with a buddy under the guidance of a PADI Professional. Cool!

To Book – Select the number of persons in your group and the required date. The price displayed is the group price, including any Sabah Parks Conservation Fees required. Unless you are joining an existing group, the minimum booking is two persons.

Dive computer rental

Monitor your dives with a dive computer rental. We offer Mares Puck Pro dive computers for rental. They are very simple to use and are also Nitrox/Enriched Air capeable. The replacement cost should you lose or damage it is RM 1000.00/unit.

U/Water Digiatal Camera Rental

Why not capture a few underwater memories with an underwater camera rental? We offer a Nikon W300 rated to 30m or GoPro Hero 11 with an underwater housing and float handle rated to 40m. Your images will be uploaded to a Google Drive, and a link will be shared with you. Photos will be available for download for approximately ten days. Please be aware that there will be a charge for loss or damage to the camera and housing RM 2500.00

PADI Scuba Diver Course in Kota Kinabalu

Do you want to learn to dive but only have two days? Then the PADI Scuba Diver Course in Kota Kinabalu is the one for you. The PADI Scuba Diver course involves pre-study and two days on our boat, during which you will complete confined water skill sessions, two open water dives and a float test. Upon completing the scuba diver course, you will be a certified PADI Scuba Diver and be able to dive to 12 metres with a buddy under the guidance of a PADI Professional. All scuba diver confined skill sessions and course dives are completed in the beautiful tropical waters of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park in front of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. This means not only will you learn to dive in toasty tropical waters you’ll also have the chance to see some beautiful, colourful tropical marine life as you dive by coral reefs.

Learn to Dive with the PADI Scuba Diver Course in Kota Kinabalu

If you have more time available during your holiday in Kota Kinabalu, why not learn to dive via the 3-day PADI Open Water Diver Course? It just takes an extra day, diving activities and a bit more study on top of the PADI Scuba Diver Course to become a certified PADI Open Water Diver.

Course Itinerary – Full PADI Scuba Diver Course

Pre-study Session

ACADEMICS – Once you have paid for your course, we will email you your PADI eLearning Assess code – usually 10 to 14 days before your course start date. Once you have received it and registered with PADI, you will have access to Online eBook, Certification credit, Knowledge Reviews, Quizzes, eTraining Logbook and certifying credit. Your eLearning must be completed before attending the course. The following section needs only to be completed for a PADI Scuba Diver academic certification:

Knowledge Review One
Knowledge Review Two
Knowledge Review Three
Knowledge Review Four
Knowledge Review Five
Quiz One
Quiz Two
Quiz Three

The online eLearning is now available in 28 languages – Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Bahasa Melayu (OWD, AOW & EANX), Chinese (Traditional & Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Hebrew, Italiano, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish & Tagalog.

Day 1 – PADI Scuba Diver Course

You need to meet our Dive Crew at the Red Public Telephone Booths at the entrance to Jesselton Point Jetty (in central Kota Kinabalu) at 8:45 am, for a 9:00 am boat departure. You will enjoy a ~ 20 – 30 minute boat transfer to your morning dive site in Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park.

9:30 am – Receive a full safety briefing provided by your PADI Instructor for your morning diving activities. You will then complete your 10-minute float.

10:00 am – You’ll be helped into your dive gear. During the morning training session, you will complete confined skill session one and go for a short dive to practice your diving buoyancy. The morning session will take place in a protected bay in Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, which offers safe, confined-like training conditions. You might also get to see Clown wish, Blue Spotted Sting Rays, Damsel Fish, Puffer Fish and more during your first dive. Cool!

11:30am – 12 noon – Back on our boat. You’ll be transferred to Padang Point for a tasty lunch.

~1:30 pm – Back on to our dive boat. Your PADI Instructor will provide a full briefing for your first open-water course dive. Put your dive gear on and start your first boat dive. You’ll be shown how to safely enter the water from a boat before starting your first open-water course dive. Join your PADI Instructor for a dive along a shallow coral reef, during which you’ll see hard and soft corals and some colourful tropical marine life. Depending on your air consumption, the dive can last anywhere from 30 – 50 minutes.

3:00 pm – Back on our boat after you finish your first open water course dive. Once you’ve taken your dive gear apart and rinsed it in freshwater, you’ll have a chance to change into your dry clothes before being transferred back to Jesselton Point Jetty.

Day 2 – PADI Scuba Diver Course

Meet our Dive Crew at Jesselton Point Jetty at 8:45 am for a 9:00 am boat departure. By the end of today, once all activities are completed successfully, you’ll be a PADI Scuba Diver! During the morning diving session, you will complete Confined Water Training Sessions 2 and 3, followed by lunch. In the afternoon, it is time for your PADI Open Water Dive 2. During this dive, you will have a chance to practice your buoyancy skills and further master some of the important diving skills you have learned during the confined skill sessions. Back on our boat and high 5’s with your PADI Instructor – you are now a PADI Scuba Diver. You will be transferred back to Jesselton Point Jetty (arriving back between 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm). Congratulations on becoming a certified PADI Diver!!

Course Pre-requisites

To join a PADI Scuba Diver Course, you must be:-

Aged ten years or older.
Able to swim comfortably in water too deep to stand up in.
Fit and in good health. You will be required to self-certify that you are healthy to dive before starting the course. If you answer YES to any question on the PADI Medical form, we will need to see a signed letter from your doctor saying you are healthy to dive.

What’s included?

PADI eLearning eCode, Certification and Log Book
Full Diving Equipment
Lunch on diving days (2)
Low Instructor to Student Ratios, often lower than 1:4
Drinking water, please bring your container to refill.
Scuba Diver Instruction in English, Malay or Chinese
Sabah Parks Conservation Fees
A smile 🙂

What’s not included?

Collection from your hotel – most hotels in central Kota Kinabalu is only a short stroll to Jesselton Point Jetty.
Anything not explicitly mentioned.

What do I need to bring on my diving days?

Towel
Swimwear – Please be ready to get wet straight away 🙂
Suntan lotion
Any personal items
Your PADI Scuba Diver Manual
Money, in case you want ice cream…
A smile

Notes – PADI Scuba Diver Course, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Please note that you need to have a minimum of 18 hours free after diving before flying on a plane, or changing altitude more significant than 300 metres, in line with PADI safety standards.

2 reviews for PADI Scuba Diver Course in Kota Kinabalu

Rated 5 out of 5

georgecristianb2018 Zurich, Switzerland (TripAdvisor) – 11/06/2018

Padi Scuba diving – Borneo Dream – The staff was super friendly, very helpful and explain very clearly what I have to do. Very good spots for diving! What I like the most is the fact that they are protecting the nature and trying their best to educate the customers and show the risk which exists in terms of pollution. I will definitely recommend the crew.
Rated 5 out of 5

James C, Singapore – 30/08/2014

Hi All, I had very little time in Kota Kinabalu, so when Borneo Dream suggested that the PADI Scuba Diver Course was great for someone with restricted time. I jumped at the chance. The course was well run with super friendly staff. Thank you Borneo Dream for making me a PADi Scuba Diver on my visit to Borneo.

Add a review

You must be logged in to post a review.

PADI Open Water

Flying after diving or going to Mount Kinabalu Park can be risky, and you need to know and understand this. Anytime you have been scuba diving, you should not go above 300 metres above sea level until you have met the following requirements:

A minimum of 12-hour surface interval was recommended for the single no-decompression dive.
A minimum of 18-hour surface interval for multi-day repetitive diving.
Substantially longer than 18 hours after diving involving compulsory decompression or using heliox and trimix.

Further information can be found on the Divers Alert Network site or DAN – Please click here.

The PADI eLearning system is simply amazing and has revolutionised the diving industry. To complete your eLearning it should take you around 10 to 15 hours. But we have known those who have busted it out in just a few hours.

Our standard or normal PADI Open Water Diver Course, PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course and PADI Rescue Diver Course prices now all include online learning. Using PADI’s amazing online learning system called eLearning. Once you have successfully completed your course booking and paid in full we will generally send out your eLearning eCode to you approximately 1 or 2 weeks before your course. This will arrive in the form of an email from PADI directly with a link to your course registration. It can be completed online via a PC/MAC or via an App on your mobile phone. The online academics will take on average around 10 hours to complete.

Generally, we certify you by a paper PIC (Positive Identification Card) Form that you would have filled out, attached passport photo and mailed to PADI in Australia. We do advise you to take a photocopy prior to sending it as this will help if you lose or never receive your PADI Card.

If you have done all that and it has been over 6 weeks and still no PADI Card has turned up then download the following form PADI Never Received Card Form (https://www.borneodream.com/forms/10226-never-received-card-form.pdf) and email it to PADI at certsdep@padi.com.au – All the information on the form can generally be taken for your photocopy of the PIC Form mentioned above. If you need help then please contact us but supply us with as much information as possible about you, your instructor and the date you took the course with us.

Most watersports trips depart from Jesselton Point Jetty (https://g.page/JesseltonPoint) in central Kota Kinabalu. If you are staying at a city centre hotel or guest house you will often find it far quicker to walk to Jesselton Point. If you are staying at hotels or resorts such as Shangri-La Rasa Ria or Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa then I would certainly grab a taxi.

If you can navigate your way across KL airport or through a busy shopping centre, we feel you can learn to dive. 99% Of being able to learn to dive or complete a PADI Open Water Diver Course in Kota Kinabalu is a right positive mental attitude and believing in your own abilities. All we ask is that you are fit and well and have the ability to swim 200 metres in water too deep to stand up in.

If you are 15 years old or older on the date you complete your PADI Open Water Diver Course in Kota Kinabalu you can dive to 18metres in theory. I say this: even if your Lamborgini can go at 200mph should you not first learn to drive slower? Always build up your experience gently in a controlled manner. It tends to make you live longer 🙂

There is a very old but correct saying – You get exactly what you pay for. The cost of a PADI Open Water Course in Europe is far higher than it is in Asia. This is to do with the cost of living and peoples potential income levels. The same way a Big Mac is RM 1.00 in Malaysia but 5,00€ in Europe. Looking at prices across Asia I would say Malaysia is near the top in value for money or cheapest price range. Borneo Dream’s prices are not the lowest in our area but our dedication to safety and quality speaks volumes. Take a look at our reviews on TripAdvisor or Google Maps.

Fail is not something we at Borneo Dream like to say or use unless we have to. Generally, there is always a reason why someone fails to complete a PADI Open Water Course. It can be as simple as ill-prepared, maybe a very strong fear of water or this is just not for me. Our professional team are there to train and mentor you and guide you in the right direction. We will make every hurdle manageable for you. If you have any concerns about taking part in a PADI Open Water Course then why not contact us in advance.

The PADI Open Water Diver Course in KK ‘Kota Kinabalu’ is just three days with a half-day classroom session. Prices for this excellent underwater adventure start from RM 1075.00/Student or USD 225.00/Student. The price includes return transfers from Jesselton Point Jetty in central Kota Kinabalu, complete diving equipment, lunch on diving days, PADI materials (eLearning) to keep and, of course, a professional smile.