Most people who message us open with the same question, phrased slightly differently every time: what does it cost, and what do I actually get. Fair question. Here is the whole thing in one place so you can decide before you commit to anything.
The Open Water course at Nakula has three parts, and you do them in this order.
Part one: the online materials
You study the theory yourself, at home, at whatever pace suits you. This is the SSI digital training material — physics of pressure, how the gear works, dive planning, safety procedures. There is no classroom to sit in and no schedule to keep up with. Most students work through it over a couple of weeks in the evenings.
Do this part before your first pool session if you can. The pool makes far more sense when you already know why you are doing what you are doing.
Part two: pool sessions at Nakula
Three to four sessions in our own pool here in Bogor. This is where you learn to breathe underwater, assemble and check your gear, clear your mask, equalize, and move properly instead of thrashing.
Every pool session is private. Not "small group" — private. It is you and your instructor. That is deliberate, and it is the main reason people travel to Bogor for this rather than booking a course that rents public pool time in Jakarta on a Saturday morning. If you need to spend an extra twenty minutes on mask clearing because it makes you panic, you spend it, and nobody is waiting on you.
The pool has a shallow end at 1.5 metres and a deep end at 3 metres. You start shallow and move deeper as the skills settle. The deep end is also where you first practise equalizing properly — we wrote about how to do that here.
All equipment is loaned to you for the duration of the course. You do not need to buy anything to start. That said, if you already own a mask, fins or a wetsuit, bring them — gear that fits you properly is noticeably more comfortable than gear that merely fits.
Part three: four dives at Pulau Pramuka
The certification dives happen in the ocean, on a two day, one night trip to Pulau Pramuka in the Thousand Islands north of Jakarta. We run these on weekends. Four dives across the two days, applying everything you practised in the pool.
Saturday. We meet at Sunda Kelapa harbour and board the speedboat around 8am. The crossing takes about an hour and a half. Once we have dropped bags at the accommodation, we do two dives on the harbour reef at Pramuka. You stay overnight at Mermaid or Shafir in a shared room. If you are coming as a family, we can arrange a villa with one bedroom that sleeps up to four instead.
Sunday. We start after breakfast with two boat dives around the island. Boat back to Jakarta at around 2pm, arriving at Sunda Kelapa around 4pm.
Worth being straight with you about what the diving is like. Visibility is usually five to ten metres, sometimes less in the rainy season or after heavy runoff. The reef itself is in good shape, but it is not full of big animals — expect reef fish, damselfish, clownfish, and every so often a turtle. That is fine. These four dives exist to consolidate your skills in open water, not to be the best diving of your life. That comes afterwards, and we have a partner in Labuan Bajo for exactly that.
If you would rather do your ocean dives somewhere else in Indonesia, that is possible too — just tell us and we will work it out.
What it costs
Rp 7,500,000. That covers:
- The SSI online training materials
- Three to four private pool sessions at Nakula
- Dive equipment, loaned to you for both the course and the trip
- Return speedboat between Sunda Kelapa and Pulau Pramuka
- Accommodation on Pramuka
- Four meals: Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday breakfast and lunch
- Your digital SSI certification once you pass
Not included: getting yourself to Sunda Kelapa harbour, and personal spending on the island.
Registration itself is free. To start the course you pay 50% of the invoice, and the remaining 50% before the Pramuka trip.
Do I need to be able to swim?
Ideally yes, but the real requirement is that you are comfortable in water rather than afraid of it. If you can stay calm with your face in the water, you can learn this. Because the pool sessions are private, we can go as slowly as you need in the shallow end before anything else happens.
There is no upper age limit. Children can start from eight years old.
If you are unsure whether you are ready to commit, do a try dive first. One pool session, first breath underwater, no course enrolment. Most people know within ten minutes.
How to sign up
Message us on WhatsApp with:
- Full name
- Email address
- Home address and postcode
- A photo of yourself, for your SSI certification card
That is the registration, and it costs nothing. We send you an invoice, you pay 50%, and we schedule your first pool session.
Ask us anything before you decide. We would rather answer twenty questions now than have you show up unsure about what you signed up for.