Scuba Diving Qualifications

If you wish to become more than just a recreational scuba diver, there are many different scuba diving qualifications you can apply for. Beginning with the open water diver qualification, a potential diver can learn the ropes of diving and begin to progress through the various levels. There are many different qualifications; however the ones we will cover here are Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver, Rescue Diver, Master Scuba Diver and Divemaster.

Open Water Diver
This course, offered through many different diving entities, including PADI, teaches you how to dive, starting in a pool and progressing to open water, with background knowledge being taught along the way. This course is offered at the pace of the student and can be completed in as little as four days and as long as six weeks.  By earning this certification, the world of diving opens up to a diver, giving them the ability to travel to more places and take part in many diving expeditions. The course consists of five confined water dives and four open water dives, as well as five sessions in knowledge development. To obtain it, a diver must be in good health, have a reasonable fitness level and be comfortable in the water.

Advanced Open Water Diver
This qualification opens up the world of scuba diving to a student, taking them beyond just underwater sightseeing. To obtain this qualification, a student completes five dives to build the foundation skills of adventure diving. Through the program you can choose to go diving at night, check out local shipwrecks or go through the ocean on a diver propulsion vehicle on the student’s way to obtaining the qualification.
To obtain it, a student must have an Open Water Diver qualification and choose from a variety of adventure dive options including underwater nature study, underwater navigation and underwater photography.

Specialty Diver
Taking part in this qualification teaches a driver to look beyond themselves and consider the safety and well-being of other divers. This highly challenging qualification prepares divers to prevent problems and manage dive emergencies. The diver will be qualified in self-rescue and diver stress, emergency management and equipment, panicked diver response, in-water rescue breathing protocols and dive accident scenarios. Divers will also be trained in first aid and Emergency First Response techniques, which include CPR for adults, children and infants and Automated External Defibrillator training.

Master Scuba Diver
The highest level that can be obtained for a recreational scuba diver is Master Scuba Diver. To obtain this level, a diver has to have a minimum number of 50 logged dives, their Rescue Diver, completed five specialty dive courses and be a minimum of 12 years old.

Divemaster
Divers who take part in the Master Scuba Diver program take the first steps into professional levels of diving by expanding their dive knowledge and developing their skills to the professional level. This program develops leadership abilities, qualifies a diver to supervise activities and assist instructors with student divers. To take part in the program, divers need to do knowledge development in 12 topics ranging from dive theory to assisting student divers in training. Divers must have completed the Advanced Open Water Diver course, the Rescue Diver course and logged 20 dives. The minimum number of dives needed to obtain the certification is 60 dives.

Depending on how eager a diver wants to be, they can complete these programs in months or years, which gives the diver more and more options of where they can dive, with who and what they can do underwater, as they progress through the programs. These programs are offered by a wide variety of diving schools but if you want to go with the best instructors, and as a result obtain the best training, PADI would be the best place to contact.
Eventually, once a diver has passed the level of Divemaster, they can begin to look at diving professionally for companies and adventure seekers. If divers choose to, they can open their own school and begin teaching other divers at that point.
Recreational diving is only the beginning for many divers and by taking the steps to get training in a variety of scuba diving courses, a diver can take a new world by the horns and begin their life as a world-class scuba diving.