Terms and Conditions
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
For scuba diving courses offered by Pro-Diver Development Ltd.
Course fee, missed sessions, make-up sessions
The course fee is non-refundable and non-transferable to other courses or persons whether the participant had to drop out of the course due to illness or sickness, work or other commitments, or any other reason.
Once the course schedule has been set, participants must attend the course segments as scheduled. All PADI courses are modular: after a successful completion of a module, you proceed to the next. Failure to show up at an agreed time, or missing a session, whether a class room session, pool session or open water session, may prevent participants from attending the rest of the course. Participants are not entitled to a refund due to lateness or failing to show up to a scheduled session.
We understand that people are busy, meetings may run late and work assignments and business trips come suddenly, or that you might come up with a cold just before your pool or open water dives. These are however all out of our control. Places on courses, boats and pools are limited: once you have confirmed a session or agreed to a schedule, the pools and/or a boat, equipment and an instructor are booked. Even if you aren't there, you will have used a spot on a boat or a pool and a set of equipment that was reserved for you.
If a student diver has missed a session, we are not obliged to and/or may not be able to arrange a make-up session in order for the student to catch up with the rest of the class, or should we be able to do so, we will charge for the make-up sessions according to the following rates:
Classroom session HKD600 per 3hrs/person
Pool session HKD800 per 2hrs/person
Open water session HKD1,500 per day (two dives)/person
Please note that due to the modular structure of the courses, missing one session may cause you to need to make up more than one session to catch up, especially if the course schedule is tight.
Bad weather
Typhoon Signal 3 or above, black or red rainstorm warnings cancel any open water (sea) diving. We will try to inform participants of the cancellation due to unsuitable weather as early as possible. In these situations, the open water sessions will be rescheduled.
When diving from a boat, the boat captain makes the final decision regarding whether or not the conditions are generally suitable for diving. The instructor may cancel open water dives any time if he/she feels the conditions are not safe for the level of the course and/or skill or experience level of the participants. The instructor’s decision is final. In these cases, the open water dives will be rescheduled. The course fee is non-refundable even if the weather conditions prevent students from earning a certification before a desired date.
If a session has been cancelled by the instructor, due to bad weather or for other reasons, it will be rescheduled.
Equipment
Participants must take care of their own belongings. Pro-Diver Development Ltd. or its instructors are not responsible for any loss or damage to student divers’ scuba equipment or other belongings.
Participants are responsible for any loss or damage to scuba diving equipment, teaching materials or other property that we have either rented, lent or otherwise provided. In case of loss or damage, the participant will be responsible for monetary compensation of an equivalent item.
Certification
To qualify for the certification for any level, student divers must have successfully completed all performance requirements – academic and in-water skills in the swimming pool and/or open water – for the level the student diver wishes to get certified for. The course instructor evaluates all skills, and his/her decision is final. Should a student diver not be able to meet the performance requirements, he/she is not entitled to certification. The course fee will not be refunded due to failure to meet the performance requirements.
Participants in scuba diving courses must be able to swim 200m without swimming aids and without stopping, and float/tread water for 10 minutes. We reserve the right to terminate the course without a refund should participants not be be able to fulfill this requirement.
In order to get certified, a student diver must
(1) have met all performance requirements for the course
(2) have paid the course fee in full
(3) have submitted a passport photo for the certification documents
If conditions (1) and/or (2) have not been met, we will not process the certification. If we haven’t received a passport photo in one month after the completion of the course, we will reserve the right to process the certification without the photo. PADI will then process the certification as “no card issued”: the certification will appear in PADI database but the certification card will not be issued. If the diver then wishes to receive the certification card, he/she may do so by applying directly to PADI. PADI charges a fee of AUD50 for reprocessing. Alternatively, we can handle the card application for a handling fee of HKD500.
You can download the Terms and Conditions for courses offered by Pro-Diver Development as a PDF file.