1. Knowledge Development – This develops your familiarity
with basic principles and procedures. You learn things like how
pressure affects your body, how to choose the best gear and what to
consider when planning dives.
You complete Knowledge Development on your own, reading each of five
sections of the PADI Open Water Diver Manual and watching the
corresponding section of the PADI Open Water Diver Video (which also
previews skills you’ll learn).
Doc Alan checks out a new Student's Regulator
If you like learning with a personal computer, you can also get
the Open Water Diver Manual and Video together as
a CD-ROM. You briefly review what you studied in each section with
your instructor and take a short quiz to be sure you’re getting it.
At the end of the course, you take an exam that makes sure you’ve
got all the key concepts and ideas down.
2. Confined Water Dives – This is what it’s all about
– diving. You develop basic scuba skills in a pool or in a body of
water with pool-like conditions. Here you’ll learn
everything from setting up your gear to how to easily get water out
of your mask without surfacing. You’ll also practice some emergency
skills, like sharing air – just in case.
Plus, you may play some games, make new friends and have a great
time.
There are five confined water dives, with each building upon the
previous.
Over the course of these five dives, you attain the skills you
need to dive in open water.
3. Open Water Dives – After your confined water dives,
you and the new friends you’ve made continue learning during four
open water dives with your PADI Instructor
at a dive site. This is where you have fun putting it all together
and fully experience the underwater adventure – at the beginner
level, of course.
