Continue Your Adventure
Expand Your Horizons
Your Open Water Diver certification introduced you to a new realm of exploration and made you keenly aware that you've only just scratched the surface of the underwater world. Continue your scuba journey with The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course.
Experience new adventures with a PADI Instructor by your side. Fine-tune your buoyancy skills, build confidence in your navigation abilities, and try new activities like wreck diving, night diving or underwater videography. An Advanced Open Water Diver certification also opens the door to dive sites deeper than 18m/60ft.
Find Your Next Course
Dive deeper into blue planet exploration with advanced dive skills and specialty scuba certifications. Whether you want to expand your dive knowledge or experience a new scuba specialty, our courses will prepare you for underwater adventure.
- Must-Haves
- Safety Focus
- Special Interests
- Advanced Skills
- Cold Water
- Conservation
- Photography
- Discovery
- Freediving
- Technical Diving
Learn more about PADI Specialty courses
Learn more about freediving or check out the available courses.
Learn more about tec diving or check out the available courses.
Join the PADI Master Scuba Diver Challenge
Reach the peak of recreational scuba diving!
Become part of an elite circle as a PADI Master Scuba Diver™ – a rating fewer than 2% of divers achieve.
Through December 31, 2024, join divers worldwide in taking on the Master Scuba Diver Challenge. With every qualifying PADI course completed by the end of the year, you can increase your chances of winning a dream dive getaway for two to the Maldives!*
To get started and receive one entry to the contest, complete steps one and two.
Advance Your Skills – Become a Master Scuba Diver
The Master Scuba Diver rating is one of the ultimate achievements in diving, awarded to the most accomplished and experienced recreational divers. To be a Master Scuba Diver, you must:
- Hold a Rescue Diver certification (and have completed all the pre-requisites for that certification)
- Complete 5 Specialty Diver courses
- Log 50 dives
Once you have completed the above requirements, you can submit the Master Scuba Diver application form and officially join this elite circle of recreational divers.
Upgrade Your Certification Card With a Stunning New Design!
Your dive certification is more than just a card—it's a reflection of your skills, experience, and passion for the ocean. Showcase your accomplishments with a NEW limited edition design by Martin Strmiska and Tom St. George. Choose between a colorful pair of clownfish or a dreamy landscape in Cenote Angelita, Mexico. Which PADI Card Has Your Name on It?
Join PADI Club For 20% Off eLearning Courses
Keep your diver status active and expand your dive skills with 20% off select PADI eLearning courses including Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver, Rescue Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver & many more! Members also get a FREE online DAN® Prepared Diver course and a FREE Scuba Diving® magazine subscription.
Need a quick refresher?
Haven’t been diving lately and want a quick scuba refresher? PADI ReActivate is the perfect way to update your dive skills and knowledge from the PADI Open Water Diver course before jumping back into the water.
Whether you want a few reminders or need to go over the basics, ReActivate ensures you’re prepared for your next PADI course or diving holiday. Brush up on scuba fundamentals using the interactive online program, then meet up with a PADI Professional to review your in-water skills.
Get ReActivate for free when you join PADI Club.
More Information
Your questions, answered
- Contest Period: 1 July to 31 December 2024
- The Grand Prize Winner will be awarded a dive trip of a lifetime to the Maldives for two, including:
- Roundtrip airfare for two to Malé, Maldives
- Six nights’ accommodation, double occupancy, full board at the Vilamendhoo Island Resort & Spa
- 5 days of diving for two people (two dives per day) with Euro Divers
- The Second and Third Place Prize Winners will receive one recreational PADI eLearning course of their choice.
- Participants are entered into the contest by:
- Signing up using the form on this page, including writing a short story on the topic “Why do you want to be a PADI Master Scuba Diver?”, for one entry to win.
- For every PADI course/rating/membership completed within the Contest Period, the participant will receive the following number of additional entries to the contest:
- PADI Master Scuba Diver rating – 10 entries
- PADI Rescue Diver certification – 5 entries
- PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification – 3 entries
- PADI Specialty Diver certification – 2 entries
- PADI Open Water Diver certification – 1 entry
- PADI Club member – 5 entries
For the full contest terms and conditions, click on one of the options below.
PADI is offering a 10% discount on online sales of select PADI eLearning courses sold on PADI.com. Valid 1 per customer. Code expires 30 days from email sign-up date.
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.
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