Discover Scuba: half a day, no experience, and you are breathing underwater

This is the one most people book, and the one most people are quietly nervous about. It should not be. Half a day, no experience, no commitment, and you come out of the water having breathed underwater for the first time.

What it is

Discover Scuba is an introductory experience, not a certification. You are not being examined and there is no exam to fail. An instructor takes you through the basics on land, fits you out, and takes you into shallow water to try it. That is the whole thing.

You do not need to be a strong swimmer, you do not need any gear, and you do not need to know anything in advance. Everything comes from us, wetsuit included.

Where we run it

The slipway or Newfee, depending on the day and the conditions. Both are shallow, sheltered and easy to get into, which is exactly what you want the first time. There is no boat, no long swim and no drop into deep water. You walk in.

Which one we use on the day comes down to wind and swell. Part of the job of a dive centre is knowing which corner of this coast is calm when the other one is not, and that call gets made on the morning rather than a week out.

Why half a day is the right length

It is long enough to genuinely learn something and short enough that it fits into a holiday without taking the day over. You are back out with the afternoon free, and nobody in the family has had to give up a whole day to sit on a beach waiting for you.

There is a practical reason as well. Cold water and concentration both take it out of you more than people expect. A first session that ran all day would end with a tired diver who stopped enjoying it two hours ago. Half a day finishes while it is still good.

The first breath underwater is the moment. Everything after that is detail, and it will keep for another day.

What people worry about

• The cold. You will be in a wetsuit and you will be fine for the length of a session. Irish water is cooler than the Red Sea and warmer than people imagine — it peaks in late August.

• Claustrophobia or panic. You are in shallow water with an instructor beside you, and you can stand up. If you want to stop, you stop. Nobody talks you into staying under.

• Not being fit enough. It is not a physical test. Moving slowly and breathing calmly is the whole skill, and rushing is the only thing that makes it hard.

• Wearing glasses. Tell us when you book and we will sort you out.

And then what

Plenty of people do a Discover Scuba, enjoy it, and leave it at that as a good morning on holiday. That is a perfectly fine outcome. Others come back for the Open Water Diver course, which is the full certification and lets you dive anywhere in the world to 18 metres. Either way, this is the right place to find out which sort you are.

Ring the centre on 085 255 2064 or call in to us on the East Pier. Check the live conditions on our home page before you travel — on a settled morning this coast is as good as it gets.