Great Barrier Reef Introductory Dive: No Experience Needed

What an introductory dive actually is

An introductory dive, sometimes called a resort dive, is a short, supervised dive for someone with no qualification. You go through a briefing, then dive in shallow water with an instructor beside you the whole time. It is not a course, and it does not produce a certification, so there is nothing to study beforehand and nothing to fail.

On this boat, one scuba dive is included in the fare for every guest, and it is either a certified dive or the twenty-minute introductory dive described here. Most people on board choose the introductory option, since most people who book a reef trip have never dived before and are not carrying a certification card.

None of this requires you to have ever been in open water before. An introductory dive exists specifically for people who have never used a regulator, never wondered how a wetsuit fits, and are not sure whether they will like any of it. Finding that out is the entire purpose of the twenty minutes, whichever way the answer goes.

Who can do an intro dive, and who cannot

The minimum age for an introductory dive in Queensland is twelve. Anyone under sixteen must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and a sixteen or seventeen year old can travel with written parental consent, provided the relevant liability forms are signed by a parent or guardian beforehand.

The dive is not suitable for people with mobility impairments, heart problems, respiratory issues or epilepsy, and certain medical conditions and medications can also rule someone out. None of this is asked out of caution for its own sake. Diving is more demanding on the body than it looks from the deck of a boat.

It is also worth thinking about the rest of your day before you decide. Flying too soon after a dive risks decompression illness, so divers are generally advised to leave a surface interval before getting on a plane. If you have a flight booked for later, factor that in when you choose between the introductory dive and simply snorkelling instead.

Getting ready before you go under

Before anyone gets in the water, an instructor runs through a briefing: how to breathe through a regulator, how to equalise your ears, and the hand signals you will use once you are underwater and cannot talk. You are then fitted with the rest of the dive kit.

You go into the water with your instructor and stay with them for the whole twenty minutes. Nobody expects you to already know what you are doing. That is the entire difference between an introductory dive on the Great Barrier Reef and a certified one.

The operator also asks everyone travelling, diver or not, to call twenty-four hours ahead to reconfirm, and to mention any dietary requirements at that point so the galley can plan for them. Neither of those calls has anything to do with whether you end up diving or just snorkelling on the day.

Mask on and regulator in, moments before the first breath underwater.

Breathing underwater for the first time

The first breath through a regulator feels strange to almost everyone who tries it. Breathing through a mouthpiece is not something most people have ever had to do before, and it takes a minute or two to trust that the air will keep coming. Some people also find equalising their ears uncomfortable until they get the knack of it.

A few people get underwater and decide, honestly, that they do not like it. If that is you, you surface. There is no course to fail and no shame in ending the dive early. An introductory dive is meant to be tried, not endured, and the instructor beside you is there for exactly that decision.

Why cameras are not allowed on your first dive

Cameras are not permitted on a first introductory dive. This is Queensland law, not an operator preference, and it surprises people who assumed they could film their own first breath underwater. Camera hire is not part of the included dive either, and there is no professional photography package on this trip.

The practical effect is that your first introductory dive exists only as your own memory. It is one more reason an intro dive great barrier reef trip like this is worth doing without a lens between you and the reef, at least the first time.

If you are already a certified diver

A certified diver on this trip needs to bring proof of certification, and is not assigned an instructor the way an introductory diver is, since a certified diver is qualified to dive unsupervised. Additional dives beyond the one included in the fare are not included.

Everyone else, certified or not, gets the same day around the dive itself: the catamaran out, the reef sites, the marine biologist's presentation, and unlimited snorkelling at the second site regardless of which kind of dive you choose. An introductory scuba dive in Cairns is, for most people on board, the whole reason they came.

None of this is a sales pitch for one option over the other. If the closest you have been to open water is a swimming pool, the introductory dive is where a very large number of people first find out that breathing underwater is entirely manageable, and a few people find out that it is not for them, on the very reef most divers spend a lifetime wanting to see.

Before you book

The dive, step by step

1. The briefing

   Your instructor talks you through breathing on a regulator, equalising your ears, and the hand signals you will need once nobody can talk underwater.

2. Kitting up

   You are fitted with a wetsuit, mask, fins and the rest of the scuba kit, checked over by your instructor before anyone gets near the water.

3. In with your instructor

   You enter the water together and stay together. Nobody expects a first-timer to already know what they are doing.

4. Breathing underwater

   The first breath through a regulator feels strange to almost everyone, and equalising your ears can take a moment to get right.

5. Twenty minutes, on your terms

   The dive itself runs twenty minutes. If it is not for you once you are under, you surface. Finishing is never compulsory.

6. Back on the boat

   You climb back aboard and hand back the gear, and the rest of the day, breakfast, lunch and snorkelling, carries on around you.