Open Water Course Details Students enrolling on the course receive a PADI Open Water Diver Crew Pack which includes a course manual. This manual describes the diving skills and procedures that will be taught on the course and allows the student to familiarise themselves with the knowledge required to complete the course before attending the classroom session. Each section in the manual is followed by a short knowledge review which ensures the student has understood the information in that section. The knowledge reviews should be completed before attending the classroom sessions.

The classroom work consists of five video sessions which re-enforce the information covered in the manual. At the end of each video the instructor appraises the knowledge reviews for that section and the student then completes a multiple choice exam. These exams are designed to ensure the student has a good understanding of safe diving practices and skills and students who have studied the course material should have no problems passing them.

The confined water skills take place in the pool, where the theory learned in the classroom is put into practice. Students are supplied with all equipment required and are then taught how to correctly assemble and use it.

Skills that are taught in the pool include.

• Pre dive safety check
• Deep water entry/exit
• Correct ascents/descents
• Regulator clearing
• Regulator recovery
• Clearing a flooded mask
• Equalisation of ears
• Hand signals
• Alternate air source use
• Air depletion exercise
• No mask breathing/swimming
• Mask replacement underwater
• Buoyancy control
• Free flow regulator breathing
• Cramp removal
• Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA)
• Removal and replacement of scuba unit underwater and at the surface
• Removal and replacement of weight system underwater
• Tired diver tow

Once the pool skills have been mastered the students normally complete the open water part of the course the following weekend.

The four open water dives will be completed over a weekend, in the sea or at inland dive sites depending on weather conditions. Inland dive sites such a Stoney Cove in Leicestershire offer interesting dives on purposely submerged boats, aircraft and vehicles, and have a range of depths suitable for novice divers. The sea offers the chance to encounter many sea creatures and to experience the effects of waves and surf on divers. The dives in the open water will cover some of the skills learned in the pool and will also introduce the student diver to new skills such as navigation underwater with a compass. The open water dives also introduce the student to deeper water up to a maximum depth of 18 metres and this allows them to fine tunes skills learnt in the pool, such a buoyancy control.

Diving is meant to be fun and above all, the safety and enjoyment of the student is the prime consideration of the instructor and his or her team.

If you would like to download answer sheets for the knowledge reviews in the Open Water Manual rather than removing the pages from your manual then you can download zipped pdf versions here