Instruction
Instructor Goal
As your instructor, my goal is to share years of diving experiences with students seeking Open Water through Divemaster and specialty course certifications as well as Cave and Technical Diving certifications. I offer relaxed, student-focused classes. Student-instructor ratios are usually 4:1 (smaller for some courses) so you receive the best possible instruction. Students complete a course feeling confident in their abilities.
About the InstructorGlenn Van Vliet is a DSAT Tec Deep Instructor, PADI Master SCUBA Diver Trainer, and PSAI Technical and Sport Diving Instructor and has logged hundreds of dives in the Caribbean, Bahamas, Mexico, Honduras, and Southeast U.S. He enjoys diving wrecks and reefs off the coast of Destin and is a certified DSAT Tec Trimix diver. He equally appreciates Florida's impressive freshwater springs and is a certified NSS-CDS Full Cave diver and recipient of the NSS-CDS Abe Davis Award and PSAI Hal Watts Award for safe cave diving.He is a member of the National Speleological Society—Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS), and National Association for Cave Diving (NACD), and PADI Diving Society. Glenn is the prior vice president of the Emerald Coast Scubaholics and a member of Eglin Dive Flight. The clubs support monthly dives, environmental awareness, and clean-up efforts on the Emerald Coast. |
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Classes
Courses are offered through PADI and PSAI. Materials are provided to students three weeks prior to class. This allows time to review, to contact me with questions, and be ready for your class.The Open Water (OW) course consists of one day of academics on the fundamentals of diving, one day of pool sessions to reinforce that understanding, and four open water dives over two additional days, usually the following weekend. After completing this training, you are then a PADI certified OW Diver!
If you're not sure about taking the plunge into a full OW certification, consider the Discover SCUBA Diving course, which is a half-day introduction in a confined water environment.
School, scout, and youth groups are welcome. I firmly believe in supporting our youth and introducing them to the exciting underwater world. Boy Scouts, be sure to check out the brand new Scuba Merit Badge. Under direct supervision, youth learn proper techniques for safe diving, good bouyancy control, and end up having a blast at the same time. There is a discount on certification for scouts. Parents are always welcome to watch or participate.
If you are "out of practice”, consider the SCUBA Review course. We cover the basic skills you've learned in your OW class and you gain confidence to dive on your own again.
The Advanced Open Water (AOW) course consists of five dives over two days. A Deep and Navigation dive are required, and a boat dive is encouraged to meet the Deep dive requirement. You can choose three remaining Adventure Dives which will introduce you to several other exciting diving opportunities. With instructor approval, any of these five dives could apply toward the requirements for a specialty certification.
Enriched Air (often known as NITROX) is a very popular academic-only course, which enables longer bottom times. If combined with the Advanced Open Water course, a discount is available.
For those interested in refining their skills and being prepared for diving accidents, consider the Rescue Diver course. This is a physically demanding course, which teaches you how to be prepared in an emergency for self-rescue or for a fellow diver.
If you are interested in diving professionally, the Divemaster program is your first step. You'll work closely with the instructor, assist with classes, and learn many techniques to improve your diving skills. This course will delve into additional details on diving physiology, physics, equipment, and other topics.
Further your interest with several other specialty courses—Wreck, Hunter (Spearfishing) & Collector, Deep, Night, Navigator, Drysuit, Search & Recovery, Boat, Digital Underwater Photographer, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Skin Diver, Project AWARE, Coral Reef Conservation. Additional PSAI courses include Advanced Buoyancy Control, Shore, Limited Visibility, Twin Set Doubles, Advanced Navigation, and Advanced NITROX.
Students who are AOW divers, a Rescue Diver, earn five specialty certifications, and have logged over 50 dives, receive the distinctive PADI Master SCUBA Diver rating. This is the highest recreational rating available and is a noteworthy accomplishment.
Open Water Sidemount Diver specialty! Find out about this exciting diving configuration where you have a tank on each side of your BC. It will improve your buoyancy, trim, reduce effort because of the streamlined design, and adds for safety with an extra tank and regulator. It has become very popular for wreck and cave diving. Since you can clip your tanks on in the water, it is certainly a consideration for those with back problems. You can also apply this certification towards the Master Scuba Diver rating. There is also an Overhead Sidemount Diver certification for those who hold at least a Cavern Diver rating. For more information, click here: OW Sidemount Diver Info Sheet
Cavern specialty! Learn to safely explore the daylight zone of Florida's spectacular freshwater springs. If you are interested in becoming a cave diver, it all starts with the Cavern Diver course and you can then take the demanding Intro to Cave Diver course.
Intro to Cave! To safely dive in the cave environment, additional equipment and redundancy with dual first and second stages is required. This class can be completed with a standard OW rig, but a Y- or H-tank manifold is mandatory. A sidemount or backmount double configuration is highly preferred. A certification at this level opens up many more options in the Florida springs plus many other locales in Mexico, Bahamas, and elsewhere. Perfect buoyancy control and horizontal trim are essential at this level. The next level of training is Apprentice Cave and Full Cave Diver.
Self-Reliant Diver specialty! This course does not advocate solo diving, but recognizes there are times when OW divers wish to be independent. Learn why redundancy in your equipment is important and how to handle emergencies on your own.
Snapper Scuba offers DSAT Tec Rec and PSAI Tec classes. Technical diving is not for most divers, but for some, the rewards are great to visit places most divers will never see. If you have thought about wanting to dive longer or dive deeper, this training will prepare you. There are two main approaches toward full certification: DSAT Tec 40/45/50 meters or Tec 1 followed by Tec Deep. Both end up with the same result: multi-gas switches for accelerated decompression to depths of 165'. Or, you can start with the PSAI Advanced NITROX class. If you're not quite sure about Tec, try Discover Tec with backmount doubles or side-mount configuration, or the Tec 40 meter class which allows for limited deco (up to 10 minutes) and you can take that class with most OW BCs with a 30 cu ft or larger deco tank. For more information, click here: Tec Diver Info Sheet
Specialty of the Month: This program has free benefits for students who are PADI Dive Society members that start the specialty during that month. This is a great way to earn PADI gifts and advance toward your Master SCUBA Diver rating. See www.padi.com for further details.
Pricing
Open Water course costs are based on four students and include materials, instruction, equipment, air fills, and certification. (Tec and Cave classes do not include materials and air/NITROX fills.) Pool, spring and/or boat fees are additional and will be clearly stated before the course. Couples may share materials to save money. Dive locations depend on the Gulf temperature.A $10 discount is offered for follow-on courses and/or for each new student you refer, my way of saying thanks for your repeat business and referrals.
We are authorized to provide visual inspections (VIPs) through Professional Scuba Inspectors (PSI) on your scuba tanks (due each year). The cost is $12 per tank. Let us know if you need any servicing on your tank valves as we are a certified Valve Repair Technician.
Click here for course fees.
PADI Student Forms
Student AgreementMedical Statement
Open Water Liability Release
Adventures in Diving Liability Release
Enriched Air Liability Release
Discover Scuba Diving Release
Youth Release
Safe Diving Statement of Understanding
PSAI Student Forms
Student AgreementMedical Statement
Physician Release
Personal Information
Adult Waiver
Minor Release
