Extended Range Base ReviewComprehensive SSI Diving Training Center, Taiwan's Technical Diving Leader

Xiaoliuqiu boasts exceptional natural resources, offering not only sea turtle encounters but also numerous underwater wreck sites that demand advanced Diving in Xiaoliuqiu skills and professional guidance.

That's why Yanshen Lingyu Base chose Xiaoliuqiu as its home, establishing a comprehensive dive center that combines Diving in Xiaoliuqiu and accommodation. They offer courses in both recreational and technical Diving in Xiaoliuqiu, providing extensive resources in instruction and equipment for those eager to explore the deep sea.

Yanshen Lingyu Base is located in Xiaoliuqiu's Yufu Village, just a five-minute drive from Baishawei Ferry Terminal. This spacious, two-story detached villa offers a wide range of amenities.

Beyond fully customized scuba Diving in Xiaoliuqiu instruction, the venue also provides various accommodation options, including double, triple, and quad suites, as well as backpacker rooms.

Whether you're arriving at Xiaoliuqiu Baishawai Ferry Terminal from Donggang, Pingtung, or at Xiaoliuqiu Dafu Fishing Harbor from Yanpu Port, Pingtung, Yanshen Lingyu Base will confirm your ferry schedule before departure and pick you up punctually at the pier.

If you've reserved scooter rental, the thoughtful instructors will have the scooters waiting at the pier for your arrival. They'll hand over the scooters as soon as you disembark, then transport your luggage by car to Yanshen Lingyu Base for storage.

Perched on a small hill, this standalone villa is the brainchild of owner Huang Sankuang, who personally oversaw every detail from exterior design to interior planning. Sankuang’s vision was to create a home-like atmosphere, ensuring every guest who comes to Yanshen Lingyu Base feels at ease and can relax as if it were their own private sanctuary.

The rooms continue the industrial design theme, accented with blue walls that evoke the ocean. The comfortable rest areas allow you to recharge before your dive, and after Diving in Xiaoliuqiu, you can head straight upstairs to wash up once your gear is clean—it's incredibly convenient!

The lobby's soaring design, with its exposed brick walls, industrial-style staircase, and warm wooden floors, immediately catches the eye. The comfortable space is bathed in natural light, a clear testament to Yanshen Lingyu Base's thoughtful design.

The spacious public lounge features a large dining table and a bar. Several beanbag chairs are scattered on the floor for guests to relax on, and the bright, clean, and comfortable environment makes guests feel right at home.

The black, stand-alone villa, built with steel frames and tongue-and-groove panels, is both minimalist and elegant. The outdoor seating on the terrace is perfect for stargazing at night or enjoying a relaxed conversation.

Behind the Yanshen Lingyu Base is the equipment area, where four rinse stations offer powerful hot water and clean towels, a thoughtful touch for divers to dry off immediately after shedding their gear.

If you're here to get your Diving in Xiaoliuqiu certification, you won't need to worry about accommodation, because Yanshen Lingyu Base is also a guesthouse. The certification fee includes lodging and transportation, so you can head straight back to the guesthouse to wash up after your dives. It's a complete, all-in-one service that saves you time and effort, allowing you to focus entirely on learning to dive!

Yanshen Lingyu Base's Diving in Xiaoliuqiu certification courses use the SSI International Scuba Schools system, making it Xiaoliuqiu's first SSI-certified venue. In recent years, SSI has prioritized environmental protection by going completely paperless. All academic materials, certifications, and dive logs are managed through their app, which is incredibly convenient for students, allowing them to review course material anytime.

The SSI teaching system differs from AIDA in its assessment standards and instructor system. SSI diving certifications are issued by the dive venue rather than individual instructors, which allows for better oversight of student progress and ensures you gain solid diving skills!

Yanshen Lingyu Base specializes in technical Diving in Xiaoliuqiu, offering comprehensive instructors and courses for divers to refine their skills.

Depending on the course, classes are kept small, with a 1:2 or 1:3 instructor-to-student ratio, ensuring that every participant looking to improve their diving technique receives personalized attention.

Yanshen Lingyu Base also serves as a coach development center, boasting professional instructor trainers. It's one of the few venues in Taiwan with full expertise in both recreational and technical Diving in Xiaoliuqiu. If you're looking to advance your skills and become a diving instructor, this is an excellent place to learn and grow into a top-tier professional within a well-resourced environment.

The AOWD course at Yanshen Lingyu Base is quite unique. Unlike other systems that offer five specialties with only one dive per specialty, resulting in just an AOWD certification upon completion, Yanshen Lingyu Base takes a different approach.

Their AOWD course focuses on four specialties, but students can choose which ones they want to master. Each specialty is a complete course, requiring at least three days and two nights to complete 7-8 dives.

If all goes well, you can earn five certifications at once: four specialty certifications and the AOWD certification. It's a truly comprehensive and rigorous training program.

Diving in Xiaoliuqiu with Yanshen Lingyu Base takes about 2 to 2.5 hours, with actual underwater time lasting 40 minutes. An instructor provides one-on-one guidance, reaching a maximum depth of 12 meters. Anyone aged ten or older without specific medical conditions can participate, even non-swimmers, to enjoy seeing sea turtles and clownfish.

Yanshen Lingyu Base is fully equipped to meet the needs of divers at all levels, offering scuba gear rental, sales, maintenance, and servicing for back-mounted and side-mounted twin tanks. They even provide more specialized equipment like CCRs and DPV thrusters, along with custom gas blending services.

After you sign up for the Yanshen Lingyu Base scuba certification course, the owner will give you a brand-new pair of dedicated booties and two Fun Dive shore diving vouchers—all you have to do is like and follow the Yanshen Lingyu Base Facebook fan page.

The best part is that these vouchers can also be used at their sister venue in Taipei, DIVIN’IN, and both locations share instructor resources, so you don't have to worry about adapting to a new instructor! This is a huge benefit for students in central and northern Taiwan, and I'm looking forward to exploring the underwater world of the Northeast Coast soon.

Unlike most dive venues that only offer recreational Diving in Xiaoliuqiu courses and fun dives, Yanshen Lingyu Base provides Trimix technical instruction for a variety of SSI Extended Range courses. This makes it an exceptional choice for students eager to delve deeper into technical diving.

Yanshen Lingyu Base offers a wide variety of technical Diving in Xiaoliuqiu courses, including SSI Extended Range Foundations, SSI Extended Range Nitrox Diving, SSI Extended Range Trimix, SSI Extended Range Sidemount, SSI Hypoxic Trimix, SSI CCR Diving, and SSI CCR Extended Range Trimix. All these courses are taught one-on-one, ensuring that every student looking to enhance their diving skills receives comprehensive attention.

The instructor for the Yanshen Lingyu Base technical Diving in Xiaoliuqiu course is the owner, Sankuang, who holds a record for Diving in Xiaoliuqiu to a depth of 101 meters. He is also Taiwan's only rEvo CCR (closed-circuit rebreather) instructor.

Instructor Sankuang can teach students to dive to a maximum depth of 45 meters in the rEvo CCR course, and up to 60 meters in the twin-tank course, making him one of Taiwan's elite instructors.

Yanshen Lingyu Base prioritizes participant safety, which is why they arrange marine activity insurance for all participants, even for short-duration Diving in Xiaoliuqiu experiences. This requires signing relevant documents before entering the water.

The Diving in Xiaoliuqiu course at Yanshen Lingyu Base is incredibly thorough. Instructors begin with a classroom session covering all essential precautions, emphasizing the importance of hand signals for underwater communication.

After the instruction, the instructor administers a short quiz to ensure everyone has mastered the material. This venue prioritizes safety above all else, maintaining strict standards in all aspects of its courses.

After the briefing, the instructor led Shiyang to the equipment area. The heavy diving gear had already been assembled by the instructor, so Shiyang only needed to focus on learning the function of each component and practicing how to put on the mask, breathe through the regulator, equalize ear pressure, and clear water.

Once Shiyang was proficient, the instructor double-checked that every student had truly mastered the skills before allowing Shiyang to change into the light diving gear: the wetsuit, thermal vest, and booties.

Next, it was time to hop in the car and head to the shore for Diving in Xiaoliuqiu!

Once we arrived, the instructor helped Shi Yang gear up with a full 20 kilograms of equipment, and we walked along the shore into the water.

When the water reached about waist-deep, the instructor reviewed the hand signals and basic movements we'd just learned, making sure Shi Yang could use them all comfortably underwater.

With every meter of descent, the instructor used hand signals to remind Shiyang to equalize her ears, patiently waiting for her to complete the action and give an OK signal before continuing.

During the Diving in Xiaoliuqiu experience at Yanshen Lingyu Base, the instructor held onto Shiyang and guided her the entire time. All Shiyang had to do was relax completely, clear her mind, and let herself be carried to glimpse the beautiful underwater world.

Throughout the entire Diving in Xiaoliuqiu experience, Shiyang was accompanied by sea turtles and even spotted clownfish playing hide-and-seek among the coral—the diverse marine ecosystem was absolutely captivating!

After Diving in Xiaoliuqiu and returning to Yanshen Lingyu Base, Shiyang quickly shed her gear and rinsed off with hot water, finally understanding why owner Sankuang insisted on installing hot water taps in the rinse-off area. Shivering uncontrollably after getting out of the water and feeling the wind, Shiyang was profoundly grateful the moment the hot water touched her skin!

The academic portion of the Diving in Xiaoliuqiu certification at Yanshen Lingyu Base takes a full day. While instructors send students the digital course materials in advance for preview, they still thoroughly cover all academic content on the first day of class.

This includes physiology, equalization, the buddy system, safety concepts, depth and pressure, diving physics, marine environments and tides, equipment, and more. The instructors also provide numerous real-world examples to ensure students fully grasp the material.

The next morning, the instructor taught Shiyang how to assemble the heavy Diving in Xiaoliuqiu gear herself, a fundamental skill for any diver. She had to learn and master everything from the air tank, BCD, and regulators (first and second stage) to weights and secondary checks.

Next, the coach had us take our gear to the pool for a full day of confined water training. The owner, San Kuang, insists that beginners must train in the pool first because the waves at the shore are too strong. If you're trying to overcome the disturbance of the waves while practicing, it's very difficult for beginners to build a solid foundation.

On the third day, I finally got to go Diving in Xiaoliuqiu, and I was incredibly excited! The instructor started us in a shallower area to review what we'd learned the day before: adjusting our gear, various diving techniques, scenario simulations, and troubleshooting. Once everyone was comfortable, we began to dive deeper and deeper.

Over the past two days, I went Diving in Xiaoliuqiu four times, reaching a maximum depth of 18 meters. Beyond the valuable knowledge and skills I gained in class, I also saw several shipwrecks unique to Xiaoliuqiu. The experience was incredibly thrilling and satisfying, like something straight out of an adventure movie!

On the fourth afternoon, after diligently studying, Shi Yang aced the written exam and received high praise from the instructor for her Diving in Xiaoliuqiu skills over the past few days. Yanshen Lingyu Base then officially issued her OWD certification via the SSI app.

Shi Yang was incredibly moved to receive her OWD certification, eagerly anticipating future fun dives around the world!