OVERVIEW AND QUALIFICATIONS

This course is a continuing education certification course for certified divers. It is an enjoyable program of continued supervised experience designed to introduce divers to a variety of diving activities and to be taught entirely in an open water setting. Upon successful completion of this course, graduates are considered competent to engage in open water diving activities without supervision, provided the diving environment, activities, areas dived, and equipment approximate those of training.

This course is appropriate for divers who:

• Desire additional training.

• Have moved from one diving area to another and desire local orientation.

• Do not have, but wish to obtain, NAUI certification.

• Desire orientation to a variety of diving sites and conditions.

PREREQUISITES

• Age. Minimum is 15 years by the water phase of the course. (Junior certification for ages 10-14 years is allowed.) 

• Certification/Experience/Knowledge. Certification as a NAUI Open Water Scuba Diver or the equivalent is required. The instructor is to ensure adequate student knowledge and capability before any open water training and shall use skill or other evaluations to do so. One open water dive (which does not count toward the minimum number of dives required for the course) may be used as a screening and evaluation dive. This is not required when the student’s diving proficiencies are well known to the instructor.

• Equipment. Students shall furnish and be responsible for the care and maintenance of their own diving equipment. The instructor shall initially assist the student in checking all student gear to ensure it is adequate and in proper working order.

REQUIREMENTS

– ACADEMIC

• General.

• Academics presented during the course orientation, dive briefings and debriefings and eLearning are to be used to enhance the safety, knowledge and appreciation of the dives made.
• Whenever possible a variety of sites shall be dived. Students are to prepare and present dive plans for each location and dive purpose. If a limited number of sites are available, the instructor can aid learning by creating varied meaningful dive tasks. Logbook entries shall reflect the specific activities of the dives.
• Instructor led dive briefings and debriefings done in conjunction with the open water dives are required. The student divers shall fully participate in the dive planning process.
• Subjects and skills of importance for emphasis during briefings and dives include:

1. Fitness, stress, individual limitations, fatigue, exposure, and diving adaptations.
2. Rough water, limited visibility, and dive/abort decision making.
3. Weight use, suit compression compensation, breathing patterns as related to buoyancy control, and descent and ascent control.
4. Dive planning, equipment preparation and care, and buddy diving. Each diver is to assume a leadership role on at least one dive.
5. Communication, instrument use, and navigation.
6. Environmental aspects and diving skills that minimally impact the environment.
7. Rescues and assists (self and buddy), emergency system and actions are to be reviewed and practiced.

REQUIREMENTS

– SKILLS

• Scuba Diving (open water). Students are to demonstrate the ability to:

• Perform selected basic scuba skills
• Perform selected rescue or assist skills.
• Use dive tables to plan all dives.
• Record dives in logbooks.
• Navigate underwater.
• Use appropriate equipment to perform selected tasks.

– ACTIVITIES.

• The required dive topic areas listed represents three separate dives of the minimum six required. The remaining dives can be combined or split as needed to fit the situation and meet student needs provided at least six separate dives are made.

– REQUIRED DIVES.

• Navigation
• Night or low visibility diving
• Deep diving (40m/130 feet maximum depth)

– ELECTIVE DIVES.

• Search and recovery
• Boat diving
• Light salvage
• Hunting and collecting
• Exploration and underwater mapping
• Non-penetration wreck diving
• Observation and data collection
• Diving in surf or currents
• Altitude diving
• Salt water diving (in areas where most diving is in fresh water) Fresh water diving (in areas where most diving is in salt water)
• Shore diving
• Diving for photos or videos
• Using dive computers

*** PLEASE READ!!! ***

Althoug NAUI does not have minimum quantity of dives required, California Scuba Center does. We will NOT certify you as an Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver unless you have a minimum of 15 dives AND you are able to complete the skills to the level of an Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver.  The minimum number of dives is just a minimum. If you have 15 dives but you can not complete the skills to the level we require, we will not complete your certification until such time as you meet OUR standards. If we have to work with you and conduct some additional training it will be done with no additional costs to the training costs.

Total Course Package Includes:

Instructor fee

Pool sessions

Air fills

NAUI elearning material

Required but Not Included (items with * are available for rent):

Mask

Fins

Booties

Gloves

Hood

SMB

Dive Tables

*BCD

*Life Support System (1st Stage, 2nd Stage, Alternate, Computer or SPG)

*Cylnider

*Wetsuit

*Weights

Open Water Dives (To be discussed)