July 25th marked a big day for Athens Scuba. We finished our first PADI Open Water Diver class at Lake Jocassee. 

We had 4 wonderful students who joined us and put their trust in Athens Scuba to get PADI certified. 

Every student opted for our Classic (City) Package for this class, studied via PADI eLearning and completed their knowledge development before we started the weekend check-out dives at Lake Jocassee.

A week earlier, we met at the Georgia Aquatic Center for pool training and PADI skill development. On July 15th and 16th we completed all of PADI’s skill requirements and got everyone comfortable in the water.

We met again July 24th at the lake to do our Open Water Dives 1 and 2. After we finished, we headed back to the Dive Shop for debrief paperwork and a great night hanging out together.

All of our students and Ben, our Athens Scuba PADI instructor, stayed the night at the camp ground at the Lake Jocassee Dive Shop, operated by The Scuba Shop, Spartanburg, SC.

The next morning we were back on the boat, where we had our gear stored from the day before. All skills were finished early in the day and we had enough time to explore a few of the many sights that the Lake Jocassee Dive sites have to offer.

After the dives were finished and all PADI certification requirements were more than met, we went back to the Dive Shop, finished up all paperwork and headed back to Athens.

We all had a great weekend, laughed a lot, welcomed four BRAND NEW PADI OPEN WATER DIVERS to the diving community and had a fantastic time at the beautiful Lake Jocassee.