FAQ Diving

It all depends on your objective: if you want to dive independently with friends to 60m, take your Level 3. If you want to be able to supervise divers and you wish to become a monitor, pass the N4. In any case, you must be N3 to apply for N4.

Diving levels 1 to 3 can be done during your vacations, in an intensive course of one or two weeks in a commercial club by the sea.

However, in an "inland" club, we will make you pass your level over a season.

So don't come to us if you just want to get your license as soon as possible.

Come to us if you find yourself in one or more of these arguments:

• You don't want to spend your vacation time learning to dive. You prefer to arrive on vacation with your certification in hand, with your skills already acquired, and enjoy the underwater scenery rather than doing exercises.
• You want to join a nice club, where you can meet a lot of diving friends.
• You would like to practice a regular sport activity all year long: swimming, mainly with fins.
• You would like to train in freediving and swimming with fins.
• You prefer to have enough time to train with the equipment, so that you will be very comfortable once in the sea.

When you take out your FFESSM license, a civil liability insurance is included (for damages committed to others). To cover your personal expenses in case of an accident, we advise you to take out an additional insurance policy (the federation offers them, ask us) or ask your own insurance company if diving is covered in your contract.

There is at least one sea trip per year. A trip is also organized to more distant destinations once every 2 or 3 years.

Yes, the CNB provides the tanks and regulators.

You must have with you a PMT equipment (fins, mask and snorkel). In case you forget, the Club can lend you PMT equipment.

Yes, there are several medical contraindications to diving. Some are temporary, such as pregnancy, others are definitive and formal, such as asthma and bronchial hyperreactivity. The complete list of these contraindications is available on the FFESSM Medical Commission website. You should be aware that sinus, dental or ear problems must be treated before diving. The FFESSM license is only issued upon presentation of a medical certificate of no contraindication to scuba diving. This certificate is issued after an examination by a doctor, to avoid any further inconvenience.

We strongly advise against scuba diving for pregnant women.  It is not known how the gases breathed in under pressure behave on the fetus and the possible diving accidents of the mother and its consequences on the fetus, so it is not recommended to dive while pregnant.

The pressure of the water that acts on the ears doubles between the surface and -10 meters. Without learning, it is therefore normal to have ear pain when the water presses on the eardrums. However, there are several simple techniques to avoid ear pain. The CNB instructors will teach them to you during your initiation.

Diving involves risks due to the action of the pressure on the air breathed by the diver and on his body. The training that will be given to you will aim to make you aware of these risks but above all to provide you with the techniques and reflexes that will allow you to control them or at least to reduce them considerably.
The initiation, or baptism, because it is carried out at a shallow depth (about 5 meters) by an experienced instructor, carries almost no risk.
Diving can become dangerous if it is practiced without respecting the safety instructions and without training.

To avoid decompression sickness, it is not recommended to fly within 24 hours of scuba diving.