PADI Open Water Scuba Diver

If you've always wanted to learn to take scuba diving lessons, experience unparalleled adventure, and see the world beneath the waves, this is where it starts!

Get your scuba diving certification with the PADI Open Water Diver course, the world's most popular and widely recognized scuba course. Millions of people have learned to scuba dive and gone on to discover the wonders of the aquatic world through this course.

With the PADI Open Water certification, you can:

Get certified to dive up to a maximum depth of 18 m/60 ft
Get certified to dive independently without the need for a dive professional to guide you.

A highly-trained PADI Instructor will teach you to scuba dive in a relaxed, supportive learning environment.

When you finish the course, you will have the skills and knowledge to dive at home or abroad with another certified diver.

Course Overview

The Open Water certification course consists of three parts:

Theory

First, there's a theoretical component, where you learn about the gear, emergency procedures, buoyancy, and the physiological effects of pressure.

The theory portion is mostly done online, and is referred to as the ELearning.

This includes videos, reading segments, and quizzes.
It takes 5 to 8 hours to complete, depending on the person.
We recommend you give yourself a week to complete this before our first meeting in the pool.

Pool Training

Second, we meet at the pool for two or three evenings.

After swimming (200m) and treading water (10 minutes), you will learn how to set up and take apart SCUBA gear, how to so safety and buddy checks, and how to safely don the gear.

Then, you will get in the pool and learn do dive! There's a lot to learn. You will learn about:

safe descents and ascents,
buoyancy control,
mask clearing,
dive planning,
dive safety, and
how to handle emergency situations and gear issues.

Ocean Training

Third, we go to the ocean in Monterey for four dives, usually spanning two days.

For the first three dives, you will practice skills that you learned in the pool, but now you're in the real ocean, and you're able to experience the amazing underwater world.

By the time you get to the first dive, you've finished all your skills, and we go on a real dive to one of Monterey's dive sites, like the breakwater sea lion colony or the metridium fields.

Scheduling

ELearning

You complete the ELearning on your own, before the course begins.

Pool Sessions

The pool sessions are usually held on two or three weekday evenings at the ASU Pool, starting at 6pm.

Ocean Diving

The ocean dives sessions are usually on a saturday and sunday morning at 7am, at San Carlos beach, in Monterey

Prerequisites

Good physical health
10 years old or older
Ability to swim 200m non-stop (8 lengths of a standard pool).
Tread water for 10 minutes without touching the bottom or pool wall.
No prior Scuba experience required.

Inclusions and Exclusions

What's included?

The course includes:

All Instruction (Pool Sessions, and Ocean Dives)
E-Learning
ASU Duffel Bag
Log book
Registration with DAN for free dive insurance
All Scuba Gear Rentals:
- Weights & Tanks
- BCD, Regulators, Computer
- Wetsuit & Hood

What's NOT Included?

You are responsible to provide your own Personal Gear:

Mask & Snorkel
Fins
Gloves & Boots

Note:

If you buy your personal gear from ASU, you will receive 20% off your scuba gear.
There is an option to rent the personal gear. You will find this option in the sign-up form below.
Many dive shops have you purchase the E-Learning directly from padi.com ($246).
With ASU, this is included in the course, so please don't purchase the ELearning seperately!

Referral Program

ASU participates in the PADI Referral program. This program allows you to do the theoretical and pool portions of the course with us, and then the ocean dives somewhere else.

Ideal if you want to learn to dive while on vacation without spending your vacation studying or practicing skills in a swimming pool.
This is also great for kids that want to complete the ocean part of their training in warm water with colorful fish!

Once you've completed the online portions and the pool sessions, we provide you with all the paperwork you need to take to the destination dive shop to complete the training.

We're also happy to reach out to the destination dive shop to make sure there aren't any wrinkles at your destination.

Packages & Options

Many of our students know from the beginning that they want additional diving experience and to go further than their basic open water certification. For this reason, we offer discounts for students that want to sign up bundles of classes. Contact us if you're interested in any of these packages!

Open Water + Advanced

You can take your Advanced certificiation immediately after completing your open water.

The advanced course includes another 5 ocean dives that allow you to become a better diver by developing specific dive-related skills, and experiencing more local dive sites.

The advanced course dives include:

Underwater navigation dive
Deep dive

And 3 of the following (Your Choice):

Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive
Night Dive (Recommended!)
Search and Recovery Dive
Underwater Digital Photography
Underwater Naturalist

Open Water + Advanced + Rescue

with First Aid, CPR, and Emergency Oxygen Provider

The Rescue Diver course is a challenging but rewarding certification that teaches you how to prevent and manage dive emergencies through a combination of knowledge development and rescue exercises.

You will covers topics like self-rescue, stress recognition in other divers, emergency management, rescuing panicked divers, and managing unresponsive divers, including how to locate, surface, and tow them while providing emergency care.

The package also includes CPR, First Aid, and Emergency Oxygen Provider training.

This is great training for any diver, to help prepare you for when things go wrong.

Please contact us directly if you're interested in a multi-course package.

Things to Consider

Equipment: You will need to provide your own basic snorkeling equipment (mask, fins, snorkel, booties and gloves). If you purchase them from us, not only do we offer a student discount of 20% off, but we provide a liberal trade-in policy if any item does not fit or just isn’t working. We want you to have gear that is comfortable, safe, and works!

Health: SCUBA Diving, though weightless and extremely relaxing, has physical limits. You will need to have your health commensurate with the exercises of SCUBA. We have enclosed a check list that you need to answer no to all the options. If you have to answer yes to any, you must go to your doctor for approval to enter this class.

The PADI Open Water Class Structure: PADI’s Open Water SCUBA course is meant to be taught in a sequence, i.e., Module 1 must be completed before module 2. Refer to the contract (Contract). The PADI eLearning offers the most flexibility, but must be completed before pool classes can be started.

Cancellation Policy: Full refund if cancellation request received within 3 days of booking, or 14 days prior to start of instruction. No refund or credit or transfer will be permitted if request received within 14 days of start of class. PADI eLearning is non-refundable ($217). Adventure Sports Unlimited, Inc., reserves the right to reschedule or cancel if it is undersubscribed.