PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course

If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).

Avoid disappointment, download and review the Diver Medical form to ensure you won’t need a physician’s approval to dive before enrolling in a scuba course. Instructors, divemasters, and dive shop staff are not physicians and should not be asked for medical advice; only medical professionals can give medical clearance to dive.

Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.

Course prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver, Junior Open Water Diver, or qualifying entry-level certification.

The minimum age to start the Advanced Open Water Diver course is 12.

Divers 10-11 can earn a Junior Adventure Diver certification. Upon turning 12, they can complete the deep dive and earn a Junior Advanced Open Water Diver certification.

Divers between the age of 12-14 earn a Junior Advanced Open Water Diver certification.

Divers 15 or older earn an Advanced Open Water Diver certification.

Divers certified as Junior Advanced Open Water Divers automatically become Advanced Open Water Divers at age 15. Any replacement certification card or eCard purchased the day after the diver's 15th birthday will automatically show an Advanced Open Water Diver (not Jr. Advanced Open Water Diver) certification.

This course requires both knowledge development and in-water training for certification.

• When you purchase a PADI eLearning course from Start Diving Online or directly from PADI, the cost covers the knowledge development portion only.
• There will be an additional cost to complete the practical part of your course with a PADI Instructor. The cost depends on class size, location, and whether or not you need to rent equipment.

Most dive shops require students to provide their own mask, fins, and snorkel. If you already own a mask, snorkel, and/or fins, bring them to your instructor before your first in-water session. Some snorkeling masks and fins are inadequate for scuba diving.

Basic scuba gear, including a regulator, buoyancy control device (BCD), dive computer, and cylinder, may or may not be included with the in-water training cost.

You may also need to buy or rent exposure protection (wetsuit or drysuit) depending on the diving environment.

Regenerate response

Once registered, you can’t change the PADI Dive Center or Resort associated with your online program. However, the eRecord you receive when you complete your online study is accepted by any PADI Dive Center, Resort or Instructor worldwide. Where you complete your training is your choice, so it’s not necessary to change the store or instructor associated with your eLearning account.

PADI eLearning: 6-8 hours. This is the time you need for the thoery online.

Entire course: 2-3 days. This is the practical part of the course

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If you go somewhere without internet access, or during your next flight use the PADI Training app. Download your course course content and study offline. Content can be downloaded in small sections with a total file size of approximately 1.10 GB. When you get back online, upload your progress so you can resume your training right where you left off.

The PADI Training app is available for Android™ and Apple® iOS devices. For the ideal experience, devices should be no more than three models old and running with the most current OS (operating system).