advanced open water
The Advanced Open Water Diver course is all about advancing your skills. You'll practice navigation and buoyancy, try deep diving and make three specialty dives of your choosing (it's like a specialty sampler platter). For every specialty dive you complete, you can earn credit toward PADI® specialty certifications.
Take This Course If You Want To
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Gain more diving experience
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Practice navigation
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Sample different types of diving
Learn How To
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Explore below 18m/60ft
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Improve your buoyancy
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Use a compass
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Start your Advanced Open Water Course and Earn your 1st of 5 Specialty Stars with Mars Scuba!
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Prerequisites & Minimum Age
Course prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver, Junior Open Water Diver, or qualifying entry-level certification.
The minimum age to start the Advanced Open Water Diver course is 12.
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Divers 15 or older earn an Advanced Open Water Diver certification
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Divers between the age of 12-14 earn a Junior Advanced Open Water
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Diver certification Divers 10-11 can earn a Junior Adventure Diver certification. Upon turning 12, they can complete the deep dive and earn a Junior Advanced Open Water Diver certification.
Divers certified as Junior Advanced Open Water Divers automatically become Advanced Open Water Divers at age 15. Any replacement certification card or eCard purchased the day after the diver's 15th birthday will automatically show an Advanced Open Water Diver (not Jr. Advanced Open Water Diver) certification.
Frequently Asked Questions
Advanced Open Water Depth The Advanced Open Water Diver course includes one deep dive. How deep? The answer depends on your age, local regulations and dive site depths.
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The maximum depth for divers 15 or older is 30 metres/100 feet
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For divers 12-15 years old, the maximum depth is 21 metres/70 feet
The depths listed above are the maximum depth, your dive may be shallower. A deep dive is considered anything below 18 metres/60 feet. Put another way, a dive to just 19 metres/62 feet qualifies as a deep dive.
The PADI Advanced Open Water course is like a specialty sampler platter. Review the list below and contact your dive shop or instructor to confirm what they offer.
As an added bonus, each specialty dive may be credited toward the related specialty certification. For example, if you try a dry suit dive during your Advanced Open Water Diver course and like it, you'll already have one of the two dives required for the PADI Dry Suit Diver certification.
After this course
During the Advanced Open Water course, you'll try different types of specialty diving and discover your diving aptitude and interests. As an added bonus, each dive you make may be credited toward the related specialty certification.
For example, if you try wreck diving during your Advanced Open Water course and like it, you can credit that dive towards Wreck Diver specialty certification.