The Advanced Open Water Diver course is all about advancing your skills. You’ll practice navigation and buoyancy, try deep diving and make three specialty dives of your choosing (it’s like a specialty sampler platter). For every specialty dive you complete, you can earn credit toward PADI® specialty certifications.
Here are a few of the many options: Deep, Digital Underwater Photography, Dive Against Debris, Dry Suit, Enriched Air Nitrox, Fish Identification, Night, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Search & Recovery, Underwater Naturalist, Underwater Navigation, and Wreck Diver.
Check out the Frequently Asked Questions section for a complete list of specialty dive options.
Advanced Open Water Diver eLearning includes interactive lessons on 13 popular specialty dives: altitude, boat, digital underwater imaging, drift, dry suit, fish ID, night, buoyancy, search and recovery, underwater naturalist and wreck diving.
You’ll study deep and navigation diving plus three specialties of your choosing.
Course cost is $410.
This course requires both knowledge development and inwater training for certification. When you purchase a PADI eLearning course from our website, the cost covers the knowledge development portion only.
There is an additional cost to complete your certification with a North American Divers PADI Instructor. The cost depends on class size, environment, and whether or not you need to rent equipment. Contact a North American Divers for more information and pricing.
In addition to basic scuba gear, you will need a compass, dive knife/tool, dive computer and student slate. If you don’t own these items, ask your dive shop about renting or purchasing these items.
You may also need specialized equipment for your specialty dives, such as a camera for underwater photography/videography. Your PADI Instructor will advise you about any specialized equipment you may need and how to get it.
Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.
Avoid disappointment, download and review the Diver Medical form to ensure you won’t need a physician’s approval to dive before enrolling in a scuba course. Instructors, divemasters and dive shop staff are not physicians and should not be asked for medical advice; only medical professionals can give medical clearance to dive.
If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).
Course prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver, Junior Open Water Diver, or qualifying entry-level certification.
The minimum age to start the Advanced Open Water Diver course is 12.
Divers certified as Junior Advanced Open Water Divers automatically become Advanced Open Water Divers at age 15. Any replacement certification card or eCard purchased the day after the diver’s 15th birthday will automatically show an Advanced Open Water Diver (not Jr. Advanced Open Water Diver) certification.
Advanced Open Water Depth The Advanced Open Water Diver course includes one deep dive. How deep? The answer depends on your age, local regulations and dive site depths.
The depths listed above are the maximum depth, your dive may be shallower. A deep dive is considered anything below 18 metres/60 feet. Put another way, a dive to just 19 metres/62 feet qualifies as a deep dive.
The PADI Advanced Open Water course is like a specialty sampler platter. Review the list below and contact your dive shop or instructor to confirm what they offer.
As an added bonus, each specialty dive may be credited toward the related specialty certification. For example, if you try a drysuit dive during your Advanced Open Water Diver course and like it, you’ll already have one of the two dives required for the PADI Dry Suit Diver certification.
These specialty dives are available almost anywhere:
The specialty dives below may not be available in all locations. If you see something that interests you, contact your instructor or dive shop to confirm availability.
PADI eLearning: 6-8 hours
Entire course: 2-3 days
PADI’s online courses are designed to work on the browsers listed below. For the best experience, make sure your browser is up-to-date.
If you plan to be somewhere without internet access, use the PADI Training app to download course content and study offline. Content can be downloaded in small sections with a total file size of approximately 1.10 GB. When you get back online, upload your progress so you can resume your training right where you left off.
The PADI Training app is available for Android™ and Apple® iOS devices. For the ideal experience, devices should be no more than three models old and running with the most current OS (operating system).
During the Advanced Open Water course, you’ll try different types of specialty diving and discover your diving aptitude and interests. As an added bonus, each dive you make may be credited toward the related specialty certification.
For example, if you try wreck diving during your Advanced Open Water course and like it, you can credit that dive towards Wreck Diver specialty certification.
Here are some other courses to consider:
The PADI® Rescue Diver course at North American Divers will change the way you dive – in the best possible way. Learn to identify and fix minor issues before they become big problems, gain a lot of confidence and have serious fun along the way.
Discover why countless divers say Rescue Diver is their favorite scuba course.
PADI® Open Water Diver is the first scuba certification level. A highly-trained North American Divers PADI Instructor will teach you how to scuba dive in a relaxed, supportive learning environment.
By the end of the course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge to dive at home or abroad and be an ambassador for the underwater world.
A high quality, comprehensive SCUBA certification class is not cheap. Learning to dive in your own SCUBA equipment is the best way to ensure comfort and competence. Not diving after getting certified isn’t the best financial decision you can make.
So how do you protect and maximize your investment of time and money in your SCUBA class?