Where the World Learns to Scuba Dive | Sport Diver

Where the World Learns to Scuba Dive

So you’ve just completed your open-water scuba diving certification — congrats! Or perhaps, like many divers, you’ve been diving with that trusty open-water C-card for years. Any time is a good time to take your scuba diving — and your PADI certifications — to the next level.

And the next step up the PADI ladder from Open Water Diver happens to be one of the most fun certs to get.

bonaire scuba diving

Choose Wreck Adventure Dive as one of your adventure dives during the Advanced Open Water course and explore the Hilma Hooker.

Joseph Dovala / seapics.com

hikma hooker sport diver

Interested in wreck diving? Explore Bonaire's Hilma Hooker.

Jordi Benitez

PADI Advanced Open Water Certification in Bonaire

The first thing to know about Advanced Open Water Diver is that it doesn’t target advanced divers.

“The PADI program is designed to go straight from Open Water Diver to Advanced Open Water Diver,” explains Karl Shreeves, PADI’s technical development executive and a PADI Course Director. “You’ve got at least four open-water dives under your belt at this point (after OWD), and you reasonably understand how to manage risk. What Advanced Open Water Diver does is start developing the skills that let you extend your envelope and do new things underwater.”

bonaire reef diving

Bonaire's sites are easily accessible from shore.

Jordi Benitez

The AOWD course stipulates that you complete five different dives, two of which are required: a Deep Adventure dive, where you’ll descend to a maximum of 130 feet to learn about the physiological effects of increased pressure on your body, and an Underwater Navigation dive, where you and your buddy will practice using compass navigation, visual cues and kick cycles. There are a lot of options for the other three dives, including Fish ID, Night Adventure, Peak Performance Buoyancy and Wreck Adventure dives.

Doing the course in Bonaire? When it’s time to tick off the Wreck Adventure box, talk to your instructor about adding the Hilma Hooker to your checklist — the former drug-smuggling ship sank here in 1984 and makes for a fascinating dive.

Requirements: Open Water Diver certification and good general health as confirmed in person by diver when signing the RSTC medical statement Estimated course time: Two days Best spot for a congrats cocktail: There’s no better place to sip to your success than with a sundowner on the pier in Kralendijk at Karel’s Beach Bar

bonaire scuba training

You'll spot frogfish on many of Bonaire's sites.

Brandon Cole

Average Water Temp: 80 ̊F What to Wear: A shorty or skin suffices in summer; opt for a 3 mm wetsuit in winter Average Viz: 70-plus feet How to Get There: You can fly nonstop from the U.S. to Bonaire from Atlanta (Delta Airlines), Newark and Houston (United Airlines). Other routes are available through Curaçao on American Airlines and InselAir. Don’t-Miss Dives: The 240-foot Hilma Hooker, a former cargo ship, is one of the best wrecks in the Caribbean and sits in about 100 feet of water, with the upper portions at about 60 feet. While 1,000 Steps is a classic Bonaire shore dive, head to Karpata for its fish life — and the potential for seeing a passing manta ray.

Where to Go At Buddy Dive, a PADI Five Star Dive Resort on Bonaire, your hotel room and rental truck give you direct access to shore-diving excursions around the island. Also on site is the course classroom and Buddy’s house reef, where you’ll do the navigation dive. You can also knock out the night dive while finning among huge tarpon lurking just offshore. buddydive.com


PADI Rescue Diver Certification in Cairns, Australia

rescue diver course

Rescue Diver will increase your confidence as a diver.

Alex Tyrell

Each certification you complete comes with a new skill set to enhance your dive training. Rescue Diver increases your confidence in your skills, the competence to help others if trouble arises, and the ability to manage dive emergencies.

“Divers should think of Open Water, Advanced Open Water and Rescue Diver as the core courses for being a well-rounded diver,” says Shreeves. “These courses are really designed to run right into each other.”

Advanced Open Water Diver certification is a prerequisite for the Rescue Diver course, during which you’ll spend time in the pool and ocean practicing rescue-simulation scenarios.

australia coral reef

What better place than the Great Barrier Reef to take your Rescue Diver course?

Jürgen Freund

“It’s a serious course, but it’s a lot of fun and rewarding,” says Shreeves. “Most people walk away saying, ‘It was intense and challenging, but I’m really glad I did it.’”

And we say all the better if you can turn this learning experience into a chance to head out by liveaboard onto one of the world’s most legendary coral gardens: the Great Barrier Reef.

You’ll spend a day in the classroom and do some pool work to practice the self-rescue skills you’ll put to use in open ocean, including recognizing potential signs of diver stress, dealing with an injured or panicked diver, and vital self-rescue tactics.

Then it’s time to join the liveaboard for a total of 10 dives, among which a minimum of three are dedicated to specific Rescue Diver skill development. There are 10 exercises and four scenarios conducted in open water, spread out over two days — days spent diving the world’s eighth wonder.

turle australia reef

A green sea turtle on the Great Barrier Reef.

Jürgen Freund

Requirements: Advanced Open Water Diver certification and good general health as confirmed in person by diver by signing the RSTC medical statement document; CPR (valid within past 12 months) and First Aid Certificate (valid within the past 24 months), both of which can be completed as part of the Rescue course Estimated course time: Four days Best spot for a congrats cocktail: Overlooking bobbing boats in the Coral Sea, the Pier Bar (thepierbar.com.au) is a top Cairns hangout and a prime spot to fete success.

Average Water Temp: 80 ̊F What to Wear: A shorty or skin is fine summer; wear a 3 mm wetsuit in winter Average Viz: 100-plus feet How to Get There: There are no nonstop fights from the U.S. to Cairns, but you can fly from Los Angeles, New York and Dallas nonstop to Sydney on Qantas, and connect to Cairns from there. Don’t-Miss Dives: Petaj Mooring at Milln Reef is a reliable site for spotting resident turtles and whitetip reef sharks. Close to the edge of the continental shelf, Pellowe Reef is an exciting wall dive where chevron barracuda often school.

Where to Go for Rescue Diver Certification Pro Dive Cairns, a PADI Five Star Dive Resort in Queensland, Australia, offers weekly Rescue courses throughout the year. The course culminates with three-day/ two-night liveaboard trips to dive sites on the Great Barrier’s outer reefs. prodive-cairns.com.au


Tec 40 Certification in Grand Cayman

scuba training grand cayman

Learning how to properly execute a deco stop in Grand Cayman.

Alex Tyrell

Don’t let the name intimidate you. The Tec 40 course most certainly has important technical know-how to carry you beyond the depth limits of recreational diving (you’ll descend to a max of 130 feet, and learn how you can stay longer at depth and carry out decompression stops), but this entry-level course into the discipline gives you a taste of what technical diving is all about in a way that’s accessible to most divers. And if you’re feeling hooked, the course is a natural springboard to more-advanced technical-diving courses such as Tec 45 and 50.

But first, ask yourself why you want to try tec diving.

“Tec diving isn’t for everyone,” says Shreeves. “You can be a very accomplished diver with hours and hours of experience underwater and wonderful adventures without doing a technical dive. But a lot of people find it appealing because they want to do specific dives that go beyond the limits of recreational diving, or they are intrigued by the challenges. Or both.”

grand cayman diving

Deep-dive training on the Lighthouse Point wall off Grand Cayman.

Simon Morley

Technical training teaches you about the required equipment, procedures and mindset you’ll need to overcome and manage the added risks associated with exceeding recreational diving limits. Tec 40 lets you experience limited-deco dives to a maximum depth of 130 feet, with much importance placed on decompression planning, dealing with emergencies, and how to feel comfortable with your kit and the additional gear needed.

Having a PADI Enriched Air (nitrox) certification (and at least 10 dives with it) is vital before you move forward with Tec 40, since understanding how different gas mixes affect decompression is central to all types of tec diving. During a Tec 40 class, you’ll also be introduced to different equipment than what you’re used to from your OWD and AOWD courses — this could involve the use of twin tanks (two scuba tanks linked together with a manifold) or a single cylinder with a dual H valve and extra regulators. You’ll learn to feel comfortable with the extra gear through rigging practice and buoyancy training.

“You’re learning a whole new skill set on technical dives,” says Steve Tippetts, a tec instructor at Divetech on Grand Cayman. “You’re learning what accelerated decompression means and how to use higher nitrox mixes to get out of the water safely, and learning about why high-mix nitrox is good for you from a decompression point of view.

“If you’re taking the Tec 40 route, you’re ultimately looking at going deeper and spending more time at depth knowing there’s a way you can get up safely using different gases for decompression,” he adds.

“It’s one of the best courses to learn because of what it does for your confidence in the water and for the skill set you develop over the course of the four days.”

Requirements: Advanced Open Water Diver certification, Enriched Air Diver Certification (nitrox) and PADI Deep Diver with at least 10 dives to 100 feet Estimated course time: Four days Best spot for a congrats cocktail: Sip a Caybrew with divers from around the world and of-duty instructors at Duppies Bar at Cobalt Coast Resort (cobaltcoast.com)

fish grand cayman

Two coral grouper fight it out on a Cayman reef.

Getty Images / iStockphoto

Average Water Temp: 82 ̊F What to Wear: A shorty or skin in summer; 3mm wetsuit in winter Average Viz: 100-plus feet How to Get There: Cayman Airways and American Airlines operate nonstop fights to Grand Cayman from Miami; Air Canada flies nonstop from Toronto; Delta flies from Atlanta and New York (with seasonal fights from Minneapolis and Detroit); US Airways flies nonstop from Charlotte and Philadelphia; United flies nonstop from Newark and Houston; and Jet Blue flies nonstop from New York and Boston. Don’t-Miss Dives: The 250-foot-long wreck of the Kittiwake — a five-deck Navy ship sunk just offshore in 60 feet of water in 2011 — is a stunner. Fin through swim-throughs and frolic with sea turtles at Chinese Wall.

Where to Go for Tec 40 Certification One of the Caribbean’s finest operators for testing the technical-diving waters is Grand Cayman’s Divetech, a full-service tec and rebreather dive-training center with courses that go all the way to the advanced trimix level, and take place on the shop’s house reef, Lighthouse Point. divetech.com


PADI Divemaster Certification

thailand scuba training

Divemaster candidates routinely spend four to six weeks earning their certification in tropical Koh Tao, Thailand.

Bartek Wrzesniowksi

Put 30 divers in a room, and try to pick out the divemasters among them. Unless they’re still wielding their pointer sticks and scribble pads to give them away, you’re probably not winning any bets.

PADI Divemasters are as diverse as a coral reef, ranging from a minimum age of 18 into their 70s and 80s, and hailing from a rainbow of nationalities and all walks of life.

The step just before becoming an instructor, PADI Divemaster is considered a professional level. In short, it’s a leadership certification that allows you to guide groups underwater. And getting your DM can open up a world of work and travel opportunities, with divemasters in demand everywhere from the Indian Ocean to Europe to the Caribbean.

“There are really two types of people who want to be a divemaster,” explains Shreeves. “The first are divers who want to become instructors, and PADI Divemaster is the first step toward that.

“For the other type of person, divemaster is a destination rather than a stepping stone,” he explains. “These are people who have a lot of skills, are good leaders, and want to assist and deal with students — but they don’t want to be instructors.”

You’re eligible to start working toward your DM once you’ve completed your AOWD and rescue certifications, have at least 40 logged dives, and can show a signed medical statement from a physician within the past 12 months that testifies that you are medically fit for diving.

There are a few options for how you can approach getting your DM. You can take as long as you like to complete the course, working with your local dive shop when times allows. Or you can opt for something more exotic to complete your training — spending a long vacation (plan on four to eight weeks) in a tropical playground like Koh Tao (Turtle Island) in the Gulf of Thailand.

The island is a famous dive destination for getting everything from Open Water Diver certification to PADI Divemaster thanks to its colorful reefs, warm waters and reasonable rates (among the least-expensive dive prices in the world).

When you’re not busy racking up dives or mastering dive-theory knowledge in the PADI Divemaster Manual, you’ll be compiling dive plans, learning the fundamentals of search and recovery dives, and practicing many other skills.

And time off in paradise is time well spent too, with activities like Thai cooking classes, Muay Thai, and rock climbing on the island to keep you entertained.

scuba diving thailand

Gorgeous reefs await divers in Koh Tao's waters.

Alex Tyrell

Training Guide

Requirements: Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, a medical statement signed by a physician, a minimum of 40 logged dives (and a minimum of 60 at the course’s end to complete certification) Estimated course time: Four to eight weeks Best spot for a congrats cocktail: Lotus Beach Bar on Sairee Beach is the spot for sunsets, a fire show and a lively atmosphere that parties late — perfect for celebrating all those weeks of hard work

AverageWaterTemp: 82 ̊F What to Wear: A shortsuit suffices in summer; opt for a 3mm wetsuit in winter Average Viz: 65 feet How to Get There: Thai Airways flies nonstop from Los Angeles to Bangkok, and you can connect from there to a Bangkok Airways fight to Koh Samui, and then catch a ferry (about two hours) to neighboring Koh Tao. Don’t-Miss Dives: Chumphon Pinnacle offers the best chance of seeing whale sharks and big schools of barracuda, and practice your buoyancy while snapping some beautiful photos in the many swim-throughs at Green Rock.

Where to Go Master Divers, a PADI Five Star Dive Center, focuses on small-group training, with a max of four divers per instructor, and can get you through the DM certification in about four to eight weeks. master-divers.com

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