Diving in Maldives

[Dawn]

Hi !

I am gonna go diving in Maldives in April. I have got a French certification of scuba diving instructor (also called "BEES 1") and I wanted to know if I need an international certification and where I could get it ?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Dawn

[DiveDevil1966]

You will have no problems to dive in the Maldives with your French Instructor Qualification. Make sure you take your cards and your logbook to the Maldives, and then all will be fiine.
If you know with who you are going to dive, it might be a good idea to send them a quick email informing them about your level of certification and its origin.
I have been on the Maldives many times and have never heard that any official training agency has been rejected for diving.

I hope this helps and have a great time diving the Maldives. It is fantastic.

DiveDevil

[Dawn]

Thanks a lot Divedevil,
I am trying to find the email address of the PADI, unfortunately I can find it nowhere...
You are right, diving in The Maldives is certainly a dream, I can't wait to go there !!!

[DiveDevil1966]

As we are talking about a BEES1, I assume that you are from France. The responsible PADI Office for France is based in Switzerland. Please find the details below:

PADI Europe Ltd.
Oberwilerstrasse 3 CH-8442
Hettlingen, Switzerland
Ph.: +41-52-3041414
Fax: +41-52-3041499
Email: memberde@padi.ch

If you are not in France then just le me know and I will get the correct office details to you.
Not sure what you want to email PADI for, but anyway, a good resource is also on PADI.COM.

Have fun

DiveDevil

[Dawn]

Hi,

I am presently in France and I wanted to email The Padi center to make sure they won't put me with the beginners for I have not got a PADI instructor. I have been teaching scuba diving for 7 years and I would like to dive freely...

Thanks for PADI.com

[DiveDevil1966]

No problem. I hope it all goes well. I am sure you know the dive centre you are diving with. Follow the link I have copied in below, and then type "Maldives" into the location box. If you know the dive centers name, then put this in the box below the locations box, and then hit enter. This will bring up the dive shop, website and all the contact details.. If you dont know the name then just hit enter after wrtting the "Maldives" into the location box. This will list all the dive centers in the Maldives. Just scroll through and you will find the correct one.

PADI Dive Shop Locator

I hope that this is working OK for you, and please let me know if I can be of any further help.

alwasy safe diving

DiveDevil

[Dawn]

Thanks DiveDevil for your help,

I've already tried to enter PADI.com. Unfortunately I only know the island name and it doesn't match...

[DiveDevil1966]

Good morning Dawn

When you put in the location, you must write MALDIVES and then look for the appropriate Island. The islands are not listed as sepereate locations, just the country. By writting MALDIVES you will be able to view all the dive centres at this location. There will be quite a few. It might also be a good idea to view the website of the island you are visiting, and most times you will have a link to the affiliated dive centre there too.

Good luck

DiveDevil