Sea Spirit is a 5 star PADI diving resort in Giardini-Naxos, Taormina, Sicily. They have a huge range of courses on offer with some of the best instructors in Italy. They range from bubble maker to open water, from advanced open water to instructor and even specialty instructor courses. I couldn’t think of a better place to be doing your PADI course based on the level of the instructors, their student centred approach, the quality of the dive sites and facilities and their constant motivation to make you the best diver you can be.
In the last few months I have been lucky enough to be a student here at Sea Spirit, as well as assist on courses with the instructors and crew that have worked here for many seasons and have a wealth of experience and expertise to share.
When I arrived I was an advanced open water diver, and my aim was to go onto divemaster and then possibly instructor. However I had to first complete my EFR and rescue before I could go onto my divemaster. For my EFR, rescue and divemaster I had the same instructor, Alina – who had worked here at Sea Spirit for four seasons. The level of knowledge she shared with me throughout my courses was a great deal more than I expected and I was able to learn and develop my own skills. The course was well run, with plenty of materials and time with the instructor both in and out of the water to develop and achieve the performance requirements for the course.
My divemaster course was fantastic, and a course I would recommend to anyone who wants to a better diver.
I was able to assist on an open water course, an advanced course and fun dives which only developed me further. Assisting on the open water and advanced, gave me a real insight into how professional they staff here are, showing how much they care about their students and how they want them to succeed.
Being a part of the course helping it run was an eye opener into how hard the staff work to make sure the student gets the best experience and has plenty of opportunities to develop their skills. They always take the time after dives to go through the dive, go through log books and explain anything the student needs explaining. If I was completing my open water anywhere, I would be looking here based on everything I have seen! The advanced course is also fantastically run. Although you are a student, they treat you like divers like you are, and give you the opportunity to develop your own skills based on what you know about diving. They facilitate the learning based on what you need as well as making sure you learn the skills required to pass the course.
The final course I want to discuss is the IDC. Originally I wanted to complete my instructor qualification in somewhere like Bali or Thailand, but of course due to COVID this was not possible. However my head was turned when I met a group of people currently doing their IDC and IE here with Sea Spirit. They constantly raved about how good the instructors are, how amazing the course director is and how if I was going to do it anywhere I should stay here and complete the course. I am very glad I did! Although I am yet to complete my IE due to injury, the IDC was fantastic, the the other divers were right, the course director is amazing.
PADI Platinum Course Director Carmelo takes the time to
make sure you have every single piece of information you need to be the best instructor you can be, and provides information that goes above and beyond what you actually need. He is focused on making sure that when you become an instructor and are able to confidently teach new divers to be brilliant divers, as well as project aware divers and are able to take care of the marine environment.
Each lecture we had was full of detail that was extra from the course, and he would often stay behind longer to discuss things, go over things and make sure fully understood. The course is longer than most, but that is because he books in a couple of days off, to allow you to practice any skills, rest and recover and book in separate lectures to go over anything you need help with. Which again is something you don’t often find. We also had lectures from Cilla, the manager of Sea Spirit which again were brilliant. The extra knowledge and time she would put in allowed us to have more knowledge than we needed. They really care about you becoming brilliant instructors and are 100% focused on making that happen for you.
They also have a wide range of technical courses that go on here at Sea Spirit, such as Tec 40, Suex DPV and side-mount courses, which are led by the instructors here that are qualified to do so. The passion for the more advanced technical diving the instructors has really shines through when on the course, and all you want to do is complete more and more courses with them to develop your own passion more and be a part of something they love so much.
I’ve been lucky enough to engage and talk with many customers throughout my time here. Whether they are doing their open water, advanced or professional certifications and each and everyone I have spoken to have been so happy with their level of student centred teaching they have received from all the staff here at Sea Spirit. I think one of the biggest compliments to the staff, courses and how everything is run here, is the fact that each year they have returning customers and students that always want to dive with the crew. One couple have returned here for the last 8 years for different courses, fun dives and being a part of the family. A number of the instructors that work here have completed their courses with Sea Spirit and are therefore able to carry on provided the fantastic, high level of course they received during their training.
If you are looking for somewhere to complete your PADI course, I would highly recommend Sea Spirit.
Albert – divemaster, instructor in training.
