Diving the Great Barrier Reef
 

Our family of 4 will be staying in Port Douglas for 5 nights at the end of June. My oldest daughter is convinced that we can not leave Australia without diving in the GBR. She spent 2 days on a live aboard last month and tried diving for the frist time. The rest of us have no experience. My questions: are we allowed to dive without ever having done it? I was surprised that she was able to. I thought there was some sort of required certificate, not to mention her asthma. If we are allowed to dive any recommendations for tour company for newbies? We are all very good swimmers, love the water and will have been snorkeling with Ocean Safari while in Cape Trib before we land in Port Douglas.

I am guessing that your daughter did a "try dive" or "resort course dive" on the liveaboard. That is, a shallow dive with one or two instructors, after having some onboard instruction.

Did she tell the Dive Master/Instructor that she has asthma? I'd be very surprised too, if any reputable outfit would allow her to dive if they knew. Was this in Australia?

On the GBR, you can often see just as much by snorkelling as with scuba.

I dived on a day trip in the Whitsundays last year without showing my PADI certificate (accidentally left it at the resort). However; was able to tell the DiveMaster who my instructor was, when & where I qualified and when my last dives were.

Bokhara is right, its known as a "resort" or more commonly, "introductory" dive, here in Australia. No experience needed, but you must fill in and sign a medical questionnaire on board; asthma sufferers are almost always automatically precluded.

Just about all reef operators out of Port Douglas, with exception of Wavelength which is "snorkle only" provide introductory dives.

You can leave Australia without diving the GBR, but you can't leave without doing a snorkel tour. As Bokhara says, you can often see just as much by snorkeling as by diving. After having snorkeled the GBR several times (mostly with Wavelength), our daughter wanted to go out on a boat that offered introductory dives. She said that she enjoyed the experience, but felt that snorkeling was just as good and a lot more fun.

Also, I can't believe they knowingly would let your daughter dive with asthma. That specific question was on a form that we had to fill out in order to do the introductory dive and one of the members of our group could not go for that reason, even though he had been a certified diver before developing asthma. We were even asked about it when he snorkeled on another boat and this guy had to leave his inhaler with the crew in case of any problem.

BeanQueen, not to put too fine a point on it: Something's not right about your daughter being allowed to dive with asthma.

Either she told the operators & they allowed her to dive - in which case I'd be having a very serious conversation with the operator's CEO and with the certifying body in whatever country they operate.

Or she didn't - in which case I'm sure you'll be having the same "stand close, listen well" discussion with her that my mother had with me when I thought I'd have a flying lesson without telling the instructor I had an unresolved blood clot in my leg. I thought it would be fine as I was on anti-coagulants!

Here's a link BeanQueen which includes a sample of diving medical questionnaire for Queensland. www.reeftrip.com/diving-details.aspx which includes a specific question on current and previous asthma sufferers.