After your Open Water Diver certification, dive deeper with courses like Advanced Open Water, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Nitrox. Learn how to bundle courses for cost savings and continued education.
What’s Next After Your Open Water Diver Course?
After completing your Open Water Diver course, you might be asking, “What’s next?” Whether you’re eager to improve your diving skills or explore new underwater adventures, continued education opens up thrilling opportunities. In this guide, we’ll cover popular follow-up courses like Advanced Open Water Diver, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox), plus how to save money by booking combo offers.
Why Book Additional Courses Along with Your Open Water Course?
Before diving into course details, let’s discuss combo offers. Many dive centers offer packages that bundle continued education, which can help you save both time and money. Here’s why enrolling in combo courses is a smart move:
- Cost Efficiency: Combo offers usually come with discounts, allowing you to save up to 15% compared to taking individual courses.
- Skill Retention: Diving requires practice to maintain skills. Regular learning keeps your knowledge fresh and sharpens techniques.
- Structured Learning Path: Combo packages provide a streamlined path for continued education, helping you stay focused and motivated.
Advanced Open Water Diver
The Advanced Open Water Diver course is the perfect next step after your Open Water certification. This course lets you explore different types of diving, like deep diving and underwater navigation, while boosting your confidence.
Key Features:
- Dive to depths of up to 30 meters (100 feet).
- Experience different specialty dives, including night diving, wreck diving, and deep diving.
- Improve your underwater navigation skills.
Why Take It Now?
Your diving skills are fresh after completing the Open Water course, making it an ideal time to enhance your abilities. Plus, this course is a prerequisite for many continued education, opening doors to even more underwater adventures.
Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty
Mastering buoyancy is essential for every diver. The Peak Performance Buoyancy course helps you perfect buoyancy control, enabling you to move more efficiently and protect the underwater environment.
Key Features:
- Achieve neutral buoyancy by optimizing weight distribution.
- Master finning techniques to conserve air and energy.
- Enjoy longer dives by minimizing unnecessary movement.
Why Take It Now?
Improving buoyancy control early on will make you more confident and capable during every dive. Mastering buoyancy also enriches your experience in all subsequent courses.
Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) Specialty
The Nitrox (Enriched Air Diver) course is one of the most popular specialties, allowing you to extend your bottom time by reducing the nitrogen levels in your breathing gas. It’s particularly beneficial for repetitive dives or dive trips.
Key Features:
- Dive with enriched air (higher oxygen content) to extend your no-decompression limit.
- Reduce surface intervals and dive more frequently during trips.
- Learn safety protocols for analyzing Nitrox tanks and using dive computers.
Why Take It Now?
If you plan to dive frequently or take dive trips, Nitrox certification helps you stay underwater longer and recover faster between dives. Many liveaboard excursions and dive vacations recommend or require Nitrox certification.
More Specialty Courses to Explore
In addition to the top three specialties, here are other continued educations to consider based on your interests:
- Night Diver: Explore the underwater world after sunset.
- Underwater Navigator: Master navigation skills to stay oriented.
- Drift Diver: Learn to dive in strong currents.
- Boat Diver: Get familiar with boat diving techniques.
- Digital Underwater Photographer: Capture stunning underwater photos.
- Side-mount Diver: Enhance air management with side-mounted cylinders.
- Equipment Specialist: Learn how to maintain and repair your diving gear.
- Full Face Mask Diver: Dive with improved communication and warmth in cold waters.
- Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB) Diver: Safely deploy a marker buoy to signal your position to boats.
Why Book Specialty Courses as a Combo?
By bundling courses like Advanced Open Water, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Nitrox into a combo package, you can maximize your learning experience and save money. Combo packages often come with extra perks like discounted gear rentals, making it a cost-effective way to continued education.
Conclusion
Your Open Water certification is just the beginning of your scuba diving journey. By taking courses like Advanced Open Water, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Nitrox, you’ll develop new skills and become a more proficient diver. Booking these courses as part of a combo package is a smart way to save money and ensure continuous learning. Ready to take the plunge? Contact us today to learn more about our combo offers and plan your next underwater adventure!
About the author
Parthiban V is a Master Scuba Diver Trainer and EFR (Emergency First Response) Instructor with more than six years of experience in the scuba industry. His professional qualifications include certifications as a Bauer Compressor Level 1 & 2 Technician, Scubapro Level 1 & 2 Technician, and technical diver, certified to dive up to 45 meters.
Before joining the world of scuba diving, Parthiban was an Army aspirant, but his love for adventure and the ocean led him to pursue a career as a scuba instructor. He also holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, bringing a strong technical background to his diving expertise. Currently, he works as an operational manager at Temple Adventures, where he is dedicated to ensuring smooth operations while sharing his passion for the underwater world with fellow divers.