So you’ve just finished your Open Water course, and you’re hooked, so what now? As a PADI Open Water Diver, you have plenty of options for continuing your SCUBA diving training.
Fun Dives:
It’s always a good idea to practice all those new skills by joining us on some fun dives. With your new certification, you’ll get to enjoy the stunning underwater scenery, and no one is asking you to take your mask off or navigate a reciprocal line using a compass. In Amed, we have over 30 amazing dive sites that we visit by boat or by car including wrecks, muck, and coral dive sites.
Advanced Open Water:
Maybe you’re not quite ready to leave the side of an instructor, and you’re super keen to learn more about diving. You don’t have to advanced to take the Advanced Course. In this course, you’ll go on five dives that enhance your skills as a diver. The Navigation and Deep adventure dives are required, and then you can choose three more dives. Your instructor can help you decide which dives may work for you, but some possibilities include Wreck, Night, Underwater Naturalist, Fish ID and Search and Recovery.
**If you’re short on time, you can do each of these as a single Adventure dive. With this option, you’ll get credit towards your advanced certification.
Specialties:
As an Open Water Diver, you can also sign-up to take a Specialty Course to improve your knowledge and diving skills alongside an instructor. In Amed, we offer many Speciality Courses, though here are a few of the favorites in Amed:
- PADI Wreck Diver: We have a couple of wrecks in the Amed/Tulamben area that makes this specialty course a real treat. The highlight is the famous USAT Liberty Shipwreck. This wreck is now an artificial reef teeming with life. If you’re lucky, you can spot the giant marble groupers or even a school of Bumphead parrotfish swimming by. You’ve got to check it out!
- PADI Night Diver: Amed is a great place for night diving. The variety of dive sites available will give you all the experience you need to become a confident night diver. For this course, you’ll do 3-night dives. The Amed Two Fish House Reef, just steps from the dive center, is a muck dive popular with our guests. You can discover octopus, ghost pipefish, frogfish, wasp fish and many varieties of crabs and shrimp that come out to hunt during the night. We also visit the USAT Liberty Shipwreck, which is a completely different experience than during the day.
- Peak Performance Buoyancy: As an Open Water Diver, you probably haven’t mastered your buoyancy just yet. This course is designed to give you more practice, so you can enjoy close-ups of even the smallest creatures Amed has to offer. We’ll play some games and practice hovering in different positions. When you finish the course, you’ll be properly weighted and have the confidence to swim around wrecks and coral reefs without disturbing the surrounding environment.
**The first dive of each Speciality can credit toward your Advanced Open Water Course, ask us how!
