Advanced Open Water Course Details
Having completed the PADI Open Water Course you are now ready to take the next step in advancing your diving qualifications. To become a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver you need to complete three dives from the list below, you also need to go on a deep and a navigation dive making a total of five dives in all.
There is no classroom work on this course. The manual you receive when you enrol on the course covers information on each type of dive and includes knowledge reviews at the end of each section. Your instructor will help you choose which dives to make on the course.
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| PADI Speciality/Adventure Dives |
| Multilevel - Computer |
Night |
| AWARE - Fish ID |
Peak Performance Buoyancy |
| Boat |
Search and Recovery |
| Deep |
Underwater Naturalist |
| Wreck |
Underwater Navigation |
| Drift |
Underwater Photography |
| Dry Suit |
Underwater Videography |
The dives are usually made over a weekend. For instance, if you choose Peak Performance Bouyancy, Wreck and Search and Recovery as your three elective dives, then add the required Deep and Navigation dives, the weekend might look like this.
- Saturday - Dive 1 - Peak Performance Bouyancy just to hone your bouyancy skills to perfection.
- Saturday - Dive 2 - Navigation, learn advanced use of a compass underwater using skills from Dive 1 to practice mid-water navigation.
- Saturday - Dive 3 - Search and Recovery. Use the skills learned on Dives 1 and 2 to search for and lift an object from the bottom. Dive 2 will be especially important to allow you to navigate back to the shore or boat underwater once the object is located.
- Sunday - Dive 4 - Deep Dive. Your first dive beyond 18 metres, this dive teaches you the skills required to safely dive to the PADI recommended maximum depth of 30 metres and to experience the possible effects of nitrogen narcosis under the guidance of an instructor.
- Sunday - Dive 5 - Wreck Dive. This dive will teach you how to safety dive on a wreck, how to plan for any potential hazards such a sharp objects or entanglement and also how to record important information on the orientation of the wreck to help you on future visits. Wreck penetration is beyond the scope of this dive as any overhead environment requires specialist training but these skills can be learnt on the PADI Wreck Diver speciality course.
On sucessful completion of these dives you will be awarded the prestigious PADI Advanced Open Water certification. However the experience doesn't stop there as the dives completed on this course can be credited towards the first dive of respective PADI speciality courses. Achieve five PADI speciality ratings and complete the PADI Rescue Diver program, and you'll be worthy of the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating - the highest recreational level achievable.
If you would like to download answer sheets for the knowledge reviews in the Advanced Open Water Manual rather than removing the pages from your manual then you can download zipped pdf versions here. The adventure dives covered are Deep, Wreck, DPV, Dry Suit, Navigation, Peak Performance Bouyancy and Search and Recovery.
