The Advanced Open Water Diver course is the natural next step after your first certification, and despite the name it is not only for experts. It is designed to make newer divers more capable through five guided adventure dives, each introducing a new skill or environment. You extend your depth limit to 30 meters, sharpen your navigation and try specialties like night or deep diving under supervision. This guide explains what the course involves and why so many divers say it is where diving really clicked for them.
How the five dives work
The course is built around five adventure dives, two required and three of your choice. This lets you tailor it to the diving you want to do.
- Deep dive: required, taking you toward the 30 meter limit safely.
- Underwater navigation: required, using a compass and natural references.
- Three electives: options like night, wreck, fish identification or peak performance buoyancy.
What you gain from it
Advanced Open Water is less about ticking boxes and more about becoming a genuinely better, calmer diver. The benefits show up on every dive afterward.
- Access to deeper sites, walls and wrecks previously off limits.
- Real navigation skills so you stop relying entirely on a guide.
- Better buoyancy and air consumption from focused practice.
- A taste of several specialties before committing to any.
Requirements and timing
You need to hold an Open Water Diver certification (or a qualifying equivalent) and be at least 12 years old. There is no minimum number of logged dives required, though a little recent experience helps.
The course usually takes two to three days, since it is all in-water adventure dives with short knowledge sections between them. It pairs beautifully with a dive holiday, letting you certify and explore at the same time. Because there is no final exam, the emphasis stays on doing rather than studying, which is exactly why so many divers find it the most enjoyable stage of their training and often go straight on to it after Open Water.
Go deeper at Isla Fuerte
Isla Fuerte is perfect for Advanced training because its 29 sites range from gentle gardens to dramatic open-water walls like Bushnell, where you can do your deep dive and sometimes spot hammerheads and whitetips. With Nautilus and its certified instructors, you build these skills in small groups on warm, clear reefs.
Ready to expand your range? See the courses and dives and browse our experiences to build the perfect advanced diving week.
