When to start doing Specialty Courses
Sometimes the concept of continuing education courses can seem bewildering and nobody seems to want to say what the thing to do is. At Open Water Diver level, the truth is you have the pre-requisite for certainly Advanced Open Water but you can also do Specialty courses to benefit you early on as well.
Open Water Diver or lower Prerequisite Specialties
Non diving Specialties with no prerequisites:
Non diving Specialty with Open Water Diver prerequisite:
EANx – Enriched Air/Nitrox – 12 years old
Specialties with Open Water Diver prerequisite:
Altitude Diver – 12 years old
Underwater Archaeology – 12 years old
Drift Diver – 12 years old
Research Diver – 15 years old
Divers decide to do a Specialty for many reasons; from exploring an area of interest, to developing and learning techniques to hone diving skills or to gain the certifications for the likes of the PADI Master SCUBA Diver rating.
Having an entourage of Specialty ratings also ensures you have the rating/s required when the diving opportunities arise. For example, when you get the chance to do some Wreck diving you need a Wreck Specialty diver rating to do penetration dives in a ship wreck. Also, to dive with Enriched Air Nitrox you need to be either PADI Enriched Air or TDI Nitrox Diver certified.
Some specialties do require a minimum age or older than 10 years old; i.e. Deep Specialty requires a minimum age of 15 years. Others have age and Adventure diver (3 x Advanced Open Water diver or Specialty Diver courses prior to beginning) like both Deep and Wreck Specialties. Plus a very few others do require Advanced Open Water as a prerequisite.
Adventure Diver and Advanced Open Water prerequisite
Specialties with Adventure Diver prerequisite:
Deep Diver – Adventure diver & 15 years old
Wreck Diver – Adventure diver & 15 years old
Specialties with Advanced Open Water prerequisite:
Search and Recovery Diver – 12 years old
Self Reliant Diver – 18 years old
Solo Diver (SDI) – 21 years old
As you can see, just like the PADI Advanced Open Water course, Specialty Diver courses are designed for new divers as much as experienced divers looking to explore more and get better at different things like buoyancy control and underwater navigation. The courses add quality and skill to your ongoing diving adventures and can open up the other options available to explore the underwater world at your leisure.
