About the Course

Whether purpose-sunk as an artificial reef for scuba divers, or lost as the result of an accident, wrecks are fascinating windows to the past. Ships, airplanes and even cars are fascinating to explore and usually teem with aquatic life. Each wreck dive offers a chance for discovery, potentially unlocking a mystery or spying something others have missed. The PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course is popular because it offers rewarding adventures while observing responsible wreck diving practices.

If you're at least 15 years old and have earned a PADI Adventure Diver certification or higher, you can enroll in the Wreck Diver Specialty course.

Take This Course If You Want to
  • Explore inside wrecks
  • See fascinating artifacts
  • Learn special finning techniques
Learn How to
  • Survey a wreck
  • Use lines and reels
  • Avoid common problems

How to Become a Wreck Diver

Every wreck is different. During the PADI® Wreck Diver course, you’ll learn how to explore different types of wrecks by investigating their layout, history and hazards, and practice specialized wreck diving skills.

How to Gift PADI eLearning Courses

You can now purchase PADI eLearning® and share it with the scuba diving gift recipient of your choice – it’s super easy. Share the fun in 3 simple steps:

More Info

 
Gifting and Sharing Courses

Want to share the experience or give the gift of endless adventure? You can now purchase PADI eLearning® and share it with a recipient of your choice! Whether you are purchasing the course as a gift or need to assign the it to family members – it’s super easy.

  1. Once you purchase your eLearning course, you can log-in to your PADI account to access the course.
  2. From your Dashboard go to Student Details and Manage Your Courses.
  3. You can then decide to Start the eLearning yourself or ‘Share the course’.
  4. To share the course, simply click on ‘Share the Course’ and enter the email address of the recipient you wish to share the course with.
  5. The recipient will receive an email to create or log-in to their PADI Account to start the course.
 
Medical Requirements

Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.

Avoid disappointment, download and review the Diver Medical form to ensure you won’t need a physician’s approval to dive before enrolling in a scuba course. Instructors, divemasters and dive shop staff are not physicians and should not be asked for medical advice; only medical professionals can give medical clearance to dive.

If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).

 
Prerequisites & Minimum Age

Minimum age: 15

Course prerequisites: PADI Adventure Diver (or similar from another training organization)

 
Choosing a Dive Shop

You can complete this course locally or while travelling. 

Choose a dive shop close to home to:

  • Support your local diving community
  • Meet dive buddies in your local area
  • Learn about your local ecosystem

Choose a dive shop away from home if you:

  • Plan to travel to a dive destination on holiday
  • Like to meet new people when travelling
  • Have the time to complete your course while on vacation
 
Other Costs & Equipment

This course requires both knowledge development and inwater training for certification. When you purchase PADI eLearning from our website, the cost covers the knowledge development portion only.

There is an additional cost to complete your certification with a PADI Instructor. The cost is set by your independent PADI Professional and may be influenced by class size, environment, equipment, boat fees, etc. Contact a PADI Dive Center or Resort for more information and pricing. 

In addition to scuba gear required for the environment, during this course you may use:

  • Dive lights
  • Slate and underwater compass for mapping and navigation
  • Line and reel (for practicing wreck penetration)

Other equipment appropriate for wreck diving in your area (ask your instructor).

 
Time Commitment

PADI eLearning: 2-4 hours

Entire course: 2-3 days  (dives must be completed over a minimum of two days)

 
Available Languages
English, Espanol, Português, اللغة العربية, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Nederlands, 한국어, 日本語, 中文繁体, 中文简体, Русский язык, ไทย
 
System Requirements

PADI’s online courses are designed to work on the browsers listed below. For the best experience, make sure your browser is up-to-date.

Chrome
Safari
Edge
Firefox

If you plan to be somewhere without internet access, use the PADI Training app to download course content and study offline. Content can be downloaded in small sections with a total file size of approximately 185 MB. When you get back online, upload your progress so you can resume your training right where you left off. 

The PADI Training app is available for Android™ and Apple® iOS devices. For the ideal experience, devices should be no more than three models old and running with the most current OS (operating system).

 
After this course

The first dive of the PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course may count toward your Advanced Open Water Diver certification – ask your instructor about earning credit.

An Enriched Air Nitrox certification can help you spend more time diving inside wrecks and the Peak Performance Buoyancy course can help you avoid ruining the visibility and making unnecessary wreck contact. Each PADI Specialty you complete gets you one step closer to becoming an elite Master Scuba Diver™.

More Courses

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Deep Diver
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Continuing-Education
Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver
Nitrox helps you get more out of your scuba certification. Get nitrox certified in as little as one day.
Continuing-Education
Sidemount Rec Diver
Don’t like wearing a heavy tank on your back? Sidemount diving is a comfortable, streamlined alternative.