Academic

The PADI Open Water Diver course consists of three main phases:

• Knowledge Development (online, home study or in a classroom ) to understand basic principles of scuba diving
• Confined Water Dives to learn basic scuba skills
• Open Water Dives to review your skills and explore!

Prerequisites & Requirements 

Age Requirement: 10 years or older
Course Prerequisites: Able to swim; medically fit for diving
Time Commitment: Approximately 4 days

Equipment

In the PADI Open Water Diver course, you learn to use basic scuba gear, including a mask, snorkel, fins, regulator, buoyancy control device and a tank. The equipment you wear varies, depending upon whether you're diving in tropical, temperate or cold water.

Check with your local dive center about the gear you'll use during this course and get advice about everything you need from your PADI Instructor

Getting Started

You can start your learning now with PADI's home-study materials - Open Water Diver eLearning. You should also stop by your local PADI dive shop to enroll in the course and speak to a PADI Instructor about scheduling time for inwater training. Your instructor will also answer any questions you have along the way and check your progress to make sure you understand important scuba diving information.

Medical Requirements

Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.

Avoid disappointment, download and review the Diver Medical Form to ensure you won’t need a physician’s approval to dive before enrolling in a scuba course. Instructors, divemasters and dive shop staff are not physicians and should not be asked for medical advice; only medical professionals can give medical clearance to dive.

If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).