Continue Your Adventure

Your PADI certification does not expire. Enrolling in PADI’s scuba refresher course (ReActivate) is recommended if you haven’t been diving in awhile, but not mandatory. Dive shops appreciate seeing a recent ReActivated date on your certification card because it means you’re ready to dive in. 

Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver and more than a dozen of PADI’s most popular specialty courses are available online. You can start your training at home and finish with a dive shop near you, or on vacation. The choice is up to you.

Earning a certification while traveling is a great way to have an authentic local diving experience. Ask the local dive center or resort what their destination is known for (drift, wreck, night, etc.) and if they offer any distinctive specialties.

Or, show your support for your local diving community by earning a certification close to home.  Learn about your local ecosystems by taking an Underwater Naturalist or Fish Identification course, or prepare for your next trip by taking PADI’s most popular specialty - Enriched Air Nitrox. 

More than 75 percent of new divers say they want to improve their scuba skills by taking additional classes, but fewer than 40 percent ever do so. When asked why, many say, “I didn’t feel ready.”

What these divers don’t realize is, the Advanced Open Water Diver course is designed to help new divers improve their skills and build confidence. In this course, you’ll get better at the skills you learned in your Open Water Diver course as you try new diving experiences (photography, wreck diving, etc.) with a helpful instructor by your side. If the word “advanced” seems intimidating, think of it as a specialty course sampler instead. 

Speaking of specialties, many new divers get a lot out of the Peak Performance Buoyancy class and the Underwater Navigator course. You could try one or both of these specialties first, and earn credit towards your Advanced Open Water certification along the way. Ask your PADI Instructor for more information.

Any certified diver who would like to refresh their scuba skills before enrolling in a class or taking a dive trip should ReActivate. The online program is completely personalized. You’ll move quickly through familiar concepts you understand well and dive deeper into things you may have forgotten. 

After reviewing scuba fundamentals online, schedule an in-water session with a PADI Professional who will help you brush up your underwater skills and answer any questions you have. Divers who complete both the online knowledge review and in-water skill refresher receive a replacement certification card with a ReActivated date on it.