All You Need To Know About The SSI Advanced Adventurer Course

A full set of scuba diving gear.

After getting your Open Water Diver certification, you can look to expand your diving toolkit, both in terms of literal tools as well as skills and knowledge. There are various environments and conditions where the training provided to you during your OWD course will be insufficient while scuba diving in Andaman.

Part of being a responsible diver is to dive within the limits of your training, certification, experience, comfort, and ability. An integral part of your diving journey is to explore new underwater environments and to take part in dives that challenge you.

The SSI Advanced Adventurer Course is a great course to gain exposure to these conditions under the supervision of your instructor. As part of the course, Your instructor introduces you to five different SSI specialties. Each open water dives are the parts of the advanced adventurer course. They will count towards the completion of the respective specialty certifications.

Small school of Batfish underwater.

Dive Fitness and Safety

As all Scuba divers are aware, diving can be a strenuous activity particularly if one is unfit. As part of any SSI educational program before any in-water training. You need to fill a medical questionnaire and go through a few other paperwork for signing up.

You may request the dive center to email you a copy of the questionnaire before you arrive in Havelock. In case you are suffering from any of the conditions mentioned in the questionnaire, a medical fitness certificate has to be issued by a physician, ideally a barometric physician to learn scuba diving in India.

Given the weather several people get a cold or congestion, while you can take decongestants to allow you to dive, we recommend avoiding the dive as in case the effect of the medicine wears off in the middle of the dive you risk getting a reverse squeeze.

Course Work and Theory

Your dive center will issue your online learning materials, which you can access online as well as offline with the MySSI app. You can complete the theory and review section before reaching Havelock. There is no exam as the aim of this course is simply to provide divers with a variety of unique diving experiences to fuel their passion for diving and dive education. Of the various specialties offered by SSI for the Advanced Adventurer, the most popular introductory dives are:

Night and Limited Visibility Diving in Havelock.

Night and Limited Visibility Diving:

There can be a difference between day and night (pun intended) during scuba in Andaman. When you dive into the same site in daylight and then again at night. At Havelock, we conduct our night dives at Neemo reef, the most popular shore diving site during the day. At night the busy reef is completely silent, and you can catch a glimpse of its sleeping denizens hidden away in the crevasses of the reef.

The Anemones have closed up (literally), and the lobsters are off on their evening stroll. Communication between buddies is now done through torch signals, and you have to take additional safety precautions, particularly when entering and exiting the water as obstacles might not be easily visible.

Limited visibility can come into play at any point of time during any dive. As water conditions can only be determined after reaching the dive site. Sometimes the water can be so turbid, visibility can drop to a meter. These conditions can be extremely challenging and may even cause people to panic as they are unable to figure out their orientation and may even be unable to see their buddy.

Your instructor will teach you how to prepare for these situations with a proper dive plan which includes a lost buddy procedure. You will also be taught how to perform a reciprocal compass course so that you may find your exit point safely.

Deep sea diving in Andaman.

Deep Diving:

The Open Water course caps your maximum depth at 18m. Going deeper involves exposing yourself to higher partial pressures of Nitrogen and Oxygen which can be dangerous. Dive planning and management of partial pressures of gases based on the mixture you are breathing as taught to you in the Open Waters course will be revised.

During your deep-sea diving in Andaman, you will be taught how to maintain neutral buoyancy and stay at a particular depth for your safety stop as well as how to deploy an SMB. You will also undergo a nitrogen narcosis test.

One of the most popular deep dive sites in Havelock is “The Wall”. As the name suggests it’s a sheer cliff with the shallowest end at about 10–12m and the deepest part is around 55m, which is outside the realm of recreational diving.

The site is suitable for divers of all levels with schools of snappers and fusiliers all around. You’ll also find groups of Moorish idols, Bannerfish, Groupers, and Butterflyfish, with giant Trevally, Barracuda, and Napoleon Wrasse hanging around.

Perfect Buoyancy:

Buoyancy is one of the most important, if not the most important skills required for Scuba diving. It isn’t limited to a particular dive site or a particular set of conditions, it’s used during all of your dives. The fundamentals of buoyancy are good breathing and awareness of your surroundings.

You will practice these skills in a shallow water environment with your instructor and then use them during your dive. During your dive you will practice hovering, staying in the same place without moving, in both diving positions as well as cross-legged. It helps you observe the effect your breathing has on your buoyancy especially when you aren’t moving.

Navigation underwater

Navigation:

You should be aware of the layout of the dive site you plan to dive at before you reach it. You can navigate a site without even using a compass, this is known as natural navigation. Your instructor will give you a briefing letting you know the topography and landmarks to keep an eye out for. These landmarks help you orient yourself and find your entry/exit point.

Using compasses allows you to navigate exact courses as well as have fun with complicated patterns such as triangles and polygons. Your instructor will teach you how to use the various parts of a compass as well as how to use it effectively during scuba diving at Havelock Island.

Tribe gate is an oval-shaped reef that allows you to observe large schools of snappers, with resident Puffers, Humphead Parrotfish and Octopus. This site is ideal for navigation as it has plenty of distinct landmarks. Which you can use for natural navigation and a surrounding sandy patch nearby where you can use your compass to navigate.

After Completing the Advanced Adventurer course!

Once you have completed the Advanced Adventurer course, you will get a better idea about the various diving conditions that exist, and you can research places you want to dive in and select the specialties that allow you to dive at those sites.

Originally published at https://seahawksscuba.livejournal.com.