PADI Advanced Diver Course

Improving Your Skills

The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course is a step beyond the PADI Open Water Diver level, and includes five dives and the opportunity to try some of diving’s most rewarding and useful specialty activities, such as deep diving, digital underwater photography, wreck diving and more.

As you can see on the PADI Course chart, once you complete the PADI Open Water Diver certification, there are many other courses you can take.

Depending on your time, level of commitment and interests, the opportunities are incredible.

However, I recommend going straight from the PADI Open Water Diver Certification Course to the Advanced Diver Course. With your experienced PADI Scuba Instructor, you complete the deep and underwater navigation Adventure Dives. These dives boost your confidence as you further develop your diving skills.

Then, you choose three additional dives from more than 15 Adventure Dives to complete your course.

You can go diving at night, check out the local wrecks in the area or even fly through the ocean on a diver propulsion vehicle – all during your PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course.

PADI Advanced Course Requirements:

• Involves five dives

• Adventure Dive options include altitude diving, AWARE-fish identification, boat diving, deep diving, diver propulsion vehicle use, drift diving, dry suit diving, multilevel and computer diving, night diving, peak performance buoyancy, search and recovery, underwater nature study, underwater navigation, underwater photography, underwater videography and wreck diving • Each Adventure Dive in the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course may credit toward the first dive of the corresponding PADI Specialty Diver course

• Materials: Adventures in Diving Crew-Pak, Adventures in Diving manual and video and logbook (in addition to the Open Water Diver Certification materials)

• Cost – about $200 and up, depending on number of students and extra materials required.

Dive Tips

- By taking these two courses (Open Water Diver and Advanced) with the drysuit option, I felt much more comfortable in the water and had a great time too! My night dive at Whytecliff Park was an incredible experience, and my dive to the HMCS Chaudiere wreck was awesome!

- For safety sakes – take additional scuba diving courses and take them often. See your local PADI dive shop to discover which courses are of interest to you.

- Ask your local dive lesson provider about a referral certificate. If you want to get certified as a trained scuba diver but don’t want to spend your dive holiday in a classroom, you can get a head start.

Arrange to take the theory/classroom portion of the course at home and on-line and get a Referral Certificate. Talk to a local British Columbia dive training center ahead of time, and arrange to bring your certificate and do your qualifying dives while on holiday in British Columbia.

At the end of your holiday, you will be a PADI or NAUI Certified Scuba Diver and will have had a wonderful dive holiday in British Columbia.

PADI scuba diving courses are available at most local scuba diving stores.

Return and sign up to obtain your scuba diving license.

Return to Best Scuba Diving Vacations in British Columbia.