Frequently Asked Questions at Louisville Dive Center

1 confined water session includes four days of pool and a required part of scuba certification. The sessions are usually four days scheduled across 2 weeks and are posted on our calendar page!

Personal gear includes your mask, fins, snorkel, booties, and surface marker buoy. You need these things for your scuba course because you will use them throughout your entire scuba journey, and will almost always need to have your own personal gear when you go diving. 

Gear fit is an extremely important part of diving, especially your mask as everyone's faces are shaped differently and getting a good fit online is next to impossible. We do not have a price matching option unfortunately, as our vendors set their own pricing that we are not allowed to discount unless given prior authorization. 

In order to get in the water for your first pool session, you will need to have your e-learning - which we provide the code for - 100% completed. We also must have your paperwork filled out and on file. The smartwaivers completed online, as well as a medical waiver signed in-store, and your personal gear must be purchased. 

You must have completed your e-learning and all confined water pool sessions. 

Open water dives must be completed within 6 months of your pool sessions. During the summer months, we do our dives in Hopkinsville, KY at Pennyroyal Quarry, usually every other weekend. In the winter months, we take monthly trips to springs in Florida to complete certification dives. You can also complete your check out dives elsewhere by doing a referral. 

Once you have completed your e-learning and confined water, if you want to complete your check out dives elsewhere, like on vacation, you can let the shop know you will be diving with know you have completed all confined water training and they will just need to check out dives. They will then contact us for your information - which we will provide, and you will be able to finish your certification with them!

We try to have social dives at least one weekend out of the month, but you are also always welcome to join us at Pennyroyal on certifying weekends to dive with our instructors and divemasters. 

Tipping is customary in the dive world, especially for captains and divemasters that assist you in setting up and moving your gear. That being said, students are responsible for hauling their own gear in certification courses so it is as you see fit. 

There are actually some great quarries located around us that allow diving. Pennyroyal, of course, Mermet Springs in Illinois, Gilboa Quarry in Ohio, White Star Quarry in Ohio, Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee allow diving and if you are up for a bit of a longer trip and don't mind cold wter, diving in the Great Lakes is also a must if you enjoy seeing well-preserved shipwrecks!