La Laguna Beach Club and Dive Centre offers a range of PADI Specialty dive courses:
Contents
- Deep Diver
- Search and Recovery Diver
- Wreck Diver
- Underwater Navigator
- Night Diver
- Drift Diver
- Multilevel Diver
- Underwater Naturalist
- Boat Diver
- Enriched Air Nitrox Diver
- Peak Performance Buoyancy
- Underwater Photographer
- Equipment Specialist
- Emergency Oxygen Provider
- Diver Propulsion Vehicle
Deep Diver
- Min. age: 15 years old
- Prerequisite certification: Adventure diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: PADI’s Deep Dive Crew pack (DVD & Manual).
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, dive computer, accessories, dive light.
After your first few scuba dives, you soon want to explore a bit deeper. There’s something exciting and mysterious about the depth that attracts divers.
The Fun Part
The fun part about this course is the opportunity to explore the deep. It’s exhilarating.
What You Learn
- Techniques for diving in the deeper range of 18-40 metres/ 60-130 feet.
- Deep scuba diving equipment considerations.
- Experience in planning, organizing and making at least four deep dives under the supervision of your PADI Instructor.
Search and Recovery Diver
- Min. age: 12 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Advanced Open Water Diver or qualifying rating or Open Water Diver with PADI Underwater Navigator Specialty
- Learning materials: Search & Recovery Crew pack (DVD & Manual).
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, compass, lift bag.
Have you ever dropped something in the water? Are you looking for lost “treasure”? The PADI Search and Recovery Diver Specialty course will teach you effective ways to find objects underwater and bring them to the surface. Small, large or just awkward, there is a way to bring them up.
The Fun Part
Find lost items and lift them to the surface. It’s fun to use the lift bag. Not only are these skills fun, but very practical and ultimately useful because eventually, you’ll lose something in the water. As a Search and Recovery Diver, you’ll know how to search for and recover it.
What You Learn
- Search and recovery dive planning, organization, procedures, techniques and how to deal with potential problems.
- How to locate large and small objects using search patterns.
- How to use a lift bag and other recovery methods.
- Limited visibility search techniques.
Wreck Diver
- Min. age: 15 years old
- Prerequisite certification: Adventure Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: PADI’s Wreck Diver Crew pack.
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, dive computer, accessories.
Sunk on purpose as an artificial reef or the result of mishap, wrecks open fascinating windows to the past. Most divers find wrecked ships, airplanes and even automobiles nearly irresistible because they’re intriguing to explore, exciting avenues of discovery, and usually teeming with aquatic life. The PADI Wreck Diver course teaches you the ins and outs of rewarding, responsible wreck diving.
The Fun Part
The fun part of the PADI Wreck Diver course is visiting wrecks, unlocking mysteries and starting to gain the knowledge and experience that allows you to see things that others overlook. Sometimes, only the trained, experienced eye recognizes that a small hole or open door likely caused the vessel’s demise.
What You Learn
- Techniques for diving exploring shipwrecks, and how to avoid common hazards.
- How to research and learn the background of your favorite wrecks.
- Wreck scuba diving equipment considerations.
- Considerations and techniques for entering intact wrecks.
- Experience in planning, organizing and making at least four wreck dives under the supervision of your PADI Instructor.
Underwater Navigator
- Min. age: 10 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: PADI’s Navigation Crew pack.
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, accessories
Be the diver everyone wants to follow and make your sense of direction legendary with the PADI Underwater Navigator Specialty course.
The Fun Part
Finding your way is not a matter of luck! When everyone’s buzzing about a reef or checking out a shipwreck, they’re having a great time – until it’s time to go. Then they turn to you, because as a PADI Underwater Navigator, you know the way back to the boat.
What You Learn
Underwater navigation can be challenging, but in the PADI Underwater Navigator Specialty course, you master the challenge. You learn the tools of the trade, including navigation via natural clues and by compass.
You learn:
- Navigation patterns.
- Natural navigation (without a compass).
- Compass navigation.
- How to ‘mark’ or relocate a submerged object or position from the surface.
- Underwater map making.
- How to follow irregular courses with the Nav-Finder.
- Dive site relocation.
- How to estimate distance underwater.
Night Diver
- Min. age: 12 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: PADI’s Night Diver Crew pack (Manual & DVD)
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, dive lights
As the sun sets, you don your dive gear, slip on your scuba mask and bite down on your dive regulator. A deep breath and you step off the boat – into the underwater night. Although you’ve seen this reef many times before, this time you drop into a whole new world and watch it come to life under the glow of your dive light.
The Fun Part
Introduce yourself to the whole new cast of critters that comes out after the sun goes down. See your favorite dive sites from a whole new perspective at night.
What You Learn
- Night dive planning, organization, procedures, techniques and potential problems.
- How to control your buoyancy at night.
- Entries, exits and underwater navigation at night.
- Nocturnal aquatic life, since many of the plants and animals you’ll see are different.
Drift Diver
- Min. age: 12 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: PADI Drift Diver Crew pack
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, accessories, floats
The PADI Drift Diver Specialty course introduces you to the coolest magic carpet ride you’ll ever experience. This course shows you how to enjoy rivers and ocean currents by “going with the flow,” staying with your dive partner, communicating with the dive boat and knowing where you are the whole time.
The Fun Part
Drift Diving is nearly effortless and relaxing. You simply glide along and enjoy the rush of flying underwater while the current does the work.
What You Learn
- Planning, organization, procedures, techniques, problems and hazards of drift diving.
- An introduction to drift diving equipment — floats, lines, reels.
- Buoyancy-control, navigation and communication for drift diving.
- Site selection and overview of aquatic currents – causes and effects.
- Techniques for staying close to a buddy or together as a group.
Multilevel Diver
- Min. age: 12 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: The electronic Recreational Dive Planner (eRDP™)
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, optional dive computer.
In this course, you learn how to plan dives that extend your bottom time by crediting you for slower nitrogen absorption when you ascend to a shallower depth. That’s the way you really dive, after all.
The Fun Part
This is a great way to learn how to make multilevel dives even if you forget to bring your dive computer.
What You Learn
You’ll learn what multilevel diving is and why you want to plan for multilevel dives. You’ll also get to see the various types of multilevel dive calculators (including dive computers), as well as learn about multilevel dive planning, organization, procedures, techniques, and potential problems. You’ll plan a multilevel dive profile and dive it with your PADI Instructor.
You learn how to:
- Plan and execute multilevel dives (different depths on the same dive).
- Back up your dive computer and plan multilevel dives.
- Maximize your no stop time.
- Min. age: 10 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: –
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, accessories
- The major aquatic life groupings, interactions and factual information that dispels negative myths.
- The role of aquatic plants, food chains and predator prey relationships.
- Responsible interactions with aquatic life.
- The underwater naturalist’s view of organisms and their roles in the environment.
- Min. age: 10 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: Boat Diver Manual & Video
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear
-
Dive from boats ranging from small inflatables to giant live-aboards :
- how they differ from place to place.
- gain experience and training from diving on boats in your local area.
-
Safely enter and exit the water :
- sometimes it’s better to hand your gear up to the crew and then climb in the boat.
- sometimes you just take off your fins and weights and walk up the ladder.
- Stow your gear in the most appropriate areas.
- Use surface lines to initiate or conclude your dives.
- Locate basic boat safety equipment.
- Min. age: 12 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: Enriched Air Diver Crew pack
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, dive regulator
- Techniques for getting more dive time by using enriched air nitrox.
- Enriched air scuba diving equipment considerations.
- Enriched air considerations, including managing oxygen exposure, how to tell what’s in your scuba tank and how to set your dive computer.
- Min. age: 10 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: PADIs Peak Performance Buoyancy Video
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear
- How to trim your scuba gear so you’re perfectly balanced in the water.
- Nuances in determining weight so you’re not too light nor too heavy by even a slight degree.
- How to streamline to save air and move smoothly through the water.
- How to hover effortlessly in both a vertical position and a horizontal position.
- Min. age: 10 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating + snorkeler option, no certification required.
- Learning materials: PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Crew pack.
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear, underwater photo system, snorkel gear for non-diving cert.
- How to choose the right underwater camera system for you.
- The PADI SEA method for getting great shots quickly.
- The three primary principles for good underwater photos.
- Min. age: 10 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) PADI Scuba Diver
- Learning materials: Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving DVD-rom.
- Gear you’ll need: Interact with all types of scuba gear
- Comfortable you are with it.
- Performance you get from it.
- You can care for it.
- Review the theory, principles and operation of scuba diving equipment.
- Learn about routine, recommended care and maintenance procedures, and equipment storage.
- How to overcome common problems with equipment and recommended professional maintenance procedures (may include a demonstration of repair procedures).
- Gain simple suggestions for comfortable equipment configurations and an introduction to new gear (may include optional confined water dive to try new or unfamiliar equipment).
- Recognize diving illnesses treatable by emergency oxygen.
- Properly setup equipment.
- Administer emergency oxygen.
- Min. age: 12 years old
- Prerequisite certification: (Jr.) Open Water Diver or qualifying rating.
- Learning materials: Diver Propulsion Vehicle (Manual & Video).
- Gear you’ll need: Basic scuba gear.
- Diver propulsion vehicle dive planning organization, procedures, techniques, problems and hazards.
- Equipment considerations.
- Diver etiquette and how to avoid harming fragile aquatic life.
Underwater Naturalist
Look closer to see more on your next dive. Look for symbioses, predator/prey and other relationships between aquatic plant and animal life. Learn not just what fish and animals are, but how they interact with each other and the environment.
The Fun Part
Learn about why some creatures behave the way they do and what their role is in the aquatic ecosystem.
What You Learn
You put this information into practice during your two open water dives.
Boat Diver
Whether you’ve never made a boat dive or you’ve logged dozens, the PADI Boat Diver Specialty course can benefit almost every diver because different boats in different parts of the world do things differently.
The Fun Part
Diving from a boat is fun, especially when you look at ease when maneuvering around on it. It’s fun to know what you’re doing.
What You Learn
Learn the tips, tricks and ways to:
Enriched Air Nitrox Diver
The PADI Enriched Air Diver course is PADI’s most popular specialty scuba diving course, and it’s easy to see why. Scuba diving with enriched air nitrox gives you more no decompression dive time. This means more time underwater, especially on repetitive scuba dives.
The Fun Part
You can typically stay down longer and get back the water sooner. No wonder many divers choose this as their very first specialty.
What You Learn
Peak Performance Buoyancy
What is neutral buoyancy? Scuba divers like to be neutrally buoyant so they neither sink nor float. It can be a tricky thing. Divers who’ve mastered the highest performance levels in buoyancy stand apart. You’ve seen them underwater. They glide effortlessly, use less air and ascend, descend or hover, almost as if by thought. They interact gently with aquatic life and affect their surroundings minimally.
The PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course refines the basic skills you learned as a PADI Open Water Diver and elevates them to the next level.
The Fun Part
The fun part of this course is giving your dive skills a polish you may not have thought possible.
What You Learn
Underwater Photographer
Underwater photography is one of the most popular diving specialties, and the rise of digital underwater photography has made it easier and more fun than ever. This is why there are actually two PADI underwater photography courses.
The PADI Digital Underwater Photographer course gets you going quickly with today modern digital equipment, whether you use a point-and-shoot snap camera or a sophisticated D-SLR like the pros. The PADI Underwater Photographer course is a more traditional photography course designed for conventional film equipment.
Take the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Course Online now!
The Fun Part
It’s a great way to relive the adventures you’ve had. Plus capture images to share with your friends and family.
What You Learn
Equipment Specialist
Don’t miss a dive due to a scuba gear issue! Whether it’s a blown o-ring, regulator problem, wetsuit tear or a broken fin strap, you can learn how to manage basic scuba equipment adjustments.
As a PADI Equipment Specialist, you are prepared for the basic scuba equipment maintenance, care and adjustments you’ll encounter every day. In addition, you’ll learn interesting background information about how your gear works, how it’s repair and other information that helps you with your equipment investment.
The Fun Part
The more you know about how your dive gear works, the more:
What You Learn
Emergency Oxygen Provider
Be the one ready to help a fellow diver should the need arise by becoming a PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider.
The Fun Part
Breathe easy—knowing that you know how to recognize illnesses treatable by emergency oxygen. Being the best buddy you can be means being prepared – especially in a time of need.
What You Learn
Diver Propulsion Vehicle
DPVs offer a thrilling way to see a lot of underwater territory in a brief amount of time. They scoot you through the water without kicking. Whether making a shore dive or diving from a boat, a DPV is a great way to see more and have a blast doing it.
The Fun Part
Fun? Underwater scooters (DPVs) are a kick! It’s all fun!