Specialty Diver/Advanced Courses
Enhance your expertise with focused specialties:
Deep Diver
Explore safely beyond recreational depths to a maximum of 130 ft/40 m. Learn to manage gas consumption, plan deep profiles, navigate narcosis, and use redundant safety equipment. This specialty builds confidence for deeper wrecks, walls, and blue-water dives.
Wreck Diver
Learn to safely explore and map wrecks, deploy guide reels, avoid silt-outs, and recognize hazards like entanglement or overhead environments. Optional penetration skills cover controlled wreck entry. Ideal for divers interested in maritime history and underwater photography.
Peak Performance Buoyancy
Master buoyancy control through trim adjustment, breathing techniques, and precise weighting. This course enhances your ability to hover motionless, conserve air, protect fragile environments, and dive efficiently.
Digital Underwater Photographer
Develop skills in underwater photography using both point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras. Learn about white balance, strobe lighting, subject composition, and responsible photography techniques that minimize environmental impact.
Dry Suit Diver
Expand your dive season and comfort with thermal protection. Learn suit inflation/deflation control, buoyancy management, leak prevention, and emergency dry suit procedures. Essential for cold-water divers.
Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver
Extend your no-decompression limits using oxygen-enriched breathing mixes. Learn how to analyze gas blends, adjust dive computers, plan dives using nitrox, and manage the risks of oxygen exposure. Popular with vacation divers and liveaboard travelers.
PADI AWARE Specialties
Choose from conservation-focused courses such as:
Participate in underwater clean-ups and data collection to support marine research.
Learn how to identify local fish species and record sightings on dives.
Understand reef biology, threats, and protection methods to become a more responsible diver.
Love sharks? Scared of them? Sharks are an essential part of a healthy ocean. This course explores why they are vulnerable, the importance of a healthy shark population, managing threats and how to take action to protect them.
Equipment Specialtist
Gain non-technical insights into gear maintenance and troubleshooting. Learn care for regulators, BCDs, tanks, wetsuits, and dive computers. Understand assembly/disassembly, minor repairs, field diagnostics, and proper storage—boosting gear confidence and self-sufficiency.
Pick and choose based on interest, and count each toward your overall specialty certification.
Advanced Open Water
Ready to take your diving to the next level? The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver program is all about building confidence and expanding your skills.