Marine Debris
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Continue Your Adventure
Expand Your Horizons
Your Open Water Diver certification introduced you to a new realm of exploration and made you keenly aware that you've only just scratched the surface of the underwater world. Continue your scuba journey with The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course.
Experience new adventures with a PADI Instructor by your side. Fine-tune your buoyancy skills, build confidence in your navigation abilities, and try new activities like wreck diving, night diving or underwater videography. An Advanced Open Water Diver certification also opens the door to dive sites deeper than 18m/60ft.
Find Your Next Course
Dive deeper into blue planet exploration with advanced dive skills and specialty scuba certifications. Whether you want to expand your dive knowledge or experience a new scuba specialty, our courses will prepare you for underwater adventure.
- Must-Haves
- Safety Focus
- Special Interests
- Advanced Skills
- Cold Water
- Conservation
- Photography
- Discovery
- Freediving
- Technical Diving
Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB) Diver
Learn more about freediving or check out the available courses.
Learn more about tec diving or check out the available courses.
Join the PADI Master Scuba Diver Challenge
Reach the Peak of Recreational Scuba Diving & Win a Trip for Two to Fiji!
Complete the form below to earn 1 entry.
Then, increase your chances of winning by earning more entries for every qualifying action taken between 1 June and 31 October, 2025 - from pledging to help save the ocean to completing dive courses on your way to the PADI Master Scuba Diver™ rating.*
Go With the Flow: Take the PADI Drift Diver Specialty Course
Fly like a superhero and experience the thrill of effortless diving. Learn how to conserve energy and use currents to your advantage with drift diving techniques. Practice buoyancy control, deploy surface signaling equipment and stay close to your buddy for a smooth, controlled dive.
Special Offer: For a limited time, enjoy 15% off your Drift Diver eLearning! Use code DRIFTMASTER15 at checkout.
Become a Better Buddy - Take the Rescue Diver Course
The Rescue Diver course will help you become a more confident and capable scuba diver. You’ll learn how to prevent and manage problems in the water, assist other divers, and handle diving emergencies.
To take the Rescue Diver course, you must:
- Hold an Advanced Open Water Diver certification
- Have completed CPR and First Aid training within the past 24 months
Take the next step in your scuba diving journey and build your rescue skills.
Upgrade Your Certification Card With a Stunning New Design!
Your dive certification is more than just a card—it's a reflection of your skills, experience, and passion for the ocean. Showcase your accomplishments with a NEW limited edition design. Choose from a dazzling array of Pygmy seahorse, Orca, and Humpback whale designs.
Make Your Mark on a PADI Card – Submit Your Photo!
Got a stunning underwater shot? Enter now for a chance to have your image featured on an official PADI certification card. Inspire the dive community with your passion for underwater photography - submit today!
Join PADI Club For 20% Off eLearning Courses
Keep your diver status active and expand your dive skills with 20% off select PADI eLearning courses including Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver, Rescue Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver & many more! Members also get a FREE online DAN® Prepared Diver course and a FREE Scuba Diving® magazine subscription.
More Information
Your questions, answered
- Contest Period: 1 June to 31 October 2025
- The Grand Prize Winner will be awarded a dive trip of a lifetime to Fiji for two, including:
- Roundtrip airfare for two to Fiji
- Six nights' accommodation, double occupancy in an air-conditioned Paradise Room at Paradise Taveuni Resort
- 4 days of Two-Tank Boat Dives and FREE Shore Dives until 5:00pm on boat dive days
- The Second and Third Place Prize Winners will receive one recreational PADI eLearning course of their choice.
- Participants are entered into the contest by:
- Signing up using the form on this page above for one entry to win.
- Writing a short story on "Why do you want to become a PADI Master Scuba Diver?"
- For every PADI course/rating/membership completed within the Contest Period, the participant will receive the following number of additional entries to the contest:
- PADI Master Scuba Diver rating – 10 entries
- PADI Rescue Diver certification – 5 entries
- PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification – 3 entries
- PADI Specialty Diver certification - 2 entries
- PADI Open Water Diver certification - 1 entry
- PADI Club member - 5 entries
- PADI Certification Card purchase - 2 entries
- Take the Save the Ocean Pledge - 1 entry
For the full contest terms and conditions, click on one of the options below:
10% discount available for select PADI eLearning courses on padi.com. Valid 1 per customer. Code expires 30 days from email sign-up date.
Your PADI certification does not expire. Enrolling in PADI’s scuba refresher course (ReActivate) is recommended if you haven’t been diving in awhile, but not mandatory. Dive shops appreciate seeing a recent ReActivated date on your certification card because it means you’re ready to dive in.
Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver and more than a dozen of PADI’s most popular specialty courses are available online. You can start your training at home and finish with a dive shop near you, or on vacation. The choice is up to you.
Earning a certification while traveling is a great way to have an authentic local diving experience. Ask the local dive center or resort what their destination is known for (drift, wreck, night, etc.) and if they offer any distinctive specialties.
Or, show your support for your local diving community by earning a certification close to home. Learn about your local ecosystems by taking an Underwater Naturalist or Fish Identification course, or prepare for your next trip by taking PADI’s most popular specialty - Enriched Air Nitrox.
More than 75 percent of new divers say they want to improve their scuba skills by taking additional classes, but fewer than 40 percent ever do so. When asked why, many say, “I didn’t feel ready.”
What these divers don’t realize is, the Advanced Open Water Diver course is designed to help new divers improve their skills and build confidence. In this course, you’ll get better at the skills you learned in your Open Water Diver course as you try new diving experiences (photography, wreck diving, etc.) with a helpful instructor by your side. If the word “advanced” seems intimidating, think of it as a specialty course sampler instead.
Speaking of specialties, many new divers get a lot out of the Peak Performance Buoyancy class and the Underwater Navigator course. You could try one or both of these specialties first, and earn credit towards your Advanced Open Water certification along the way. Ask your PADI Instructor for more information.
The Master Scuba Diver rating places you in an elite group of respected divers who have earned this rating through both significant experience and scuba training. Fewer than two percent of divers ever achieve this rating.
The path starts with earning a PADI Open Water Diver certification, followed by PADI Advanced Open Water Diver and PADI Rescue Diver (or qualifying certifications). You also need to earn five PADI Specialty Diver certifications
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