PADI Specialties
PADI Specialty Courses
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) offers a variety of specialty courses designed to enhance your diving skills and knowledge. Here's a brief overview of each course:
Enriched Air Nitrox
This course teaches divers how to use enriched air nitrox, a gas mixture that contains a higher percentage of oxygen and a lower percentage of nitrogen than regular air. The NITROX allows divers to extend their bottom time and shorten their surface intervals.
Wreck Diver
The Wreck Diver course trains divers to explore shipwrecks safely. Divers learn techniques for diving, navigating through wrecks, and understanding the legal aspects of wreck diving.
Digital Underwater Photography
This course helps divers master the art of underwater photography. It covers topics like camera selection, underwater lighting, and photo editing.
Deep Diver
The Deep Diver course prepares divers for dives between 18 and 40 meters deep. It covers deep dive planning, buddy contact procedures, and gas supply management.
Peak Performance Buoyancy
This course helps divers achieve perfect buoyancy, allowing them to conserve air, move more smoothly underwater, and better protect the underwater environment.
Cavern Diver
The Cavern Diver course trains divers to explore caverns safely and responsibly. It covers topics like line-laying and line-following and the use of special equipment like lights and reels.
Night Diver
The Night Diver course teaches divers how to navigate and communicate underwater in low-light conditions or at night.
Search and Recovery
This course trains divers in search patterns, lift bag use, and other underwater techniques for finding and recovering lost items.
Underwater Navigator
The Underwater Navigator course teaches divers how to use a compass, natural clues, and other navigation tools to find their way underwater.
Diver Propulsion Vehicle
This course introduces divers to the use of Diver Propulsion Vehicles (DPVs), which can cover large areas of underwater terrain quickly.
Drift Diver
The Drift Diver course teaches divers how to enjoy drift dives, which are carried out in current and often involve a boat pickup at the end.
Sidemount Diver
The Sidemount Diver course trains divers to use a sidemount configuration, where the tanks are carried on either side of the diver's body instead of on the back.
Master Scuba Diver
The Master Scuba Diver course is the highest non-professional PADI rating. It involves completing five specialty courses and logging 50 dives.
Underwater Naturalist
This course teaches divers about the complex interactions and behaviors of aquatic life, helping them to become more responsible underwater explorers.
AWARE Fish ID
The AWARE Fish ID course trains divers to identify typical Caribbean, Indo-Pacific, and Red Sea reef fish families.
Boat Diver
The Boat Diver course teaches divers about boat diving procedures and etiquette, including how to enter and exit a boat and where to store your gear.
Self Reliant Diver
This course trains experienced divers with the skills and knowledge needed to dive without a partner, including redundancy, safety, and emergency management.
Emergency Oxygen Provider
This course teaches divers how to recognize diving illnesses treatable with emergency oxygen and how to set up and administer emergency oxygen properly.
Remember, each PADI Specialty course has prerequisites and requirements, so it's essential to check with your local PADI dive shop or instructor for more details.
