What are Specialty Dive Courses?

The PADI Specialty Dive Courses are designed to enhance your dive experience and skill-set. Each Specialty Course will provide an in-depth knowledge and development in a specific area, letting you become a more rounded diver and opening doors to new diving opportunities.

There are more than 20 dive specialties, ranging from wreck diving to night diving, or perfecting your buoyancy underwater. The additional training and certifications are going to make your bottom time much better, and in the case of the Enriched Air (‘Nitrox’) course, it will also make your bottom time longer.

You can take most of the dive specialties after finishing your Open Water course, and if you are an Advanced Diver you’ve already had a little encounter with a few of them.

Below you find the specialty courses that we have selected for you and that we consider to be the ones that will benefit you the most throughout your life as a diver.

Diving with Enriched Air (EANx or ‘Nitrox’) allows you to extend your bottom time, it requires shorter surface intervals and it reduces nitrogen loading: most divers feel much less tired after diving with Nitrox than after diving with normal compressed air. These are a few of the reasons why this is one of PADI's most popular specialties.

You will learn why diving with air that has a higher oxygen and lower nitrogen content gives you more bottom time, along with equipment considerations if you want to dive with enriched air. During this PADI Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) Specialty course you will practice how to analyze the oxygen content of your scuba tank and you’ll learn how to adjust your dive computer to dive with Enriched Air Nitrox.

What is included: * Course manual * Theory class * Certified instructor * PADI certification fees * Full diving equipment * 2 Open water dives with Nitrox tanks Requirements: * Minimum age: 12 years * Minimum certification: Open Water Diver

Price: $250 USD
Would you like to feel as if you were flying? To hang still under water, observing and photographing aquatic life without disturbing your surroundings? Your mastery of buoyancy will allow you all this and more. As a scuba diver you should be neutrally buoyant, so you neither sink nor float. Peak Performance Buoyancy is indispensable for every diver: you basically need it for all dives, and a proper buoyancy control is your first defense against dive-related accidents. It’s what sets expert divers apart.

It can be a bit tricky at first, mainly because it is so dynamic: your buoyancy changes from one dive location to another, it changes with the equipment you use, and it even changes during the dive. But no worries: during our Peak Performance Buoyancy course you will acquire new skills that will allow you to better control your breathing, which will give you extra time under water. We will also help you improve and refine the skills you’ve already learned during your Open Water diving course and elevate them to the next level.

De PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty course consists of two parts: a theoretical part to develop your knowledge about buoyancy, and a practical part in which we make two open water dives. During the dives we will determine the exact weight you need, you will learn to trim your weight system and scuba gear so that you are perfectly balanced underwater, and we’ll teach you how to streamline to move smoother, to save energy and to use your air more efficiently. Once you master all of this, you'll hover effortlessly in any position, minimizing the impact on your surroundings.

What is included: * Course manual * Theory class * Certified instructor * PADI certification fees * Full diving equipment * 2 Open water dives Requirements: * Minimum age: 10 years * Minimum certification: Open Water Diver

Price: $180 USD
There are many reasons why you might want to dive deeper than the 60 feet/18 meters that your Open Water training allows you to. Whether it's a wreck dive or a dive off the amazing reef walls in Cozumel, or maybe you want to dive with the amazing bull sharks. Whatever the reason may be, you will need a deep diving certification.

During the PADI Deep Diver Specialty course we will teach you entry and exit techniques, we go much more ‘in depth’ when it comes to dive planning, gas management and No Decompression Limits, and you’ll also learn about the configuration for your dive equipment and your dive computer.

Although we are doing deep dives, for this PADI Specialty course we always respect the recreational limits, so that your diving is as fun but also as safe as possible.

What is included: * Course manual * Theory class * Certified instructor * PADI certification fees * Full diving equipment * 4 Open water dives Requirements: * Minimum age: 15 years * Minimum certification: Open Water Diver

Price: $275 USD
Feeling the rush of flying underwater and literally “going with the flow”, that is what drift diving is all about. During your Open Water Diver training you are taught that we should dive against the current, in order to return more comfortably to our starting point. This way we avoid the risk of running out of air later in the dive. But when the force of the currents is very strong, this may not be possible.

The PADI Drift Diver Specialty course shows you how to enjoy the ocean currents and use them to your advantage. We also focus on planning, organization, procedures, techniques, problems and hazards. To fully enjoy the drift diving, you also need to put in practice buoyancy control, techniques for staying close to a buddy or staying together as a group, navigation and communication while flying underwater.

With the right techniques, drift diving is nearly effortless, sometimes you will only have to move your fins a little bit to control your buoyancy, so it is very efficient in terms of saving energy and air. Just let the current do the work, relax, and glide along.

What is included: * Course manual * Theory class * Certified instructor * PADI certification fees * Full diving equipment * 2 Open water dives Requirements: * Minimum age: 12 years * Minimum certification: Open Water Diver

Price: $180 USD
Have you ever wondered what fish do when the sun goes down? Or how turtles sleep? At night everything changes underwater, with your night diver certification, you will discover what happens in the dark. With the help of your flashlight you will get to see the sea in a different way: the fish and other marine life you are used to admire during the day are gone, and you’ll see new and sometimes strange creatures you have never seen before, because they’re usually hiding themselves during the day.

At night is the time when the kingdom of the crustaceans takes over: lobsters, crabs and shrimps are walking on the reefs and sea bottom after a nice daytime siesta. A lot of the reef predators such as lionfish, morays, groupers, rays or even sharks are out hunting. And you may find an octopus, crawling amid a reef, change color before your eyes and jet away into the blackness.

The PADI Night Diver Specialty course is designed to introduce you to night diving and helps you develop the necessary skills, knowledge and techniques to participate in night diving activities. You will learn about factors that should be considered before you go underwater in the dark, planning, specialized equipment and we’ll go through all the communication and safety procedures at night. Not seeing your surroundings like during the day affects your techniques such as buoyancy, buddy control, positioning and even your air consumption. Your instructor will help you overcome these challenges underwater.

What is included: * Course manual * Theory class * Certified instructor * PADI certification fees * Full diving equipment * 3 Open water night dives Requirements: * Minimum age: 12 years * Minimum certification: Open Water Diver * Minimum 4 students

Price: $380 USD
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