Advanced Open Water Diver

The Advanced Open Water Diver course is a specific, structured curriculum costing $445 that is designed to let you sample five different specialty areas including mandatory Deep Diving and Navigation dives without committing to full individual courses immediately. In contrast, an Advanced Specialty Diver is an automatic recognition rating earned after completing four full specialty courses and logging 24 dives.

No, you do not automatically receive an Advanced Open Water Diver certification by taking individual specialties. The course is a distinct program with its own digital learning materials and registration criteria. However, if your completed specialties include Deep Diving and Navigation, Diventures can retroactively apply them to your certification for the cost of the digital materials and certification fee which is $120.

After completing your training, your path depends on your personal scuba goals. For most divers, we highly recommend pursuing the Master Diver rating, which is the ultimate recreational certification, by completing the Stress and Rescue specialty and logging 50 total dives. If you are interested in turning your passion into a career or leadership role, your advanced training can also set you on the pathway toward becoming a professional Divemaster.

The Advanced Open Water Diver course at Diventures costs $445. This program allows you to complete five open water training dives to build a solid foundation, sample new types of diving, and discover what interests you most before investing in full standalone specialty courses.

When you enroll in the Advanced Open Water Diver course, you receive a $25 credit toward each full specialty course you choose to convert to later. This incentive applies per class. If you complete your advanced training and decide to take the full Nitrox, Wreck, and Dry Suit specialty courses, you will save $25 off each individual class for a total potential savings of $125.

To ensure you build a comprehensive and safe foundation, all Advanced Open Water Diver students must include Deep Diving and Navigation training dives. From there, you can customize your experience by selecting three additional specialty dives from choices like Perfect Buoyancy, Enriched Air Nitrox, Night and Limited Visibility, Wreck Diving, or Dry Suit Diving.

Unlike the beginner Open Water Diver course which has a strict six month limit between pool work and open water dives, there is no hard expiration date to complete your Advanced Open Water dives after completing your digital learning. However, for your safety and comfort, Diventures strongly recommends reviewing the digital material sections as a refresher immediately prior to your in water training.

Many dive operators and charter boats require an Advanced Open Water Diver certification or higher to participate in specific excursions. This is because deeper dive sites, drift dives, or night dives require specialized skills like precise navigation and deep depth management that are not covered in basic open water training. Earning this card ensures you will not be turned away from advanced bucket list dive sites.

Yes, aiming for Master Diver provides significantly more value. While an Advanced Specialty rating is an internal recognition within SSI, Master Diver is recognized globally across all charter operators and training agencies as the pinnacle of recreational diving excellence. It requires a Stress and Rescue certification and 50 logged dives, representing a much higher level of real world dive readiness.

To give you genuine, high quality skill development, Diventures dive professionals conduct training dives at open water locations that are perfectly conducive to the specific course. For example, your deep dives will take place in environments where you can safely experience and adapt to depth changes while maintaining a clear reference to the surface, rather than shallow or restrictive local sites. You can complete these dives locally or join us on an official Diventures travel trip.