PADI Open Water Course and Scuba Diver Certification

Mermaids Dive Center Pattaya, Thailand offer both of the PADI elementary dive courses to get a non-diver diving. The PADI Open Water Diver Course can lead to two possible dive certifications: PADI Scuba Diver and PADI Open Water Diver. The PADI Scuba diver course is considered the basic entry level diver course.

The Open Water Diver qualification (O/W) is a full entry level certification you earn by successfully completing the entire Open Water Diver course. The PADI Open Water Diver program qualifies you to:

- Scuba dive independently (with a certified diving buddy of equal or higher certification level) while applying the knowledge and skills that you learned in this course, within the limits of your dive training and experience. You shall be licensed to dive to a recommended maximum depth of 18 meters.

- Procure air fills, scuba equipment and other service for scuba diving.

- Plan, conduct and log open water no stop (no decompression) dives when equipped properly and accompanied by a buddy in conditions which you have training and or experience.

The PADI Scuba Diver (S/D) Qualification is earned by completing only a portion of the Open Water Course. The SD course is almost just half of the open water certification. The Scuba Diver course is a pre-entry level certification and qualifies you to:

- Procure air fills, scuba equipment and other service for scuba diving whilst under direct supervision.

- Plan, conduct and log open water no stop (no decompression) dives when equipped properly and accompanied by a buddy in conditions which you have training and or experience.

The PADI Scuba Diver course is an ideal entry level dive course taken on holiday due to the short length.

Pre-requisites:

To become a Scuba Diver – you need to be comfortable in the water and have basic swimming skills, so your scuba diving instructor will have you do some swimming and floating (nothing extreme – 200 meter swim at you leisure and a 10 minute float on the surface (any way up)). This is just enough to determine you have the basic swimming abilities. You don’t need to be superman, but you should be generally in good health particularly your respiratory and circulatory systems. Mentally you need a mature attitude and the self-discipline to follow the guide-lines and principles required for safe diving.

Before any confined water dives (in the swimming pool or an environment similar to a swimming pool i.e. an enclosed and sheltered bay) or skills, your instructor will have you complete a medical statement. The information that you put on this shall be entirely confidential. Because the statement identifies conditions that may be affected by diving, for your safety it is important to complete it entirely and accurately. If any of the conditions apply to you, as a prudent precaution, your instructor will ask you to consult a physician before participating in any of the water activities.

The minimum age for scuba certifications are 10 for the Junior Open Water or Junior Scuba Diver certification (adult supervised diving), and 15 for the Openwater Diver or Scuba Diver certification. These certifications show that you successfully completed the course according to the dive training standards and requirements established by PADI. Dive centers and reports require a person to be a certified diver or in training before they will rent or sell you scuba equipment, fill scuba tanks for you, or let you participate in scuba activities. There is a “Discover Scuba Diving” (DSD) program which allows you to dive one day under the direct supervision of an instructor for the experience without the certification but the diving is extremely limited.

Open Water Diver Course Structure:

The PADI Open Water scuba diving course consists of 3 segments: Confined water dives, knowledge development and open water dives. Each plays an important role in learning to dive in meeting the performance objectives you need to qualify as a diver.

The fun begins in the confined water dives, during which you will apply dive principles, and learn and practice dive procedures and skills. You’ll do this either in a swimming pool or in body of water with pool like conditions under your instructor’s guidance and supervision. There are 5 confined water dives that correspond with 5 knowledge development sections (the 1^st 3 sections correspond to the Scuba Diver Course – if these 3 knowledge reviews, the 1^st  3 confined water dives and the 1^st 2 Open Water dives are completed – then the diver may be signed off as a PADI Scuba Diver – this can easily be upgraded to the Open Water certification by simply completing the rest of the course – Note: that this is a great option from PADI as it allows dive students with less time to get qualified half way and is great for resort divers nearing the end of their holiday – the 2^nd half can be taken next holiday. For instructors also – if a student is having a real difficulty with a certain skill in dives 4 or 5 then rather than fail the student the student can be signed as a Scuba Diver and allowed to gain more experience before coming back to complete the PADI Open Water certification).

Knowledge development establishes the principles and basic information that all divers need to have fun diving safely. It’s divided into 5 bite sized segments that you’ll complete primarily on your own time or in the classroom alone by using the PADI Open Water manual and video to guide you. For each segment your instructor reviews and elaborates on the material, applying what you’re learning to your specific needs and the local dive environment. A short quiz at the end of each section in the manual confirms that you have picked up the information that you need from that section.

Section One covers:

Section Two covers:

Section Three covers:

Section Four covers:

Section Five covers:

The RDP displays to you how to easily manage the planning of your dive safely, showing you how to stay within the limits of time and depth underwater without going into decompression diving. This means that you’ll know exactly how deep you can go and for how long before you have to surface maintaining a safe dive profile. As recreational divers we ensure that we can safely surface at any time without having to make decompression stops.

You may find that the sequence of these is changed very slightly but all of the main elements are here and shall be viewed at some stage. The great thing about the PADI system is that it is very logical and runs very smoothly allowing you maximum enjoyment whilst learning the fundamentals of scuba diving.  

At the end of the knowledge development section there is a 50 question examination (in leisurely conditions) which covers all of the 5 knowledge review sections and your instructor will go through this with you for “reinforced” learning.  

The Confined Water Dives will prove that all of the effort studying the book has been worth it. This is where the fun really begins. I knew from my first time in the swimming pool that Scuba Dive instruction was exactly what I wanted to do with my time at work.

As mentioned there are 5 Confined Water dives. These dives progress with the skills in the same fashion as the rest of the PADI course – easing you gently into it and progressively getting harder but with your confidence stronger.

NOTE: All of the skills are demonstrated by your dive instructor first.

Confined Dive One covers: (General use and feel of dive equipment)

You will note that all of the equipment was assembled ready for your use directly in the pool – we do this is confined dive as to get you familiar with scuba in the water more quickly. You have waited long enough already.

Confined Dive Two covers:

Confined Dive Three covers:

Confined Dive Four covers:

Confined Dive Five covers:

NOTE: In between all o f the skills or at the end of each session there is plenty of time to have fun and practice the skills over again.

The Open Water Dives complete your training as an entry-level scuba diver by applying all that you have learned and further developing your knowledge and dive skills in a dive environment under your instructors supervision and direct guidance.

You’ll make at least 4 Open Water Dives and perhaps an optional skin dive, during this part of the PADI Open Water Dive course. Prior to certification, you’ll meet specific learning objectives that you’ll read about in the Open Water Divers manual.

You’ll learn in a sequence that establishes skills and knowledge from simple to the complex, with later skills and knowledge building on what you learn first. For this reason it is important to successfully complete each section before moving on to the next.

The Open Water course is generally conducted over 4 days with the first and second day in the pool and classroom. The third and fourth days will be in the ocean conducting your open water dives. THIS CAN BE shortened to 3 days if time is a deciding factor. The course is still within all standards and can be easily achieved at this rate. We sometimes find that students on holiday would like to complete the training in a shorter period with time restrictions and also this will allow for an additional day pleasure diving before departing back home.

Now that you are certified as an Open Water Diver you are able to dive to a maximum recommended depth of 18 meters with a buddy of equal or higher scuba training to yourself…

…happy diving!

The next scuba dive training course on the PADI ladder is the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Certification