Padi Open Water Diver Exam

0 views

Skip to first unread message

Fritzi Vanderweel

unread,

Aug 4, 2024, 9:22:48 PM8/4/24

to daepremastua

Afteryour confined water dives, you'll head to open water, where you and your instructor will make four dives, usually over two days. On these dives you'll get to explore the underwater world. You'll apply the skills you learned in confined water while enjoying what the local environment has to offer. Most student divers complete these dives close to home, but there is an option for finishing your training while on holiday. Your PADI Instructor can explain how you can be referred to another PADI Instructor in a different location.

Choosing and using your scuba gear is part of the fun of diving. Your local PADI Dive Center or Resort will help you find the right gear. Each piece of scuba equipment has a different function so that together, it adapts you to the underwater world.

The minimum age is 10 years old (in most areas). Student divers who are younger than 15 earn the PADI Junior Open Water Diver certification, which they may upgrade to PADI Open Water Diver certification upon reaching 15. Children under the age of 13 require parent or guardian permission to register for PADI eLearning.

Any individual who can meet the performance requirements of the course qualifies for certification. There are many adaptive techniques that allow individuals with physical challenges to meet these requirements. People with paraplegia, amputations and other challenges commonly earn the PADI Open Water Diver certification. Even individuals with more significant physical challenges participate in diving. Talk to your PADI Instructor at your local PADI Dive Center or Resort for more information.

Each diver must have a personal set of the learning materials to use during the course and for reference after the course. There are several options available, depending on your learning style and technology preference, including:

The only truly important thing about where you dive is that you have the training and experience for diving there, and that you have a dive buddy to go with you. Your local PADI Dive Center or Resort can help you organize great local diving or a dive vacation.

Sunburn, seasickness and dehydration, all of which are preventable, are the most common problems divers face. Injuries caused by marine life, such as scrapes and stings, do occur, but these can be avoided by wearing an exposure suit, staying off the bottom and watching where you put your hands and feet.

Aside from pregnancy, no. Because physiologists know little about the effects of diving on the fetus, the recommendation is that women avoid diving while pregnant or trying to become pregnant. Menstruation is not normally a concern.

If you hold a professional rating from another diver training organization and wish to become a PADI Divemaster or Instructor, please contact a PADI Five Star Instructor Development Center or Career Development Center (CDC).

An instructor in good standing from another diver training organization may be eligible to enroll in an Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) program. This program is shorter than a complete IDC and focuses building upon your teaching skills by introducing you to the PADI System. You must also successfully complete a PADI Instructor Exam (IE) to become a PADI Instructor.

In theory, an expert diver should be writing this post. Logically, he or she could tell you what to expect, give you insider tips and prepare you for the challenge ahead. That said, I have one distinct advantage over the experts: I know exactly how hard it is for nervous first-timers.

You will find the practical side of diving much easier if you read through the theory first. Your dive centre will supply you with a book comprising five different chapters. If you can confidently answer the tests within the chapters and the knowledge reviews at the end of each, you will likely pass the exam without difficulty.

Depending on your learning style, it is possible to blitz through chapters 1-3 on one night and 4-5 on the second. Naturally, if you have more time to play with, then feel free to split up the studying even further. You can also choose the eLearning option. This may be provided by your dive centre as standard, or you can choose to self-learn before beginning the practical course.

You must complete four open water dives in order to pass the course. Dive 1 will orientate you, get you comfortable with the scuba gear and test a few of the above skills. Dives 2 and 3 will rigorously test the above skills while Dive 4 is usually a more relaxed affair allowing you to use and enjoy your newly developed skills.

The Advanced Open Water Diver course is all about advancing your skills. You'll practice navigation and buoyancy, try deep diving and make three specialty dives of your choosing (it's like a specialty sampler platter). For every specialty dive you complete, you can earn credit toward PADI specialty certifications.

Here are a few of the many options: Deep, Digital Underwater Photography, Dive Against Debris, Dry Suit, Fish Identification, Night, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Search & Recovery, Underwater Naturalist, Underwater Navigation, and Wreck Diver.

Advanced open water diver elearning includes interactive lessons on 13 popular specialty dives: altitude, boat, digital underwater imaging, drift, dry suit, fish id, night, buoyancy, search and recovery, underwater naturalist and wreck diving.

When I was four years old, I told my mom I was running away from home. I filled a little red wagon with my prized possessions (mostly stuffed animals) and set out for the unknown: our driveway. My mom stood at the front door and watched me tow my wagon to the end of our carport. I took one look at the pouring rain, turned around, and came back inside.

Twenty years later, I found myself dragging a wagon piled with dive gear along the picturesque waterfront of Avalon, California. As I gazed toward our destination, the famous Casino Point dive site, my guts churned with the same mix of excitement and fear I had when I stepped off the front stoop.

The next morning, we hauled our scuba gear to the dive site, ready for adventure. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of putting my wetsuit on first. In a matter of moments, I was sweating like crazy under 7mm of neoprene.

Neither of us had been in a kelp forest before, but getting tangled in kelp was the furthest thing from my mind. Why? Because all I could think about were the equalization problems I had during my open water training dives. It took ages for me to descend below 10 metres/30 feet.

Like many divers, I incorrectly assumed Advanced Open Water is only for divers who have reached an advanced skill level. Luckily, someone explained what Advanced Open Water is actually about: working with an instructor to gain dive experience. There are no quizzes or exams and you spend the majority of the class in the water.

The PADI Open Water Diver Certification course is the most basic level certification for any starting diver. It is a rigorous 3-day course that includes reading a 250-page textbook about the theory of diving (pressure, currents, safety scenarios, how to calculate body nitrogen levels, etc.), watching a 2.5 hr DVD, taking 4 quizzes, a 50-question final exam, 5 confined water dives, and 4 open water dives. With the certification, Irene and I have the privilege to rent scuba gear and dive independently without an instructor anywhere in the world. We can also descend to a maximum depth of 60 feet and my certification is lifelong and internationally recognized. It opens up a whole new door of opportunities and is a great investment.

On the first day of the course at 8am, Irene and I drove 20 minutes into the sleepy town of Grand Case on the French side. We had completed all the mini-review questions in the textbook and were ready to take the exam. For the past few days, we had studied together, quizzed each other, and answered each others questions. We were fortunate that we were the only two people in the class: just Irene and me, and Sally, the instructor and co-owner of Octopus Diving. We went over the key points for each of the five chapters, taking a 10-question quiz between each chapter. After we felt we were ready, we took a deep breath and attempted the 50-question final exam that would complete our academic portion of the course. We both passed with a 44/50, albeit each of us missing completely different questions.

Then on the third and last day of the course, we knew what to do and were confident going into the water. Irene bought an underwater camera to take pictures and videos with. For these dives, we knew we were going to really enjoy it. Like last time, we dived at Creole Rock and Turtle Reef. We learned a few more new skills, like navigating through the waters using a compass.

If you like people, have a passion for scuba diving and want an extraordinary life - become a PADI Instructor. Teaching scuba diving allows you to share your love of the aquatic world with others while doing what you enjoy - being in, around and under water. PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors and PADI Assistant Instructors are the most sought-after dive professionals around the world because they've completed the program that sets the standard for training dive professionals. You earn a PADI Instructor rating through hard work and commitment, but you're rewarded with a job that lets you share incredible underwater adventures with others - transforming their lives for the better and enriching yours.