
PADI Courses – an Overview from Beginner to Pro Level.
It can be hard to know where to start when it comes to the various PADI courses, or how to navigate through the various scuba diving PADI courses available at the Adventure Club Phi Phi. Here is a step by step overview from entry-level PADI courses through to the professional level PADI courses:
Discover Scuba Diving – A quick and easy introduction into what it takes to explore the underwater world under the direct supervision of a PADI Pro. Although this is not a scuba certification course, you’ll experience what it feels like to dive.
Bubblemaker Program – For children who are at least 8 years old to experience scuba diving under the direct supervision of a PADI Pro. Take your first breaths underwater in water shallower than 2 meters.
PADI Open Water Course – Diver certification begins here! Start with PADI’s online eLearning course. Move to the pool and practice your new skills. Then experience four open water dives in the Andaman Sea off Ko Phi Phi.
PADI Scuba Diver Course – This course is a subset of the PADI Open Water Diver course. If you’re short on time but really want to become a diver, the PADI Scuba Diver rating might be right for you. The fun and enjoyment of being a confident scuba diver is fueled by continuing to improve your scuba skills. Each PADI course builds on the previous one, teaching you skills and techniques when you’re ready to learn them.
PADI Advanced Open Water Course -You don’t have to be “advanced” to take it – it’s designed to advance your diving, so you can start right after earning your PADI Open Water Diver certification. The course helps build confidence and expand your scuba skills through different Adventure Dives, while gaining experience under the supervision of your PADI Instructor.
There are two required dives; Deep and Underwater Navigation – and you choose the other three, for a total of five dives. The knowledge and skills you will gain vary according to which adventures you choose – photography, buoyancy control, fish identification, exploring wrecks and many more.
Alternatively if you’re short on time then complete three Adventure Dives to earn the Adventure Diver certification, a subgroup of the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course.
EFR and PADI Rescue Diver Course – Learn to prevent and manage problems in the water, and become more confident in your skills as a diver knowing that you can help others if needed. During the course, you learn to become a better buddy by practicing problem solving skills It’s challenging, yet very rewarding. You also need to have Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care (CPR and First Aid) training within the past 24 months. The PADI Rescue Diver course prepares you to deal with dive emergencies, minor and major, using a variety of techniques. Through knowledge development and rescue exercises, you learn what to look for and how to respond. During rescue scenarios, you put into practice your knowledge and skills.
PADI courses let you explore specific dive interests.
Enriched Air Diver – The most popular PADI specialty course. Scuba diving with enriched air nitrox gives you more no decompression time, especially on repetitive scuba dives.
Deep Diver – Explore deeper dive sites with confidence at depths down to 40 metres. Learn to manage your gas supply, go over buddy contact procedures, and buoyancy control.
Wreck Specialty – Ships, airplanes, artificial structures and even cars are fascinating to explore and usually teem with aquatic life. Each wreck dive offers a chance for a new discovery.
These are just few of the exciting specialty courses on offer! Once you have 5 Specialties you are certified as a Master Scuba Diver, the highest non-professional diver level attainable with PADI.
Professional-level PADI courses let you live the scuba diving lifestyle by becoming a divemaster or scuba instructor.
PADI Divemaster Be a leader who mentors and motivates others. Gain dive knowledge, supervision abilities, and become a role model to divers around the world. The Adventure Club offer 2 Divemaster Internships each month.
PADI OWSI (Instructor) Enroll in the IDC (instructor Development Course) a two-part course encompassing the Assistant Instructor (AI) course and the Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) program. Teach scuba diving and share your passion!