Red Sea Aquanautics

Scuba Diving International (SDI):

SDI Open Water Scuba Diver Certification

Unlock the door to the underwater world with the SDI Open Water Scuba Diver certification, your first step into scuba diving freedom. Learn online at your pace, develop skills in the pool, and experience the thrill of open-water dives, as you earn a passport to dive the globe.

Why Get Your Scuba Diver Certification?

Imagine floating weightlessly like an astronaut, cruising with the currents among colorful fish, or investigating shipwrecks, which are like underwater museums. Scuba diving offers you the unique experience of exploring a world that many people never get to see firsthand. With your SDI Open Water Scuba Diver certification, you gain access to this world in a safe and educated manner. This certification opens a new realm of environmental awareness, adventure, and camaraderie, as divers are part of a community that shares a passion for the underwater world.

Scuba diving is not just another sport; it’s a transformative experience that allows you to witness life under the waves. It is an activity that can be enjoyed at almost any age and can be combined with travel to some of the most beautiful and remote destinations in the world. Certification is your ticket to these experiences and the starting point for many more advanced diving opportunities.

The SDI Open Water Scuba Diver certification is designed for:

  • Persons wishing to receive a comprehensive introduction to scuba diving
  • Those interested in underwater exploration and marine life
  • Individuals looking to participate in a new recreational activity full of excitement

Whether you’re 15 or 65, the certification is tailored to those with a sense of adventure and a love for the natural world. With options available for younger enthusiasts aged 10-14 through the Junior Open Water Scuba Diver course, it ensures that the wonders of diving are accessible to family members of various ages.

What Skills Will You Learn?

During the SDI Open Water Scuba Diver course, you will gain knowledge and experience in:

  • Understanding the Aquatic Environment: Learn how vision, light, sound, and heat loss differ underwater and how tides, currents, waves, and surge affect diving.
  • Physics and Physiology: Grasp the principles of buoyancy, pressure, air spaces, and the implications of breathing compressed air.
  • Equipment Mastery: From selection and assembly to maintenance, learn how to handle dive gear responsibly.
  • Dive Planning and Safety: Develop the skills necessary for basic scuba skills, underwater navigation, buddy systems, emergency procedures, and basic rescue techniques.

Upon completion, you’ll be equipped to conduct open-water dives, continue your education, and join the ranks of certified recreational divers worldwide.

Get Smart with eLearning: Start by mastering the academic side of scuba diving online. The comprehensive eLearning program allows you to absorb the material at your own pace, using interactive presentations and quizzes to ensure a thorough understanding of diving theory.

Get Wet with Pool Training: After the online component, you’ll apply your knowledge in real-world conditions under the watchful eye of an SDI instructor. The confined water sessions are all about getting comfortable with your dive gear and learning essential skills in a controlled environment, such as a swimming pool.

Go Diving in Open Water: With the groundwork laid, you’ll head to open water, where you’ll conduct a series of dives to practice and perfect the skills you’ve learned. Under supervision, you will experience everything from gear setup to executing perfect buoyancy control and safe ascent procedures.

These steps are detailed, engaging, and structured to ensure you have the confidence and competence to dive safely and enjoyably. Instructors personalize the experience by adjusting teaching methods and pacing based on the class’s needs, ensuring personalized attention and a maximum instructor-to-student ratio that facilitates quality learning.

Your path to becoming an SDI Open Water Scuba Diver is clear, exciting, and full of possibilities. With the right training, the underwater world becomes your playground, teeming with opportunities for adventure and exploration. The only question now is, are you ready to take the plunge?

SDI Advanced Adventure Diver

If you’ve taken your Open Water Scuba Diver course and are now ready to expand your knowledge but would like to see what is out there first, then the SDI Advanced Adventure Diver course is for you! The SDI Advanced Adventure course will give you an overview of five different SDI specialties. Two of the required specialties are the Deep Diver and Navigation Diver specialties which are the foundation of continuing diver education. The remaining specialty dives you can opt for include:

  • Advanced Buoyancy Control
  • Altitude Diver
  • Boat Diver
  • Computer Nitrox Diver
  • Drift Diver
  • Marine Ecosystem Awareness
  • Many more!

This course is intended to introduce you to each of the five specialties selected; not complete comprehension of the chosen specialty. One dive from each of the chosen specialties may apply towards the completion of a specialty certification.

Who this course is for:

  • Any certified open water scuba diver who wishes to expand their diver knowledge and skill set
  • Any certified open water scuba diver who would like to advance in dive training
  • Any certified open water scuba diver who would like to experience an introduction to SDI specialties

Course Prerequisites:

  • Minimum age 18, 10 with parental consent
  • SDI Open Water Scuba Diver or equivalent, SDI Junior Open Water Scuba Diver or equivalent*

*Note: Junior divers (10-15) can only take specialties approved for their age

Limits for Junior Divers:
Deep Diving: Maximum depth for divers 10-15 is 21 metres/70 feet
Dry suit; minimum age 12
Wreck: Limited penetration minimum age 15

What you can expect to learn:

  • An overview of the SDI Deep Diver and SDI Navigation Diver specialties
  • Basic insight to three other chosen specialties of your choice as an introduction to that specific area in diving

Some of the in-water skills include:

  • Successfully perform skills listed for dive one of the three chosen specialties as well as both core specialties
  • Deep Diver open water dive
  • Test and check all equipment
  • Familiarization with dive site
  • Descend to planned depth, do not exceed any pre-planned limits
  • Ascend to safety stop
  • Exit and log dive
  • Navigation open water dive
  • Establish a reference point, plan dive, and enter water from shore/boat
  • Practice out and back technique on surface
  • Squares and triangles on surface
  • Perform a square on the bottom
  • Perform a triangle on the bottom
  • Ascend to safety stop
  • Exit and log dive

What’s in it for you?

  • An opportunity to experience several SDI specialties
  • Continue diver education, skills, and knowledge
  • Ability to enroll in and complete selected specialties
  • After successful completion, ability to enroll in the SDI Recue Diver course

SDI Advanced Adventure Diver minimum requirements:

  • Satisfactorily complete the appropriate SDI Advanced Adventure Diver Knowledge Quests with a passing score of 80%, followed by 100% remediation by the Instructor
  • Complete all course requirements efficiently
  • Demonstrate mature and sound judgment concerning dive planning and execution

SDI Advanced Diver Certification

The SDI Advanced Diver certification is designed as a program to transition divers from novice to advanced, enhancing comfort and competence in the water. This course offers a deep dive into four SDI, TDI, or ERDI specialty areas, preparing you for more challenging and rewarding diving experiences.

Dive Deeper: Comprehensive Benefits

The SDI Advanced Diver certification is a transformative journey designed to refine and enhance your diving skills, preparing you for more sophisticated and thrilling underwater experiences. By participating in this program, you engage in an intensive exploration of four distinct SDI, TDI, or ERDI specialties, such as Deep Diving, Navigation, or even Intro to Tech. This diverse training enriches your understanding and mastery of various diving environments and conditions. 

Achieving the SDI Advanced Diver certification signifies a significant milestone in your diving journey, showcasing your ability to handle advanced dive scenarios with confidence and skill. Furthermore, this accomplishment sets the stage for the next level of your diving education, the SDI Rescue Diver course, opening doors to leadership roles in diving and enhancing your readiness for even more challenging diving adventures.

Who Is It For? Understanding the Advanced Diver Certification 

The SDI Advanced Diver program caters to certified open water divers who are keen to elevate their diving skills and embrace the challenges of advanced underwater exploration. Ideal candidates include divers with an SDI Open Water Scuba Diver certification or its equivalent, and those aged 18 and above, or 10 with parental consent, showing a strong desire to advance their dive training. 

This program is also perfect for SDI Advanced Adventure divers seeking to deepen their expertise in the specialties they’ve tasted during their previous adventures. Prerequisites ensure that participants have a solid foundation in basic diving skills, are comfortable in the water, and are ready to take on the demands of advanced diving. This program is a critical step for divers who are serious about expanding their knowledge, skills, and experience in the diving world, setting the stage for a lifetime of underwater discovery and achievement.

Who Is It For? Understanding the Advanced Diver Certification 

The SDI Advanced Diver program caters to certified open water divers who are keen to elevate their diving skills and embrace the challenges of advanced underwater exploration. Ideal candidates include divers with an SDI Open Water Scuba Diver certification or its equivalent, and those aged 18 and above, or 10 with parental consent, showing a strong desire to advance their dive training. 

This program is also perfect for SDI Advanced Adventure divers seeking to deepen their expertise in the specialties they’ve tasted during their previous adventures. Prerequisites ensure that participants have a solid foundation in basic diving skills, are comfortable in the water, and are ready to take on the demands of advanced diving. This program is a critical step for divers who are serious about expanding their knowledge, skills, and experience in the diving world, setting the stage for a lifetime of underwater discovery and achievement.

Course Experience: Diving Into Advanced Training

Expect a dynamic and enriching learning environment in the SDI Advanced Diver Program. With a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical dive experiences, this course is structured to build your confidence and skill in conducting advanced dives. You’ll leave the program as a proficient, well-rounded diver ready to tackle more challenging underwater explorations and step into higher-level dive training.

Who this SDI course is for:

  • The certified diver looking to use a sidemount cylinder instead of the standard back mount unit.

Course prerequisites:

  • SDI Open Water Scuba Diver or equivalent
  • Minimum age 18, 15 with parental consent.

What you can expect to learn:

The SDI Sidemount Diver Course takes an in-depth look at all of the following and more:

  • Gas management utilizing independent cylinders
  • Equipment considerations
  • Cylinder options
  • Regulator options
  • Buoyancy compensator device (BCD)/harness options
  • Proper weighting
  • Equipment configurations
  • Communication
  • Hand signals
  • Problem solving
  • Gas-sharing
  • Gas hemorrhages
  • Water entries
  • Shore
  • Boat
  • S-Drills (specific to sidemount)

Some of the required skills you will have to demonstrate include:

  • Plan dive
  • Test and check all equipment (depth gauges, bottom timers/watches and computers)
  • Familiarization with area
  • Descend to planed depth and not exceed any pre-planned limits
  • Demonstrate the ability to safely manage gas in independent cylinders
  • Monitor depth/time/air consumption, figure all times on slate
  • Demonstrate ability to control buoyancy
  • Attaching sidemount cylinders while
  • Out of water
  • On surface standing on bottom
  • On surface in water to deep to stand
  • At depth
  • Perform gas switches
  • Perform safety stops

What’s in it for you?

Upon successful completion of this course, graduates may engage in sidemount diving activities without direct supervision, provided the following limits are adhered to:

  • Safety stops as appropriate
  • Planned dives do not exceed diver’s current certification level

Also, the SDI Sidemount Diver certification counts towards a single specialty rating to achieve the SDI Advanced Diver Development program.

SDI Sidemount Diver minimum requirements:

  • Perform all land drills and open water dive requirements safely and efficiently
  • Demonstrate mature, sound judgment concerning dive planning and execution
  • Log all dives

SDI Deep Diver Course

SDI’s Deep Diver Course is a must for any diver wishing to explore a little more, go a little deeper, and learn the risks and benefits associated with deep diving. Many interesting sights lay just beyond open water diver training limits such as: beautiful wall dives, shipwrecks, and critters that don’t come into the shallows.The purpose of this course is to provide the necessary training to plan and execute dives that are beyond the depth range experienced during an SDI Open Water Scuba Diver course, specifically beyond 18 metres/60 feet and to a maximum depth of not greater than 40 metres/130 feet. By the end of the course your knowledge, awareness, and comfort level with deep diving activities will have increased.

Who this course is for:

  • Any certified open water scuba diver who wishes to expand their diver knowledge and skill set
  • Any certified open water scuba diver who would like to advance their dive training

Course prerequisites:

  • SDI Open Water Scuba Diver, SDI Junior Open Water Scuba Diver, or equivalent
  • Minimum age 18, 10 with parental consent

What you can expect to learn:

How to plan and execute dives that are outside the range of depths that are experienced during an SDI Open Water Scuba Diver course, and more!

Topics from the SDI Deep Diver course include:

  • History of dive tables and computers
  • Equipment needed for deep diving
  • Physics and physiology of deep diving
  • Emergency procedures for deep diving and first aid

Some of the in-water skills you will complete include:

  • Open Water Dive 1
  • Test and check all equipment, i.e. depth gauges, bottom timers/watches and computers
  • Familiarization with area
  • Descend to planned depth and do not exceed any pre-planned limits
  • Dive according to plan at a depth limited to 30 metres/100 feet for first dive
  • Ascend to safety stop
  • Open Water Dive 2
  • Monitor depth/time/air consumption, figure all times on slat
  • Descend to planned depth and do not exceed any pre-planned limits
  • Execute a simulated emergency that is to be assigned underwater by the instructor
  • Dive according to plan at a depth limited to 40 metres/130 feet
  • Ascend to safety stop

What’s in it for you?

You will receive the necessary training that will allow you to venture beyond 18 metres/60 feet and to a maximum depth of 40 metres/130 feet.

The SDI Deep Diver minimum requirements:

Students are required to successfully complete the following:

  • Satisfactorily complete the SDI Deep Diver Knowledge Quests with a passing score of 80%, followed by 100% remediation by the Instructor
  • Complete all open water requirements efficiently
  • Demonstrate mature and sound judgment concerning dive planning and execution