How to Move ahead from PADI Discover Scuba Diving to PADI Open Water Diver
How to Move ahead from PADI Discover Scuba Diving to PADI Open Water Diver
So, you’ve completed a PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience and fallen in love with scuba diving, but you’re not sure what to do next to be PADI Open Water Diver.
After discovering scuba diving, the next step is to become an open water diver.
If you are sure that you want to continue scuba diving, the best option is to become certified. The PADI Open Water Diver Course is the first level of scuba diving certification, and once completed, you will be able to dive with a buddy up to a maximum depth of 18 meters/60 feet. PADI Open Water Diver certification is internationally recognized, and it is your pass to a lifetime of scuba diving fun activities.
The PADI Open Water Diver Course is divided into three parts: knowledge development (theory), confined water dives, and open water dives. Your Discover Scuba Diving experience may count toward your PADI Open Water Diver Course, depending on how it was conducted.
How to Get Credit for Your PADI Open Water Diver Course Using Your Discover Scuba Diving Program
If you haven’t yet taken a Discover Scuba Diving experience but plan to do so and think you might have to get certified later, let your instructor know when you book your Discover Scuba Diving experience. With this information, your Discover Scuba Diving instructor can customize the program so that it counts toward your PADI Open Water Diver Course, shortening the time and even the cost of your certification course.
The Discover Scuba Diving experience, like the Open Water Diver Course, includes theory, a confined water dive, and an optional open water dive. If your instructor knows you intend to take the PADI Open Water Diver Course within the next 12 months, he can plan for your confined water dive and open water dive to count as your first confined water dive and open water dive of your PADI Open Water Diver Course. This means that rather than five confined water dives and four open water dives, you’ll only need four more confined water dives and three more open water dives to become PADI Open Water certified.
Participants must complete the following skills in confined water during every Discover Scuba Diving experience:
- Inflate and deflate your BCD at the surface
- Breathe underwater
- Regulator clearing
- Regulator recovery
- Partial mask clearing
- Practice equalization techniques
You must complete the following extra skills for your Discover Scuba Diving confined water dive to count toward your PADI Open Water Diver Course:
- Don your scuba diving equipment (with assistance) and adjust to fit
- Complete a pre-dive safety check with a buddy
- Breathe from an alternate air source supplied by another diver for at least 30 seconds.
- Descend at a controlled rate into water too deep in which to stand
- Swim with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both direction and depth
- Locate and read the submersible pressure gauge and signal whether the air supply is adequate or low based on the gauge’s caution zone and/or an assigned supply limit
- Recognize and demonstrate hand signals
- Ascend using proper technique
- Stay within reach of a buddy
- Swim facedown at the surface while breathing through a regulator or snorkel
- After ascent, keep the mask on and continue breathing from the regulator while using low-pressure inflator to attain positive buoyancy
- Deflate the BCD, then orally inflate it until positively buoyant at the surface
This may appear to be a lot, but it will all come together smoothly in the end. Many of these extra skills can be learned while on a Discover Scuba Diving experience.
Inform Your Instructor of Your Plans
If you plan to take your PADI Open Water Diver Course with another Instructor or at a different Diving Center than where you are finishing your Discover Scuba Diving experience, make sure your Discover Scuba Diving Instructor records that you have done the extra required skills to compensate the first dives of the PADI Open Water Diver Course.
Your instructor will use the Discover Scuba Diving Participant Guide log pages to record your experience. There is space in the comments to add notes that you have completed Confined Water 1 and Open Water 1. Instead, your instructor could use you for the PADI Open Water Course student record document and put his signature on Confined Water 1 and Open Water Dive 1. Keep these documents in a safe place and show them to your PADI Open Water Course Instructor when you register.
You will have one year to complete the PADI Open Water Course.
When you participate in your PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience, make a note of the date. Your confined and open water dives are valid for one year. If you begin your PADI Open Water Diver Course over a year after completing your Discover Scuba Diving experience, you must do the first confined water dive and the first open water dive.
Are you ready to take that step and start your scuba diving adventures? Send us a message to schedule your PADI Open Water Course in Hurghada.