PADI Advanced Diving Courses in Phuket, Thailand

Valid from January 2008

If you are already a certified PADI Open Water diver then the next step is to complete either your PADI Adventure diver or Advanced Open Water diver certification. Not only will this help you to gain extra knowledge and diving experience but also, and very importantly, remove depth limit restrictions imposed on you as an Open Water diver. By taking the Deep adventure dive you can increase your depth limits from 18 to 30 metres allowing you to visit dive sites otherwise inaccessible and also to increase your insurance coverage.

Click on the link below to read a detailed description of each course or read below for details of the different adventure dives on offer and what you can expect to experience on each. All courses come with private instruction!

Adventure Diver Course: Adventure Diver Duration: 1 day No. of Dives: 3 Price: 7,900 baht per person

Advanced Open Water Course: Advanced Open Water Duration: 2 days No. of Dives: 5 Price: 12,400 baht per person

Advanced Deluxe Course: Advanced Deluxe Duration: 2 days No. of Dives: 7 on overnight trip Price: 17,900 baht per person

Adventure Dives Choices

Prior to each dive read the appropriate chapter in the "Adventures in Diving" manual, complete the knowledge review and discuss it with your own personal instructor. Next, go for the dive and complete certain tasks depending on the adventure dive you are doing. Details of each dive are given below.

Deep

As an Open Water diver you will find that you are limited to a recommended maximum depth of 18 metres. This is for your own safety as diving deeper is far more hazardous in many different ways IF you don't follow the rules. The purpose of this dive is to reinforce those rules and gain experience in diving between 18 to 30 metres. On the dive itself once you reach your deepest part of the dive you will be asked to carry out a couple of mental exercises which you will later repeat on the surface. All exercises are timed and the purpose is to give you an understanding of the effects of nitrogen narcosis at depth.

Diver Propulsion Vehicle (Underwater Scooter)

There are so many superb things you can do whilst diving but spending a dive using a diver propulsion vehicle has to be the best! You can re-enact famous scenes from James Bond films or simply have a lazy dive with no fin kicking involved. Having learnt how to set the scooter up you get to head off for the dive. Practice some simple manoeuvres with the scooter before having vast quantities of fun! Please note that there is an additional charge for the DPV rentals - 1,200 baht per person plus 1,200 baht for the instructor's DPV too.

Multi-level and Computer Diving

During your Open Water course you would have learnt how to use the Recreational Dive Planner to plan dives. If you choose this subject then you will learn how to plan dives using the RDP Wheel. With the wheel you are able to plan multi-level dives giving you much better estimates than with the table. You will also cover computer use, the most accurate way to check no decompression limits on a dive.

Night

Diving at night is a completely different underwater experience. With visibility limited to within the beam of your torch it can give quite an eerie feeling but fascinating nonetheless. Night time brings with it different types of marine life to those you would have seen during the day, in particular crabs, shrimps, lobsters and other crustaceans appear. Also the torch light really brings out the true colours of the corals and other marine life, much more than in daylight. As well as experiencing a night dive and learning how to communicate in the dark you also get to practice compass use at night.

Peak Performance Buoyancy

Practicing buoyancy is very much overlooked by divers in general who just want to get underwater and see things. However, as with any other sports spending time on your technique can greatly enhance your ability and ultimately your enjoyment. Not only that but its fun to practice. Fin pivots, hovering and swimming in between objects are a few of the things you can try, maybe even a headstand or two too! Whatever you try you will be amazed at how much your buoyancy has improved by the end of this dive.

Underwater Naturalist

The underwater world is an amazing place with so much variety of marine life on offer. Not only that but fantastic landscapes and changing topography can be experienced. With the naturalist dive you can start to get an understanding of the eco-system and its differences with the eco-systems on land. Not only that but gain an understanding of how we can enjoy this beautiful environment in a responsible way ensuring that it stays around for generations to come. Finally learn differences between vertebrates, invertebrates and plants and identify the different groups whilst on the dive itself.

Underwater Digital Photography

With all the wonderful things to see underwater it's great if you can actually capture those memories on camera. However it's not quite as easy as it may appear. The first thing to focus on before even picking up a camera id attaining good buoyancy so it is recommended to take the Peak Performance Buoyancy adventure dive first. Start initially by learning how to set up camera and housing. This is the most important step as there is no worse feeling than seeing water inside the housing whilst you are on the dive! Learn also about composition, focal settings and use of light underwater before going off to take some snaps on the dive. Afterwards review the photos and discuss the positives and negatives.

Underwater Navigation

On your Open Water course you would have learnt the most straight forward compass navigation technique, the reciprocal heading, where you head out in a straight line, rotate 180 degrees and return to your starting point. On the navigation adventure dive you get to learn a lot more navigational techniques. Understand how you can estimate distances using either tie or fin kick cycles. Practice a reciprocal heading and then how to navigate a square using a compass. Finally understand the ideas and concepts behind natural navigation i.e. using underwater landmarks. This is the method that professional guides use for navigation and will help you to understand how they seem to easily find there way back to the starting point!

Wreck

Many divers have fascinations with wrecks and not surprising really. Wrecks can often be quite eerie places giving an inner feeling of nervous excitement. Not only that but wrecks are also havens for marine life. In Phuket there is a fantastic wreck dive called the King Cruiser. This is where we carry out this adventure dive and the wreck itself is covered with all different types of fish. Before the dive you get to discuss different methods for navigating wrecks in general and then on the dive you will be given the task of finding your way back to your start point without the use of a compass. This is where those natural navigation techniques learnt during the underwater navigation dive become very useful indeed.