嶼海相干 ReviewAdvanced Diving Certification in Xiaoliuqiu: Master Your Skills, Solid Boat Dive Training for Stable 30m Dives

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced diver, the venue provides safe, comfortable diving equipment, ensuring every student can relax and enjoy the experience.

The shower area is clean and spacious, with stable hot water and water pressure, accommodating up to four people at once. You won't have to wait long for a hot shower after your dive. The venue provides salon-grade toiletries, ensuring your hair is well cared for.

Entering the changing area from the back door, you'll find lockers and showers for a quick and convenient rinse. This bright, well-ventilated space also doubles as a vanity area, complete with mirrors and outlets to meet all your needs.

This Xiaoliuqiu Scuba Diving venue currently cares for four rescued stray cats. These adorable, friendly felines add a unique charm to Xiaoliuqiu, sometimes even joining students in class and bringing extra joy to the diving experience!

Coach A-Gan, a highly qualified instructor, previously taught diving in the Philippines' PG Island. He holds multiple diving instructor certifications, including:

• SSI Open Water Instructor
• SSI Enriched Air Nitrox Instructor
• SSI Boat Diving Instructor
• SSI Deep Diving Instructor
• SSI Perfect Buoyancy Instructor
• SSI Diver Stress & Rescue
• SSI React Right

Coach A-Gan's teaching style is known for its meticulousness and rigor, with a strong emphasis on student safety and technique during Xiaoliuqiu Scuba Diving. He observes students' breathing rhythms and movements underwater, providing real-time guidance and encouragement. After surfacing, the coach reviews underwater videos with students to enhance the learning process.

If ocean conditions are stable on the day of your dive, the instructor will arrange advanced experiences like drift diving, allowing students to explore diverse underwater worlds while ensuring safety. Instructor A-Gan is also skilled at underwater photography, capturing beautiful memories for students, whether it's interacting with sea turtles and coral or striking a pose next to a shipwreck.

Coach A-Gan previously taught in PG Island, Philippines, and can teach entirely in English, adjusting the language as needed for international students.

This is perfect for first-time divers, offering a one-on-one guided experience with an instructor, where you'll wear full gear and get a real feel for scuba diving.

Price: $2,500 per person｜Includes instructor, equipment, insurance, underwater photography, and a souvenir

For Xiaoliuqiu Scuba Diving, you can choose between shore dives and boat dives, with dive buddies assigned based on skill level to ensure a good match for all participants. Dive guides lead explorers through diverse ecosystems, observing macro life, sea turtles, and corals, making every dive an exciting adventure.

• 1-on-1 Shore Dive: $1,300/person/dive
• 1-on-2 or More Shore Dive: $800/person/dive
• Night Dive: $1,500/person/dive
• Boat Dive: Starting from $2,800/person/2 dives

Add-on items:

• Full equipment rental: $1,000/set/day (individual items available for rent)
• Dive computer: $200/unit/day
• Scooter rental: Two days and one night $450/scooter (prices scale accordingly)
• Donggang-Xiaoliuqiu round-trip ferry ticket: $450
• Dorm bed accommodation: $800/bed/night

This Xiaoliuqiu Scuba Diving course is designed for beginners ready to become certified divers, spanning three days and two nights with a total of five dives (one confined water, four open water). The curriculum emphasizes neutral buoyancy and underwater control techniques. Upon completion, participants will be qualified to dive independently. Sea Liuqiu Dive offers both course-only and package options.

Course-only: $13,500 per person

Package option: $15,500 per person (includes materials, ferry tickets, accommodation, scooter rental, and insurance)

Sea Liuqiu Dive's introductory Xiaoliuqiu Scuba Diving certification course is held indoors, allowing students to comfortably learn equipment setup in a cool, air-conditioned environment.

Sea Liuqiu Dive's advanced Xiaoliuqiu Scuba Diving course is a comprehensive program of eight dives—four shore dives and four boat dives—covering specialties like perfect buoyancy, night diving, deep diving, and boat diving. This is an essential course for anyone preparing for international dive trips.

Course Only: $22,500 per person

Package Deal: $24,500 per person (includes materials, boat tickets, accommodation, scooter rental, and insurance)

This Xiaoliuqiu Scuba Diving course includes two boat dives and three shore dives, covering both boat diving and deep diving specialties. It's ideal for divers with basic skills who want to explore more advanced dive sites. Upon completion, you'll be certified to dive to 40 meters.

This course is designed for those with limited time and budget, requiring just two days and one night. Even if you don't yet have an advanced diver certification, this credential can still qualify you for some deep diving or boat diving activities abroad, offering greater flexibility for your dive travels.

The second day's two perfect buoyancy training sessions focused on practicing breath-hold ascent, breath-hold descent, deploying the surface marker buoy, and frog kicks. The maximum depth for these dives was 13 meters, and Itata was still getting used to breath control, so there was some fumbling during the process.

During frog kick training, Itata initially swam using a breaststroke technique. After several attempts, she finally mastered the skill and experienced a much more effortless way to move through the water.

Deploying the surface marker buoy was the biggest challenge of this training session. There were so many steps: first, untangle the buoy, making sure the line wasn't too long, then deploy it with the alternate air source. I was so focused on the task that I unconsciously held my breath, causing me to ascend too quickly. That's something I'll have to work on next time.

Night diving is much like day diving, but with a focus on using your night gear and communicating with hand signals underwater. The water temperature was similar to daytime, but visibility was lower, and the seabed was dark and full of sea urchins, so buoyancy control was especially important.

Fortunately, that night we encountered a sea turtle out foraging. Although it was still quite far away, the moment I saw it, a wave of panic washed over me in the water.

On the day of the boat dive, the instructor brought Itata aboard early to check the equipment and measure the oxygen concentration in the tanks.

After about a 10-minute boat ride, we arrived at the dive site, where the instructor began to introduce the location and review safety precautions.

The coach then discussed with the other coaches and crew on the boat which dive site would be most suitable for the day.

My first boat dive was nerve-wracking, especially the giant stride entry, but thanks to the encouragement of my fellow divers on board, I found the courage to take the plunge. Overcoming that little mental hurdle was a real accomplishment.

The first dive was a deep training session at the Venice shipwreck. The current was strong, requiring a strenuous pull on the rope to descend. Once at the wreck, we had to hold onto the ship's body to avoid being swept away. It was my first time seeing such a large shipwreck at 33 meters underwater, and I was incredibly excited. Diving at this depth meant I couldn't rely on chest breathing to control buoyancy; I had to fully utilize the BCD, which was a completely new experience.

During the surface interval back at the harbor, the boat crew brought out steaming hot fish ball soup, which was both comforting and delicious, greatly easing Itatata's nerves.

The second dive at Beauty Cave reached a maximum depth of 28 meters, with incredible visibility. We were lucky enough to spot a Pikachu nudibranch and a small blue-spotted stingray, and even got to try out a reef hook — it was so much fun!

After two dives and a short break, the instructor and students reviewed their diving techniques over dinner, specifically focusing on the "five-meter, three-minute safety stop" and "deploying the surface marker buoy," emphasizing the importance of these details.

The second day of boat diving was nothing like the first; instead of nerves, there was pure excitement! The first dive took us to the net cage area, where we paid homage to the rare "Turtle Tomb."

The second dive took us to the Lobster Cave soft coral area, where the delicate pink corals created an enchanting underwater garden.

After the three-minute, five-meter safety stop, I perfectly executed the SMB deployment—if I hadn't been underwater, I would have screamed and jumped for joy!

After several days of intensive training, I successfully passed the exams and earned four SSI specialty certifications: Enriched Air Nitrox, Deep Diving, Perfect Buoyancy, and Boat Diving. It's truly exciting!

After passing the exam, I even received a surprise gift — I was so touched! When I put on my Sea Liuqiu Dive T-shirt at home, I felt like I was truly part of the Sea Liuqiu Dive family, as if I had found my own home in Xiaoliuqiu.