01 / ABOUT
WE WANT YOU
TO LOVE
DIVING.
Everything else comes after that.
THAT WAS THE IDEA
FROM THE BEGINNING.
Naik Scuba Academy started with a fairly simple thought:
Scuba diving had become an important part of my life.
I wanted more people to experience the sport properly — and give it a fair chance to become an important part of theirs too.
That meant creating the kind of learning and diving experiences I would want for myself.
Small groups.
Time to learn.
Good equipment.
Thoughtful instruction.
Plenty of time underwater.
Not simply to get people certified.
To help create divers who want to keep diving.
LEARN WELL. DIVE OFTEN. BECOME INDEPENDENT.
02 / HOW I GOT HERE
I DIDN'T SET OUT
TO WORK IN DIVING.
For quite a while, scuba wasn't even part of the plan.
I started out as a chef.
Then came an MBA, followed by seven years working in Human Resources in the IT industry.
Diving wasn't part of the plan.
In 2018, my wife's work took us to the Philippines.
I left my job in India and moved with her.
Somewhere between moving countries and figuring out what came next,
I signed up for an Open Water Diver course.
That changed things.
With Alex, my mentor, who shaped the way I think about diving and teaching. Philippines.
I became an instructor in 2021.
Along the way, I was fortunate to learn from people who shaped not only how I dive, but how I think about teaching it.
What followed was a few years of teaching and diving in the Philippines, freelancing across India, spending six months at a dive shop in the Maldives, and eventually returning to India.
By then, scuba had gone from something I'd discovered almost accidentally to something I wanted to build my life around.
AND THEN CAME CHENNAI.
I returned to India in January 2023.
A year later, in March 2024, I started Naik Scuba Academy.
Not because I'd always dreamed of owning a dive school.
Because by then, I had some fairly strong ideas about how people should learn to dive.
03 / WHAT I BELIEVE
LEARN WELL.
DIVE OFTEN.
BECOME INDEPENDENT.
Good divers aren't created by collecting certifications.
LEARN WELL.
SCUBA ISN'T PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT TO LEARN.
But learning something and becoming comfortable doing it are not quite the same thing.
Take the time. Understand your equipment. Practise the skills. Ask questions.
Get comfortable in the water.
There is very little in diving that isn't made better by getting the basics right.
DIVE OFTEN.
A CERTIFICATION DOESN'T MAKE YOU AN EXPERIENCED DIVER.
The course gives you a foundation.
What happens after that matters just as much.
Dive. Then dive again. Become familiar with your equipment. Experience different conditions.
Learn from the people around you. Notice what works — and what doesn't.
Competence comes from time underwater.
BECOME INDEPENDENT.
A GOOD INSTRUCTOR SHOULD EVENTUALLY BECOME REDUNDANT.
The purpose of teaching isn't to make someone dependent on an instructor.
It's to help them develop the skills, awareness, judgement and confidence to make good decisions for themselves.
We'd love you to keep diving with us.
We just don't want you to need us.
04 / THE ACADEMY
BUILT AROUND
DOING THE
SIMPLE THINGS
WELL.
The standards already exist.
Naik Scuba Academy isn't built around my own version of scuba training.
The curriculum, skills and safety standards I teach come from SSI and the established standards of recreational diving.
What I wanted was the time, environment and freedom to teach them in the spirit in which they were intended to be taught.
No reinvention. No shortcuts. Just a commitment to doing the fundamentals well.
And that has shaped some of the choices I've made in building the academy.
01 / CITY BASED
WE'RE BASED
IN CHENNAI.
Because learning doesn't need to be rushed.
Theory and pool training happen here in the city.
The ocean comes afterwards.
It gives us time to learn without trying to fit everything around a few days at a destination — and helps make diving something that can become part of ordinary life, rather than something you only do when you travel.
02 / SMALL GROUPS
WE KEEP
THINGS SMALL.
Because people don't all learn at the same pace.
Smaller groups give us more time to watch, explain, repeat and adjust.
The standard may be the same for everyone.
The route each person takes to become comfortable meeting it doesn't have to be.
And, on a more personal note — Chennai is home. It just felt like the right place to begin.
03 / AFTER CERTIFICATION
CERTIFICATION ISN'T
THE FINISH LINE.
Because a course can only give you a foundation.
04 / WHO IT'S FOR
WE'RE BUILDING FOR
PEOPLE WHO WANT
TO BECOME DIVERS.
Not simply people who want a certification.
Learn with us. Come diving with us. Build experience.
Take another course when it genuinely adds something to your diving. Explore somewhere new when you're ready.
The academy is being built around the whole journey — not just the first certification.
NSA is designed around learning well, diving regularly and becoming increasingly capable and independent underwater.
If scuba becomes something you want to keep doing for years, then we've probably built this for you.
WE'RE NOT TRYING TO REINVENT SCUBA EDUCATION.
We're trying to stay true to what it was meant to achieve.