Consider Diving Insurance For Your Next Dive Trip
Being covered for any accidents or incidents that happen during a dive trip is worth considering as accidents can and do happen.
Some of the key reasons to consider having diving insurance:
- In case of an accident while diving – stings, bites, boat collisions and cases of possible decompression sickness (DCS, or “the bends”) which may require medical evacuation
- In case of an accident on the boat or in the resort – falling, slipping, gear dropped on foot etc
- In case you lose your scuba gear on the way to or from a dive trip
- If you have particularly expensive dive gear or camera equipment, you should take a scuba diving equipment insurance policy that covers each item specifically to get its replacement cost
- In case of camera gear flooding – a flooded camera housing is expensive to repair, and can happen both due to manufacturing faults and user error. You need a insurer that understands these problems and will provide unexplained flood coverage
Which type of Diving Insurance Should I Buy?
If you are a casual diver, backpacking or going on a few trips each year, consider getting a comprehensive travel insurance policy that covers you for both scuba diving and general travel insurance too. You can buy policies that cover you for just a few days or months at a time which is available to nationals of most countries in the world. You can also find comprehensive diver insurance policies for virtually all nationalities at Divemaster Insurance, DAN (Divers Alert Network) and DiveAssure
Depending on what kind of diving you’re doing and whether you’re bringing your own scuba diving equipment and underwater camera setup, there are other, additional policies you can get to fully cover you
Scuba Diving Equipment Insurance
A full set of scuba gear with dive computer costs thousands of dollars. Equipment coverage gives you peace of mind in case your scuba gear gets lost in transit, damaged while diving or stolen somewhere along the line. Divemaster Insurance and DiveAssure provide international coverage, H20 Insurance provides USA members of DAN coverage.
Underwater Camera Flooding Insurance
If you have your own underwater camera or video gear, you’ll know that once you go beyond the compact camera stage it starts to get very expensive. Having insurance to cover underwater camera and video gear in the event of flooding, damage, loss or theft is crucial. Divemaster Insurance provides international camera flooding coverage, H20 Insurance provides USA members of DAN coverage.
Pro Diver Insurance
If you are a professional diver, ie. working as a dive guide or instructor with a register dive operator, then DAN (Divers Alert Network) has several policies specifically tailored to look after professional divers, particularly in terms of coverage for liability. Divemaster Insurance and DAN provide international coverage.
Technical Diving Insurance
If you are a technical diver, going below 40 metres depth and using gases like Trimix and special training, then recreational scuba diving insurance will not cover you. You need to get a dedicated technical diving insurance policy from DiveAssure or DAN.
Camera Flooding Insurance
It’s an unfortunate fact that an underwater camera is more likely to wind up flooded and unusable rather than lost or stolen during a dive trip – but not all scuba diving equipment insurance policies cover the possibility of flooding as one of their accepted reasons to make a claim. It’s very important to carefully check the terms and conditions of any existing diving insurance policy you have to ensure it covers camera flooding and indeed camera gear against damage, theft and loss.
See our Underwater Camera Insurance page for more info and follow the insurance links below for specific camera flooding policies
Scuba Equipment Insurance
Once you get into scuba diving, it’s hard to resist wanting to buy your own set of scuba gear. A full set of regulator, BCD, wetsuit, mask, snorkel and fins is quite an investment – easily over $US 1000 even for the most thrifty diver, and getting near to $2000 if you are buying top of the line brand name gear.
If you want to make sure you can replace your scuba diving equipment in the even of damage, loss or theft, you need specific scuba gear insurance. Most scuba diving insurance policies only insure your scuba gear up to a limited amount – some let you increase coverage by paying an extra premium. If you prefer, you can get a separate policy that is dedicated to covering your scuba equipment and also your underwater camera gear if you take photos and video footage.
Shark Cage Diving Insurance
Experience the awesome sight of great white sharks up close and personal with the peace of mind that comes from having suitable shark cage diving insurance.
Shark Cage Diving is, without any exaggeration, one of the most incredible experiences you can have in your life. Coming face to face with the ocean’s most feared predator, the great white shark, in its own environment behind the safety of steel bars is an adrenaline rush that you’ll never forget. What’s truly remarkable about seeing great white sharks while shark cage diving is how graceful and, yes, beautiful they are, in their own way – seeing nearly one ton of shark move so effortlessly through the water is mesmerizing. While shark cage diving is not nearly as dangerous as it appears, you should have shark cage diving insurance – ie travel insurance that explicitly agrees in writing to cover you for shark cage diving as part of your policy.
World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 adventure activities including scuba diving, as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.
The term shark cage diving is a bit of a misnomer, because you don’t have to be a certified diver to go shark cage diving. Typically the shark cage is suspended just below the surface of the water, with the top of the cage actually level with the boat, so you can slide into the cage directly from the boat’s stern – and climb directly out of the cage back onto the boat too without ever being in the water unprotected. Nevertheless, having shark cage diving insurance is important – the risk of a great white shark actually harming you during a shark cage diving trip is minimal, but shark cage diving insurance can cover you for any incidents – such as falling over in the cage – and also for more ordinary problems like hurting yourself on the boat to and from the dive spot and so on.
The most popular places in the world to go shark cage diving with great white sharks is South Africa, Guadeloupe and south Australia. I’ve been shark cage diving in south Australia with Rodney Fox Expeditions, run by the famous shark conservationist Rodney and his son Andrew. The video above is one of several I shot while in the shark cage – you can see more videos and read my account of cage diving with great whites for Asian Diver magazine. Rodney is the only great white shark cage diving operator to offer the chance to scuba dive with great whites. They have a second cage on a hydraulic winch that is lowered down to the sandy bottom 15 metres below. The guests are inside the cage all wearing scuba gear (but no fins, as you simply remain standing upright). Being in the cage on the reef means that you are right in amongst the great white sharks as they cruise in to investigate and they also pass overhead, which is an awe-inspiring sight.
Technical Diving Insurance
Technical Diving is the Final Frontier of scuba diving – heading below maximum recreational depths of 50 metres to 80 metres or even 130 metres deep. Technical diving is undeniably high risk but also incredibly rewarding. Anyone learning technical diving must realistically accept those risks and ensure they have dedicated technical diving insurance, both for themselves and their loved ones.
It’s important to check with your insurance provider about the exact type of technical diving you will be doing (for example, will it involve wreck penetration? what kind of gases will you be using? which operator will be leading you?) to make sure you are fully covered in the event of an incident.
Pro Diver Insurance
If you are a professional diver – Divemaster, Instructor and above – then you need Pro Diver Insurance which incorporates Professional Liability Insurance. This provides coverage not only for you but also protects you from liability if there is an problem during one of your teaching or guiding sessions and you are subsequently sued by one or more of your students. Even when a professional diver is completely cleared of wrongdoing during the legal process, it can often be hugely expensive – therefore Pro Diver Insurance is essential for any serious Dive Professional.
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