Course Deposit and Payment Policies

Course Deposit

• Your enrollment in any course is not considered firm until we receive a deposit equal to one half the total course fee.

• Deposits are payable directly to your instructor. You may make payment by cash or Paypal.

• If you cancel, bear in mind it is unlikely we will be able to find someone to fill the dates we have set aside for you. This costs us money. Therefore, all deposits are nonrefundable.

Balance Due

• The balance of any course fees are payable at or before the start of the course.
• Balance payments may be made by cash or Paypal.

What Your Course Fee Does And Does Not Include

Course fees generally include the following:

• Your instructor’s time, up to the maximum time allotted for the course
• eLearning course fees

Course fees do not include:

• Transportation to and from dive sites
• Meals and accommodations
• Dive site admission fees
• Use of equipment
• Gas fills
• Certification card processing
• Your instructor’s time past that normally allotted for the course

What If You Need Additional Time?

Cave and technical diver training is not like many recreational specialty diver courses. There are very specific performance requirements you must meet. Additionally, you have to inspire confidence in your instructor. You must demonstrate you can dive safely and conscientiously not putting yourself or others at risk.

Most students can do this within the time normally allotted for each course. Occasionally, we have students who need additional days of training beyond this. When this happens, we inform students they are not making sufficient progress before the allotted time is up. When this happens, students have two choices:

• Sometimes, students take this as a sign that cave or technical diving is not for them, and bow out.

• Most of the time, however, students will opt to invest the additional time needed to address whatever problems they are having, especially when the required time is only an extra day or two.

When both the student and the instructor agree that the problems can be solved with additional days of training, we go ahead and schedule them. Often we will give the student homework — skills they can work on someplace other than in a cave — before returning to complete the course.

There is an additional fee for this. Currently, the fee for remedial instruction is $300 per student, per day.

We will ensure you know when additional instruction is required so there won’t be any surprises.