PADI Open Water Scuba Diver
Become PADI Certified
If you’ve always wanted to take scuba diving lessons, experience unparalleled adventure and see the world beneath the waves, this is where it starts. Get your scuba diving certification with the PADI Open Water Diver course – the world’s most popular and widely recognized scuba course. Millions of people have learned to scuba dive and gone on to discover the wonders of the aquatic world through this course.
To enroll in a PADI Open Water Diver course or Junior Open Water Diver course, you must be 10 years old or older (10 & 11 year olds are private instruction only. Please call us for details). You need adequate swimming skills and need to be in good physical health. No prior experience with scuba diving is required.
Process Academics
PADI's Online Training program is designed so that you can learn the academics at your own pace when it is convenient for you. You can complete the academics online.
Equipment
In the PADI Open Water Diver course, you learn to use basic scuba gear, including a mask, snorkel, fins, regulator, buoyancy control device and a tank. The equipment you wear varies, depending upon whether you’re diving in tropical, temperate or cold water.
Pool Training
When you're fitted with your scuba equipment you will begin your pool training with your instructor. Your instructor will put into practice the techniques you learned in the academics program. Your training dives will be logged and approved by your instructor before you move on to open water.
Open Water Training
Get ready to experience everything you've learned with the freedom of open water. As soon as your open water training dives are approved by your instructor you will be a certified diver. PADI Open Water Diver certification is recognized worldwide so your diving experiences will be limitless.
Get Certified
Includes:
- Instruction Fee
- Materials + E-learning
- PADI Certification
- Scuba Gear Rentals
- Catalina Day Trip
Not Included:
- Any applicable taxes
- Personal Gear (Mask, Snorkel, Gloves, Booties, Fins). Talk to our staff about our AWESOME personal gear discount for new students!
Availability: In Stock
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.
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.
If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).
Course prerequisites: able to swim, medically fit for diving, comfortable in the water
During the Open Water Diver course, your instructor will ask you to:
- Float or tread water without aids for 10 minutes
- Swim 200 metres/yards with no aids or 300 metres/yards with mask, fins and snorkel
Minimum age: 10
Divers certified between the ages of 10-14 earn a Junior Diver certification
Junior Open Water Divers automatically become 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 Open Water Diver (not Jr. Open Water Diver) certification.
Children eight or older can try scuba diving in a pool (or pool-like environment). Ask us about a Bubblemaker experience or birthday party. Children who are comfortable in the water can participate in the PADI Seal Team program, a multi-day pool diving experience.
This course requires both knowledge development and inwater training for certification. When you purchase a PADI eLearning course (optional) from our website, the cost covers the knowledge development portion only.
There will be an additional cost to complete your certification with a PADI Instructor. The cost depends on class size, location, and whether or not you need to rent equipment.
- We 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 inwater 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, are not be included with the inwater training cost but are available for rent.
- You will also need to buy or rent exposure protection (wetsuit or drysuit) for the Southern California diving environment.
Experience new adventures with a PADI Instructor by your side. PADI continuing education courses like Advanced Open Water Diver and Deep Diver will help you develop your skills as a diver.
Not sure which specialty to try first? Try the Advanced Open Water Diver course, it's like a specialty sampler platter.
- Improve your navigation and buoyancy skills while you try new activities like wreck diving, night diving, or digital imaging
- Choose from more than 20 specialty diving options
- An Advanced Open Water Diver certification also opens the door to dive sites deeper than 18m/60ft
If you don't have the opportunity to dive for six months (or longer), you can quickly refresh the knowledge and skills you learned in Open Water with the PADI ReActivate® program. Your PADI certification never expires, but after a long period of inactivity, you may want to brush up on diving fundamentals and safety procedures.
