PADI Open Water Certification

PADI Open Water Certification

Scuba Fins

Planning to go scuba diving but have no idea where to begin? If so, then it’s time for you to take an open water certification course with PADI and start your underwater journey.

What is a PADI Open Water Certification?

An open water certification course is the most basic SCUBA diving course anyone can take. It teaches all the basic skills and knowledge needed for SCUBA diving, and is offered by all SCUBA certification agencies.

Kinds of PADI Open Water Certifications

There are two types of open water certifications:

1. PADI Open Water Certification Courses which are offered to people aged 15 and over.

2. PADI Junior Open Water Certification Courses which are offered to children aged 10 – 14 years old. These courses provide the same lessons as a normal open water certification course, and can be upgraded to a normal certificate, without taking the course again, once the person reaches the age of 15.

Length of the PADI Open Water Certification Course

Full-time students can finish the entire course in 3-5 days. Part-time students can get it done in weeks, or maybe months, depending on how focused they are.

What will you learn in the PADI Open Water Course?

1. Basic SCUBA knowledge

The PADI Open Water course teaches basic diving techniques, the effects of diving on the body, important safety information, equipment maintenance, and dive planning. Each student is given a textbook that provides all this information and will then be tested in a theory test at the end of the course.

2. Confined Water Training

This will serve as the student’s hands-on training. These training sessions are done in either swimming pools or on calm beaches. Training sessions conducted in beaches will begin with the student diving in shallow waters and gradually moving into deeper waters as the student’s skills progress.

3. Open Water Training.

Once the student has mastered the basics, then it’s time to start diving in large bodies of water! This course basically teaches the student to gain enough confidence to perform all the procedures they’ve learned in confined water training.

Once you have your PADI Open Water Certification

Once you’ve finished the Open Water course, divers with normal certificates will be allowed to dive in depths of 60 feet or 18 meters, while junior certificate holders can dive in waters 40 feet or 12 meters deep. Junior certificate holders, however, cannot go diving unless they under the supervision of a certified diver aged 18 years or above, who possesses the same or higher level certificate.

Renewing your Open Water Certification

PADI Open water certificates do not have to be renewed. However, it is advised that a diver should undergo SCUBA diving review classes if ever they haven’t gone diving for a long period of time. The review course is shorter and aims to refresh the student’s skills.

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