Scuba diving offers unlimited opportunities for enjoying the adventure. If you have learned open water scuba diving, the next step is to take your skills to the next level by getting enrolled in the advanced open water diver course. However, before you move ahead to take the course, you should do a fair amount of research to know the details of this Scuba Schools International. You must have many questions in this regard. In this article, we’ll try to equip you with all the pertinent information about the certification, so that you can make a sensible decision.

The best thing about the SSI Level 3 Training is that it promises a lot of fun as you get to practice navigation, buoyancy, and deep diving. More importantly, you get 24 dives in with four specialties. This certification will open new avenues of scuba diving so that you can continue to explore the limitless spellbinding underwater riches.

Description

The course is formulated to upgrade the advanced scuba skills of the participants. It will instill confidence in you as a scuba diver. The course uses multiple Adventure dives to broaden the range of your scuba skills.

You will be given several specialty dives, of which you will need to select three that you like most. For every completed specialty dive, they will award you with credits on your SSI specialty certifications. The entire course will be taught under the supervision of an SSI instructor. If you already completed an SSI Specialty Diver course, you might have earned credits to qualify for an Adventure Dive. Your instructor will provide you with further details in this regard.

Who Can Take this Course?

If you are an SSI Open Water diver or carry an equivalent certification, you are eligible to participate in the course. You must be above 12 years of age and medically fit to go for the Advanced Open Diver Course.

The purpose of this course is to enable you to become a more confident and skilled scuba diver. If you plan to acquire more diving experience and advance your navigation and buoyancy skills while sampling a variety of diving, you are the right candidate for this scuba diving certification. The course offers you to choose from a range of specialty dives such as deep diving, digital underwater imaging, fish identification, search and rescue, underwater navigation, wreck diving, etc. This is the ideal course to explore new ways of having fun diving.

What is the Course Structure?

Diver Course Structure

The Advanced Open Water Diver course is an elaborate learning program. It aims to take your scuba diving skills to new heights.

In this course, you will need to complete a total of five dives. Two of them, Deep and Underwater Navigation, are compulsory whereas you can select the other three as per your interests. The Deep Adventure Dive will expose you to the challenges of deeper scuba diving. It will teach you how to deal with those challenges in an effective manner. The Underwater Navigation Adventure Dive will help you practice navigation using visual landmarks, kick cycles, and time.

The rest of the Adventure Dives can include:

  • Navigation Dive
  • Deep Dive
  • Search and Rescue Dive
  • Underwater Naturalist Dive
  • Fish Identification Dive
  • Buoyancy Dive
  • Wreck Dive
  • Underwater Digital Imaging Dive
  • Boat Dive
  • Night Dive

Here, it becomes important to select the right mix of Adventure Dives. At the Scuba Schools of America in Montclair, CA, our SSI instructors will offer you expert advice to enable you to choose the right dives in accordance with your interests and how much time you have for practicing.

Duration

Immediately after you have completed your Open Water course, you can begin with the Advanced Open Water Diver course. The entire course takes 2-3 days to complete, which includes 6-8 hours of SSI Digital Download learning. It is possible to finish the entire course in just 2 days. For this, you will need to complete 3 dives in one day. It means 2 dives in the day and one night dive.

How Deep Can You Dive with SSA Advanced Open Water?

The Advanced Open Water Diver certification allows the diver to enjoy a wide variety of scuba diving, up to a maximum depth of 30 m (or 100 ft). However, the maximum depth you can dive ultimately depends on your age. If you enroll in and complete the course following SSI Junior Open Water Diver certification, you will need to observe some limitations.

If the participant is 12 years old or less, you will be certified to dive up to a maximum depth of only 21 m (or 70 ft). As you reach 15 years of age, you will be automatically upgraded to dive up to 30 ft.

Medical Requirements

To qualify for enrollment in the course, you need to be healthy and fit. If you are on any kind of medication or have certain health conditions, consult with your physician to know if you can participate.

In some cases, you may also need to get your physician’s approval in written form. Keep in mind that instructors and divemasters are not people you can consult with regarding health conditions. Only medical professionals can give medical advice. If your physician, however, needs to know more about what level of fitness is required for scuba diving training programs and courses, you can always reach out to one of our specialists at the Scuba Schools of America.

Equipment Required

Diving Equipment

Since the Advanced Open Water Diver course involves a variety of deep-sea diving, you will need to be well-equipped with proper gear. In addition to the basic scuba gear, you will need other specialized gear for night diving, wreck diving, search, and recovery diving among others.

Most importantly, you will need to equip yourself with a compass, dive knife, dive light (for night diving), dive computer, lift bag ( for search and rescue diving), student slate, etc. You can either choose to buy this equipment or tools or rent them from a dive shop near your place. If you live in Montclair, CA, you can head straight to the Scuba Schools of America to buy or hire high-quality gear for the Advanced Open Water Diver Course. Our instructors will give you detailed information regarding how to properly prepare for this scuba diving course.

Getting Started

If you plan to become an Advanced Open Water Diver, you should first collect the e-learning or e-manual, which gives you all the details about this course, and read all the information between the lines.

At the Scuba Schools of America, we provide all the literature specific to the Advanced Open Water Diver course. With our e-manual and books by your side, you will also be able to gain a proper insight into the requirements for the course and how you need to get yourself ready for course enrollment.

Sign Up for Advanced Open Water Diver Certification

After you have understood the details of the course, it is time to enroll in the course. With advanced-level learning, you can have lots of fun and also gain a great deal of experience.

To sign up for the course, you should head straight to the Scuba Schools of America in Montclair, CA. Our school has a solid reputation for offering top-notch training in scuba diving, snorkeling, and swimming. In addition to the SSI Advanced Open Water Diver course, we also offer a wide range of other programs. They include Claremont College Scuba Program, Open Water Diver Class, SSI Specialty Programs, Dive Leader, and Instructor Classes, Scuba Rangers, etc. Our instructors will give you detailed information on each of these training programs and courses.

You can reach out to us via a phone call or write us an email. Don’t forget to visit our online store for courses and gear.