5 Reasons the PADI Advanced Open Water Course is Your Next Best Adventure
You did it. You earned your PADI Open Water Diver certification. You took your first breaths underwater, mastered the feeling of weightlessness, and opened a door to a world you’d only ever seen in documentaries. You’ve experienced the magic of gliding over the vibrant reefs of Bohol, and a question has likely started to bubble up in your mind: “What’s next?”
For many, the name “Advanced” Open Water can sound intimidating. It brings to mind difficult challenges and intense exams. But here’s a secret from our team of instructors at Sierra Madre Divers: the Advanced course is arguably the most fun, confidence-boosting, and purely experiential course in the entire PADI system.
Think of it less as a “test” and more as a guided adventure—a tasting menu of scuba specialties under the direct supervision of an experienced PADI Instructor. It’s where you stop learning to dive and start diving to learn. It’s where you truly find your fins and become a relaxed, capable, and confident diver.
If you’re ready to take your diving to the next level, here are five incredible adventures waiting for you in the PADI Advanced Open Water course that will change the way you dive forever.
1. The Adventure: The Thrill of the Deep
The Experience: This is one of the two mandatory dives in the course, and for good reason. Your instructor will guide you beyond the 18-meter (60-foot) limit of your Open Water certification, down to a maximum depth of 30 meters (100 feet). As you descend down a stunning Bohol wall, you’ll feel the pressure increase and see the light change, with the blue hues becoming deeper and more intense. Your instructor will have you perform simple tasks to observe the fascinating (and completely manageable) effects of nitrogen narcosis, often called “the martini effect,” giving you a firsthand understanding of how your body and mind react at depth.
The Skill You Gain: This dive is all about awareness and planning. You’ll learn how to manage your air consumption more carefully, as it depletes faster at depth. You’ll understand how to monitor your no-decompression limits (NDLs) closely and see how colours are absorbed differently the deeper you go. Most importantly, you gain a profound respect for the underwater environment and a deep-seated confidence in your ability to handle a new environment safely.
How it Transforms Your Diving: Unlocking the 30-meter depth range opens up a massive new underwater world. Suddenly, deeper wrecks, dramatic wall formations, and specific marine life habitats are accessible to you. Many of the most iconic dive sites around the world, including some of the spectacular drop-offs here in Bohol, have their best features waiting just beyond 18 meters. This single dive expands your diving passport immensely.
2. The Adventure: Becoming a Human Compass
The Experience: The second mandatory dive, Underwater Navigation, is the one that transforms you from a “passenger” to a “pilot.” This dive can sound technical, but it’s incredibly empowering. You’ll learn how to use an underwater compass, not just to swim in a straight line, but to navigate a specific pattern, like a square or a triangle, and arrive right back where you started. You’ll also learn to use natural landmarks—a uniquely shaped coral head, a sandy patch, a line of rocks—to orient yourself and build a mental map of the dive site.
The Skill You Gain: Confidence. Pure, unadulterated confidence. You develop situational awareness and the ability to lead a dive with your buddy. You stop solely following the guide and start actively participating in the dive plan, noticing the environment around you in a whole new way.
How it Transforms Your Diving: The confidence you gain from the navigation dive is a game-changer. You’ll feel more comfortable exploring new sites, you’ll be a more reliable and valuable dive buddy, and you’ll have the foundation to one day lead dives yourself. Imagine the satisfaction of exploring the vast reef at Balicasag and knowing exactly how to get back to the boat’s mooring line on your own.
3. The Adventure: Achieving Total Weightlessness
The Experience: As an elective, the Peak Performance Buoyancy (PPB) adventure dive is a diver favourite, and we highly recommend it. This is where you learn to be a true Jedi of the water. You’ll fine-tune your weighting to the gram, learning to hover effortlessly just inches off the sandy bottom without moving a muscle. You’ll practice swimming through imaginary hoops without stirring up silt and learn to control your position with nothing more than your breath, ascending and descending with perfect precision.
The Skill You Gain: The art of doing nothing. Perfect buoyancy is the key to effortless diving. You’ll learn to be more relaxed, which drastically improves your air consumption (giving you longer dives!). Your movements become more graceful, and your interaction with the environment becomes completely passive.
How it Transforms Your Diving: This is the skill that makes everything else better. Your underwater photography will improve because you can hold perfectly still. You’ll be able to get closer to shy marine life without startling it. You will protect the delicate coral reef from accidental fin kicks. And, as mentioned, you’ll make every tank of air last significantly longer.
4. The Adventure: Exploring a World After Dark
The Experience: For many, the Night Dive elective is the most memorable of the course. Equipped with a powerful torch, you descend into a familiar dive site just as the sun sets, only to discover it has completely transformed. The coral polyps are open and feeding, and a whole new cast of characters has emerged from their hiding places. You’ll see crabs, lobsters, and shrimps scuttling across the reef, while octopuses hunt in the open. You might even witness the incredible phenomenon of bioluminescence, turning off your torch and waving your hands to create sparks of living light in the darkness.
The Skill You Gain: You learn to use dive lights for communication and navigation, and you become more attuned to the details of the reef, as your world is focused within the beam of your torch. It hones your observational skills and teaches you to appreciate the subtler side of marine life.
How it Transforms Your Diving: It literally doubles the number of dive sites you can explore. A reef you know by day becomes a brand-new adventure by night. It opens up a whole new realm of diving possibilities and reveals the 24-hour life cycle of a coral reef.
5. The Adventure: Learning to Fly Underwater
The Experience: Bohol is famous for its beautiful walls and the gentle currents that can sweep along them. The Drift Dive elective teaches you how to use this current to your advantage. Instead of fighting it, you learn to relax, get neutral, and let the water carry you on an effortless flight along the reef. It’s one of the most serene and exhilarating ways to dive.
The Skill You Gain: You’ll learn specific techniques for entry, exit, and maintaining buddy contact in a current. You’ll master the use of a surface marker buoy (SMB), an essential piece of safety equipment for drift diving.
How it Transforms Your Diving: Many of the world’s best dive sites, from Palau to the Maldives and right here in the Philippines, are drift dives. Mastering this skill means you can confidently and safely join these incredible underwater excursions, covering vast distances of reef with minimal effort.
Your Adventure Awaits
The PADI Advanced Open Water course is a journey of discovery. With minimal classroom sessions and the focus squarely on diving, it’s designed to build on your foundation and shape you into the diver you want to be. You’ll finish the course with more skills, more confidence, and a renewed sense of passion for the ocean.
Are you ready to go beyond the basics? Talk to our team at Sierra Madre Divers today, and let’s plan your next great underwater adventure.
