Advanced Open Water Diver

This course can be taken after completing the PADI Open Water Diver certification.

It’s titled PADI Advanced Open Water Diver because it advances your diving knowledge & skills.

In other words you don’t have to be “advanced” to take it – it’s designed to advance your diving, so you can start right after earning your PADI Open Water Diver certification.

The course helps build confidence and expand your scuba skills through different Adventure Dives.

You try out different specialties while gaining experience under the supervision of your PADI Instructor.

If you’ve already taken a specialty diver course, ask your instructor if you’ve earned credit for an Adventure Dive.
PADI (Junior) Open Water Divers who are at least 12 years old are ready to step up and enroll in an Advanced Open Water Diver course. Young divers may only participate in certain Adventures Dives – check with your PADI Instructor.

If you’re already an Adventure Diver, you only need to complete two more Adventure Dives to earn the Advanced Open Water Diver certification.

You’ll plan your learning path with your instructor by choosing from a long list of Adventure Dives.

There are two required dives – Deep and Underwater Navigation – and you choose the other three, for a total of five dives.
During the Deep Adventure Dive, you learn how to plan dives to deal with the physiological effects and challenges of deeper scuba diving.

The Underwater Navigation Adventure Dive refines your compass navigation skills and helps you better navigate using kick-cycles, visual landmarks and time.

The other knowledge and skills you get vary with your interest and the adventures you have – photography, buoyancy control, fish identification, exploring wrecks and many more.