The PADI Advanced Open Water Course is designed to develop your diving skills, increase confidence, and expand your underwater experience and is the natural progression after the Open Water Diver certification, as it builds on the knowledge and practical skills already gained.
The course is typically completed over two days, the course includes five Adventure Dives, each focused on enhancing a specific area of diving competence.
Two core dives are mandatory: Deep Diving, where you will learn safe procedures and techniques for diving to a maximum of 30 metres, and Underwater Navigation, which refines compass use, natural navigation, and spatial awareness.
The remaining three Adventure Dives are selected to match your interests and local diving conditions, making the programme both flexible and experience-driven while maintaining a strong emphasis on safety and skill development.
Adventure Dive Options
Beyond the required Deep and Navigation dives, you may choose three additional Adventure Dives. Popular options include:
• Wreck Diving
• Peak Performance Buoyancy
• Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB) Deployment
• Enriched Air (Nitrox)
• Boat Diving (+ £45)
• Dry Suit Diving (+ £100, includes suit rental (where available) and an additional pool session)
• Drift Diving (+ £45)
• Night Diving (+ £25)
• Intro to Rescue Diver
Certain dives may carry additional costs due to logistics and additional equipment requirements.
Prerequisites
To enrol, participants must hold a PADI Open Water Diver certification (or qualifying equivalent from another recognised training organisation).
The minimum age is 12 years. Divers aged 12–14 will earn a Junior Advanced Open Water Diver certification, which includes depth and supervision limitations appropriate to their age.
As deep diving introduces increased task loading and physiological considerations, students should be comfortable performing core skills such as buoyancy control, mask clearing, regulator recovery, and controlled ascents. Divers who have not dived recently are strongly advised to complete a PADI Reactivate programme prior to starting the Advanced Open Water course to ensure skills are current and performance is fluid and safe.
Although equipment rental is included in our Advanced Open Water Course, at this stage we would encourage you to start thinking about owning your own equipment as this will allow the drills practiced to become instinctive and second nature. At the very least we would suggest a computor to safly track those deeper dives.