The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course is the next step for every aspiring scuba diver. Although your PADI Open Water certification gave you great access to the underwater world, it is the PADI Advanced Open Water class which will truly allow you to explore many different parts of diving, and give you skills and understanding to progress further as a diver and as a buddy. After doing some short study and reviewing the knowledge reviews on each topic, you will take part in five training dives with your instructor, practicing some skills on each and being thoroughly debriefed on your performance after the dive.
The AOW class builds on everything you learned in your initial certification, and guided by your instructor you will experience a variety of different types of diving, opening up new avenues to different dive sites, and more challenging and exciting adventures. As part of this program you will conduct a DEEP dive, this means diving deeper than 18m under the careful watch of your PADI instructor and learning about nitrogen narcosis, or the rapture of the deep, as well as the changes in light and the importance of monitoring your gas supply. The deep dive to maximum depth of 30m means you can explore some more advanced dive sites, and you will find this is very useful in your future diving all over the world.
The other training dive that you are required to do to pass the Advanced Open Water class is the NAVIGATION dive. During this dive you will learn how to effectively use a compass, as well as natural features, to find your way around the bottom of the ocean. Navigation is obviously an important part of being a competent diver and finding your way back to the boat or the shore once you’ve enjoyed a great dive. Your experienced instructor will teach you all the tricks you need to know to ensure you don’t get lost on your next dive!
You then have 3 elective dives to complete the class and you can choose from a selection of exciting dives such as NIGHT, DRIFT, MULTILEVEL, PEAK PERFORMANCE BUOYANCY, UNDERWATER NATURALIST and NITROX.
At evolution we strongly believe in taking advantage of the things your instructor can teach you, and we encourage everyone to take the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive, to improve their buoyancy, and technique in the water. We find this is one of the most effective training dives to make a beginner diver a more comfortable diver, and to help with things like improving the amount of air you breath underwater.
Of course Malapascua and the Philippines are great places for marine life, so the Underwater Naturalist is very popular and your instructor will give you some in-depth knowledge into the local fish species as well as the many other weird and wonderful critters that are waiting to meet you in the deep blue.
If you are interested in learning to use Nitrox to increase your bottom time, then you can get the full training through our quick and easy PADI Nitrox Diver course
