Dive Rutland Limited
Unit 2B Station Approach, Oakham, England, GBR
About the Center
Dive Rutland Limited, based in Oakham, GBR, is a diving center certified by PADI, SSI, and TDI. They offer a comprehensive range of courses, from Discover Scuba Diving to the Instructor Development Course, along with specialties such as Snorkeling and Boat Diving. The facility boasts amenities including lockers, a bar, accommodation, and a swimming pool for training purposes.
Divers can access full equipment rental and a dedicated dive shop featuring well-known brands like Apeks, Aqualung, and Cressi. Additionally, they provide air and nitrox fills, alongside boat diving services and guided dives to explore the UK's premier dive sites.
Dive Rutland also prioritizes safety and preparedness, offering a selection of first aid courses, including CPR, AED, and airborne pathogen awareness training, ensuring clients are well-equipped for any situation both in and out of the water.
Available Courses
9 cursosOpen Water Diver
The SSI Open Water Diver at Dive Rutland is the main entry-level certification course, priced from £400. It uses the SSI digital learning system combined with pool sessions at the centre and open water dives at local UK sites including Stoney Cove and Capernwray, which appear on the training calendar as scheduled dive days. Small group sizes are a defining feature here — the centre explicitly teaches in small ratios so instructors can adjust pacing and focus to individual students rather than moving a group through a fixed schedule. For nervous beginners this matters: multiple reviews reference feeling not rushed and having questions answered at every step. All instructors are trained in-house under SSI Instructor Trainer Tracey Roberts, whose 20+ years in the sector means the coaching methodology is consistent across the team. UK open water conditions — cold, often low visibility — require solid buoyancy and kit skills before you go anywhere interesting, and the pool-first approach builds those before the open water component. For divers who've already completed pool and confined water training elsewhere, there's a Referral Course option at £500. A warm-water completion package (Open Water plus Enriched Air Nitrox speciality) is also available at £900 for those planning to finish in a warmer destination.
Advanced Open Water
The SSI Advanced Open Water Diver course at Dive Rutland is priced from £250 and builds directly on the Open Water certification. It's the logical next step for divers who want to extend their depth and skill range before heading to destinations like Egypt or Gozo — both of which Dive Rutland runs regular trips to. Open water sessions for this course take place at UK inland dive sites, giving students practice in the real conditions they'll encounter on club dives and organised trips with the centre. Cold UK water and variable visibility make buoyancy control and navigation more demanding than in warm tropical sites, so completing it here tends to produce divers with solid fundamentals. The centre's small-group approach applies equally at this level. Instructors adapt the session to what each diver needs — whether that's working on buoyancy, navigation, or building comfort at greater depth — rather than running every group through an identical programme. From here, the SSI pathway continues toward Deep Diver (£265), Dry Suit Diving (£250), Enriched Air Nitrox (from £150), and eventually the SSI XR technical range if the diver wants to go further.
Try Scuba Diving (10+)
The Try Scuba at Dive Rutland is pool-based and aimed at anyone aged 10 or over who wants to find out if diving is for them before committing to a full course. At £85 it's positioned as a low-stakes first contact — not a certification, just a proper go in the water with full equipment and an instructor alongside. The session is taught by SSI-certified instructors mentored in-house by SSI Instructor Trainer Tracey Roberts, so even a one-off experience gets the same standard of supervision as a full course. Reviewers have specifically noted that the pool session was more thorough than they expected. For anyone buying this as a gift or accompanying a nervous first-timer, it's worth knowing the centre has a stated focus on calm, non-pressured instruction. A 49-year-old first-timer describes being put at ease immediately — so it's not just marketed that way. If the experience goes well, the progression into SSI Scuba Diver (from £300) or SSI Open Water Diver (from £400) is a natural next step, and the team will talk you through options without pushing.
SSI Dry Suit Diving
The SSI Dry Suit Diving course at Dive Rutland is priced at £250 and is one of the more practical specialities on offer for UK-based divers. Diving UK inland sites and coastline year-round without a drysuit is uncomfortable at best; for cold-water trips like Scapa Flow (on the Dive Rutland calendar for August 2027) it's non-negotiable. The centre stocks and services drysuits from brands including Santi, DynamicNord, and Avatar — brands featured in their own comparison guides for UK cold water conditions. So there's in-house knowledge of how the suits actually perform, not just textbook instruction. Equipment hire is available for those not yet owning their own. There's also a combined Dry Suit Diving and Navigation package at £330, which makes sense if you're doing both specialities anyway and saves against booking separately. Pool time at the centre is used to build initial comfort before heading to open water. For divers planning to progress toward the SSI XR extended range courses, drysuit competency is effectively a prerequisite for the kind of cold-water, multi-dive technical sessions those programmes involve.
SSI Enriched Air Speciality (Nitrox)
The SSI Enriched Air Nitrox speciality at Dive Rutland runs from £150. Nitrox fills are available on site, so divers who certify here can immediately start using it on club dives and on the centre's organised trips to sites like Gozo and Egypt. For UK diving — Stoney Cove, Capernwray, Farnes — the extended no-decompression limits that nitrox provides are useful on repetitive dive days, particularly on the multi-dive weekend trips the centre runs. On the Egypt Red Sea trip (May 2026, shore diving) it becomes even more relevant for those doing multiple dives per day. The course is available as a standalone or as part of a warm-water completion package paired with the Open Water Diver (£900 total), which suits divers planning to finish their certification in a tropical destination while adding the nitrox qualification at the same time. For divers with ambitions toward the SSI XR range, the nitrox speciality is the natural precursor to the Extended Range Nitrox 40m course (£900) and the broader decompression diving pathway.
SSI Extended Range Course XR45
The SSI XR45 at Dive Rutland is priced at £1,200 and is a full decompression diving course using gas blends including Trimix. It's the most demanding course in the recreational-to-technical progression and requires solid prior experience — this isn't a course you book off the back of an Advanced Open Water. Dive Rutland has built out the SSI XR pathway in full: Extended Range Foundations (£600), Extended Range Nitrox 40m (£900), XR45, and CCR options including the XR CCR Diving 30m Course (£1,200) and SCR Extended Range Diving with the Mares Horizon (£900). The infrastructure — gas blending, Trimix fills, the technical equipment knowledge — is in place. With Scapa Flow on the trips calendar for August 2027, the XR pathway has a clear local destination for divers who complete it. Scapa Flow's deeper wrecks push beyond recreational limits, and a decompression diver who trained here is better prepared for that environment than one who took a technical course somewhere warm without ever diving cold UK water. Instructor-level oversight from Tracey Roberts and the in-house training structure mean the course is delivered with the same consistency as the recreational programmes — not handed off to an external technical instructor for the more niche modules.
SSI Divemaster
The SSI Divemaster course at Dive Rutland is priced at £900 and is the entry point to the professional diving pathway. Led within the framework set by SSI Instructor Trainer Tracey Roberts, the programme is developed in-house — which is a different proposition from joining a large dive operation where Divemaster candidates get variable mentorship depending on who's available that week. Dive Rutland runs a full club, organises regular trips (Egypt, Gozo, Scapa Flow, Capernwray), and operates pool sessions and open water training days — so candidates get real supervised experience working with divers across multiple skill levels, not just assisting in controlled course environments. The professional track continues through SSI Dive Guide (£900) and SSI Assistant Instructor Course (£1,650), giving a clear internal progression path. For candidates who already hold a Divemaster from another agency, crossover routes may be worth discussing with the team. For those with an interest in the SSI XR technical side, professional-level training and technical diving sit naturally alongside each other at Dive Rutland — several XR courses are available and the centre clearly attracts divers with serious progression ambitions.
Try Explorers (8+)
Try Explorers runs the same pool-based format as the adult Try Scuba but is specifically designed for children aged 8 and up. At £85 it sits alongside the Try Scuba in the experience tier — no certification, but a structured first session in the water with proper scuba equipment. Dive Rutland has dedicated Kids Classes on the course menu, so Try Explorers isn't a standalone dead end — it's the entry point to a structured junior pathway. The team's handling of young divers has drawn specific praise in Google reviews, with comments noting patience and care throughout the session. The pool environment at the centre means conditions are controlled and comfortable for a child's first time underwater. Instructors are trained in-house under SSI Instructor Trainer Tracey Roberts, who has over 20 years of experience and runs all staff mentoring personally. Parents who attended the experience with their children reported the session exceeded expectations on arrival — friendly staff, a comprehensive pool session, and no pressure.
SSI Diver Stress and Rescue
The SSI Diver Stress and Rescue course at Dive Rutland is priced at £500. It's a substantial step in diver development — the point where you stop thinking only about your own diving and start taking responsibility for what happens to others in the water. The pool sessions and open water components are run by instructors trained under SSI Instructor Trainer Tracey Roberts, who also leads the in-house first aid training programme. The combination of rescue diving and the centre's extensive first aid course catalogue — including Emergency First Aid at Work and CPR/AED qualifications — means divers can build a complete emergency response skill set in one place. For divers aiming toward SSI Divemaster (£900) or the Assistant Instructor Course (£1,650), the Rescue qualification sits on the professional pathway and is a natural precursor. The centre runs the full professional track through to instructor level. This is also a course that changes how recreational divers approach their own diving — attentiveness to buddy behaviour, recognising stress signals, managing a tired or panicking diver at the surface. The skills carry into every dive after.
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Frequently asked
What people ask before booking
The Try Scuba Diving experience is open from age 10. There's also Try Explorers for kids aged 8 and up, and a dedicated Kids Classes programme for younger divers progressing further.
SSI (Scuba Schools International) is the primary training agency. The full SSI pathway is available here, from beginner through to professional instructor ratings and SSI XR technical courses.
Yes — the SSI XR Extended Range pathway is available, covering decompression diving, extended range nitrox to 40m (£900), XR45 (£1,200), CCR diving (£1,200), and SCR with the Mares Horizon. Gas blending is also taught on site.
Yes. The centre offers regulator servicing, BCD servicing, wing servicing, drysuit repairs and servicing, cylinder testing, and battery changes. Air and nitrox fills are also available.
Upcoming trips include Egypt (Red Sea, shore diving and training, May 2026), a Capernwray weekend in July 2026, Gozo in October 2026, Farnes in November 2026, and Scapa Flow in August 2027 from £700.
The SSI Open Water Diver Course starts from £400. There's also a Referral Course at £500 for those who've completed pool sessions elsewhere, and a warm-water completion package (Open Water plus Enriched Air speciality) at £900.
Yes — there's an active Dive Club with pool session dates, social events (including a club barbecue), and organised dive trips. The centre also runs the Oakham School Dive Club and participates in the Duke of Edinburgh programme.
The team is led by Tracey Roberts, an SSI Instructor Trainer with over 20 years of experience. All instructors are personally mentored and trained in-house under her supervision.