Become a Certified Diver
Step 01
Knowledge Development
The knowledge development portion of the course is designed so you can learn at your own pace and when it's convenient for you. Complete the academics online or at a PADI Dive Shop.
Step 02
Confined Water Dives
Develop and practice scuba skills in a pool or water with pool-like conditions under direct instructor supervision. As you learn new skills, you’ll build the abilities and confidence needed for diving in open water, such as in a lake or the ocean.
Step 03
Open Water Dives
Get ready to experience everything you've learned with the freedom of open water. As soon as your open water training dives are approved by your instructor you will be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver, enabling you to embark on unforgettable adventures.
What You Need to Know
Time Commitment
PADI courses are performance-based, enabling you to progress at your own pace. This type of learning ensures competent and prepared divers. Course completion varies by individual and normally takes between 4 and 7 days.
Cost
Learning to scuba dive is comparable to other popular adventure sports and outdoor activities. You can expect to pay about the same as you would for a full day of surf lessons, a weekend of rock climbing lessons or about three hours of private golf lessons.
Essential Gear
The fit and comfort of your personal equipment are keys to having an enjoyable diving experience. At a minimum, you'll want your own mask, snorkel and fins when you begin your first course. Your PADI Dive Shop can help you select gear that's right for you when you're ready to buy.
Get started with these popular diving courses.
Learning to dive is one of the most rewarding experiences of your life. Earning your PADI certification will forever change the way you see the world, both above and below the surface.
Start your independent study using PADI’s digital products or contact a PADI Dive Shop.
Open Water Diver
The PADI Open Water Diver and Junior Open Water Diver Certifications are recognized worldwide so your diving experiences will be truly limitless. Millions of people have learned to scuba dive and gone on to discover the wonders of the aquatic world through this course. Your underwater journey starts here.
PADI Scuba Diver
The PADI Scuba Diver course is a subset of the PADI Open Water Diver course and an intermediate step for earning an Open Water Diver certification. If you’re short on time but really want to become a diver, the PADI Scuba Diver rating might be right for you—particularly if you expect to go scuba diving primarily with a dive guide.
PADI Freediver
If you’ve always wanted to enter the underwater world quietly, on your own terms, staying as long as your breath allows, then freediving is for you. Taking the PADI Freediver course is your first step toward discovering why freediving is becoming a popular way to explore beneath the waves.
Advance Your Diving Skills
Step 01
Build Expertise
Continuing your dive education increases opportunities for exploration and introduces you to new and exciting ways to experience the underwater world. You can sign up for a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course immediately after earning your Open Water Diver certification.
Step 02
Dive Deeper
Being more confident in the water is what every diver desires and the PADI Rescue Diver course will help you get there. During the course, you become a better buddy by learning the skills and awareness to prevent problems.
Step 03
Become a Better Buddy
With more than 26 courses to choose from, PADI Specialty Courses like Digital Underwater Photography, Wreck Diver or Night Diver, teach you new techniques and give you the tools to enhance your exploration and passion for diving.
Explore PADI Specialties
Enriched Air
The PADI Enriched Air Diver? course is PADI’s most popular specialty scuba course. Why? Because scuba diving with enriched air nitrox gives you more no decompression time, especially on repetitive scuba dives. If staying down longer and getting back in the water sooner sounds appealing, then don’t hesitate to become an enriched air diver.
Deep Diver
There’s something exciting and mysterious about exploring deeper dive sites. Whether it’s a wreck or a wall dive that lures you deeper, the Deep Diver course enables you to dive with confidence at depths down to 40 metres/130 feet.
Night Diver
The thought of dipping below the surface at night seems mysterious, yet so alluring. While diving at night you drop into a whole new world and watch it come to life under the glow of your dive light. The scene changes as day creatures retire and nocturnal organisms emerge. Sign up for the PADI Night Diver Specialty course.
Continue your dive adventure.
As a certified scuba diver you’ve witnessed firsthand the wonders that lie within our planet's waters. Your Open Water Diver Certification introduced you to a world of adventure and discovery, and made you keenly aware that you've only just scratched the surface of the underwater world. PADI continuing education courses are designed to advance your scuba skills and give you the added confidence to keep doing what you love.
Master Scuba Diver
Become a PADI Master Scuba Diver (MSD) and join the best of the best in recreational scuba diving. A MSD rating is proof that you've invested significant time in your diver training in order to maximize your ability for underwater adventure and it places you among an elite group of which fewer than two percent of divers ever reach.
Become a PADI Instructor
Step 01
PADI Divemaster
As a PADI Divemaster you'll lead dives, mentor others and witness life transformations. Whether you want to work at a faraway dive destination or close to home at a local dive shop, the adventure of a lifetime awaits you.
Step 02
PADI Instructor Development Course
A PADI Divemaster who has been a certified diver for six months and has logged at least 60 dives may enroll in the PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC). Over the course of about seven days, the IDC prepares you to teach and conduct all PADI core courses.
Step 03
Instructor Examination
The final step to earning a PADI Instructor certification is the Instructor Examination (IE). The IE is a two-day evaluative program that tests an instructor candidate’s teaching ability and professionalism. Only those who meet the IE performance requirements earn the respected PADI Instructor certification.
Why Teach PADI
Career Development
As with any career, professional development is paramount to your success. PADI provides an in-depth instructor development system that prepares you to reach for higher levels and shape the next generation of PADI Divers and Professionals.
Be the Best
PADI Professionals are the most sought-after around the world because they are held to the highest standards for training in the diving industry.
Live Anywhere
With more than 6,400 PADI Dive Shops issuing nearly one million certifications each year, you'll find job opportunities in every corner of the globe. Love your job anywhere you've ever dreamed of living.
Build your career and share your passion.
As a PADI Professional, you can live a life of which others only dream. Whether you work in a local dive shop, at a resort or on a liveaboard dive boat, you'll be one of the special few who work doing what they love.
On the path to becoming a PADI Professional, you will train with experienced and dedicated dive educators and discover a career that allows you to transform lives and share incredible underwater adventures.
Open Water Scuba Instructor
The Instructor Development Course (IDC) is made up of two parts – the Assistant Instructor (AI) course and the Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) program. Most dive professionals complete the entire IDC and go on to attend an Instructor Examination (IE), which is the final step to earn a PADI Instructor certification.
Master Scuba Diver Trainer
Being an MSDT signifies that you’ve got the experience and certifications to offer all the training a diver needs to become a Master Scuba Diver – the ultimate recreational diver rating. All PADI Instructors who have certified at least 25 PADI Divers and have earned at least five PADI Specialty Instructor certifications.
A Steward for the sea.
Growing up surfing, swimming and snorkeling the southern California coast instilled in Emily a deep love of the ocean and an even stronger desire to protect it. The natural beauty and marine life she encountered at the surface – dolphins, sea lions and kelp beds – piqued her curiosity about what could be discovered at deeper depths. This curiosity not only propelled Emily to become a certified diver but it inspired her to make diving a career. As part of the PADI marketing team, Emily is committed to ensuring divers are continuing their dive education and aware of the opportunities available to them so that there are more and more stewards for the sea.
The hope is that if we can get people passionate about diving, then we can inspire people to care about the ocean.
Emily Krak, PADI Open Water Diver
Education.
Setting the highest standards for diver training.
PADI enables the world to achieve their diving goals via the safest and most comprehensive dive curriculum on earth.