Complete overview of advanced open water diver course
If you feel scuba diving has been your passion after being an open water diver, Then you should probably sign up for this course, which boosts your passion to the fullest to achieve the new depths. The SSI Advanced adventure diver course prepares you to dive 30 meters underwater and opens up opportunities to explore the new depths of our ocean.
This course is a combination of five specialties and each specialty transforms your diving ability to its ultimate point so that you can dive deeper and safer with extended knowledge to explore the oceans. To see the magic of the Andaman sea and explore the volcanic reef, You should start your course at Havelock Island. Because the Island is blessed with the best and unique deep dive sites of southeast Asia, That makes Havelock Island the best place to learn scuba diving in India.
You can choose the specialties from our wide range of specialty programs with the assistance of your instructor, which suits you the most, and complete the Advanced adventure diver course either within 2 or 3 days. Since this course does not have many academic sessions. We mostly prefer to spend time in the water to sharpen your skills as well as your diving ability. During the course, Your instructor delivers all the knowledge orally and insists you follow them step by step practically.
Since the Andaman Islands are the tropical rainforest zone, The most preferable specialties are 1. Deep Diving, 2. Boat Diving, 3. Night Diving, 4. Peak performance buoyancy and 5. Underwater navigation. But still, you can choose your own. Your instructor conducts 5 dives with each specialty to make you a confident and comfortable advanced adventure diver.
Day one
There is a short introduction session within you, advanced adventure diver course, and your instructor. Your instructor assists you in completing the paperwork, which is required for the activity such as registration form, privacy policy, divers code form, liability release form, and medical questionnaire.
Post breakfast, Your instructor delivers not only a descriptive but also an interactive briefing session about how to use a compass, what is a Finn circle, the importance of having a compass during dive, how to maintain decent buoyancy, how your breathing impacts your buoyancy and steps to be followed to perform the peak point of your buoyancy.
Confined water session and open water dive 1
Your instructor insists you check and recheck every single piece of your equipment before you head to the ocean for your skills and the dive one. It is strictly advised to do a pre-dive safety check before you start the skills or your dive while scuba diving in India.
Peak performance buoyancy
Your instructor demonstrates the steps to maintain a stable and easy neutral buoyancy as well as a few techniques to move underwater efficiently. Your instructor does make you realise the impact of your breathing on buoyancy too. You need to follow the steps and use the techniques to achieve peak performance buoyancy. You might need to practice few times to sharpen and fine-tune your ability to control your buoyancy before the first dive.
Dive 1
For the first dive, your instructor briefs you about the dive site, entry and exit methods, safety stop as well as the skills to be done underwater during the dive. Do not forget to make a pre-dive safety check. Get ready and start the dive. You should enjoy the vibrant marine life along with performing a few skills. Keep practicing slow, steady, and long breathing to gain unmatched control on your buoyancy. Perform a safety stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes with your instructor. Surface safely and come to the shore/boat. Your instructor presents a quick debrief on your performance and encourages you for the next skills.
We take a short break over a coffee and start with the important information of using the compass underwater. Your instructor presents a detailed briefing about using the compass and counting your Finn circles. You need to listen to him very carefully and you are free to ask him any doubts before you go into the confined session. You need to perform square pattern navigation and straight-line pattern navigation using a compass.
Dive 2
You need to plan your dive by collecting information from your instructor about the dive site and local environment for deep sea diving in Andaman. Your instructor clarifies you about using a compass during the dive and a bit of natural navigation too. Do a proper pre-dive safety check and start your dive. Besides enjoying the beautiful schools of fish and coral reefs, you need to keep the compass reading of your starting point in mind so that you can come back to the point at the end of your dive. Don’t worry, it’s easy.
Your instructor points out the best part of the coral reef and the marine species you should not miss out on during your dive. Start the ascend once you feel you should and stop for the safety stop, During the safety stop your instructor demonstrate to you how to launch a surface marker buoy ( SMB ). As it is important to safely surface as well as let the boat driver and boat crew know that you are just beneath the surface. Wait for the debriefing about how you did it and what are the key points to focus on so that you can improvise them on your next day.
Day two
We keep the boat diving and deep diving specialties on this day and we send our boat to a few of the best deep dive sites for scuba diving in Andaman so that you can get amazed with the enchanting life coral reef and brilliantly colorful schools of fish.
Dive 3
Your instructor provides you detailed information about how to use a dive computer during multilevel diving, how you proceed for the deep dives, how your instructor will demonstrate the effects of changing pressure, and how the colour of sunlight starts disappearing at depth.
You need to pay your full attention to dive safely and so that most importantly you can enjoy your first deep dive to the fullest. During the safety stop, your instructor asks you to launch the SMB to the surface. Come to the surface safely exit the water and spend your surface interval time during the transportation from one dive site to another. Your instructor uses that time to debrief you and tell you the stories of the next dive site.
Dive 4
Diving from a dive boat includes certain rules and regulations along with few steps to follow. Your instructor makes you well aware of those procedures during exit from the dive boat and descent as well as a safe ascent and entry to the dive boat. These are a bunch of important steps you need to follow for boat diving anywhere in the world.
The boat crew does assist you while performing the steps but you do need to make sure to do a pre-dive safety check before getting into the water. Besides all these obligations do not forget to enjoy your dive and respect the marine life. As usual, you get debriefed about your skills along with a huge description of what you have seen during your second deep dive.
Day three
By the sunset, we conducted your night and limited vision specialty program. Your instructor prepares you with the knowledge of how to use flashlights, safe techniques of conducting night dives. How to signal and a few more staff. We keep the depth maximum of 12 meters for night diving and ensure the support team is up and fully ready.
During your night dive, you will explore a different world than it is during the day. You will notice all the animals, which hide in the reef during the day coming out to find food during the night and those can be seen during the day, sleeping inside the reefs. It works completely reverse and your instructor shows you some natural phenomena such as Bioluminescence and a few more while scuba in Havelock.
You become an advanced adventure diver upon finishing your night diving successfully with a lot of congratulations and best wishes for your future dives. Do not forget to log dives sitting with your instructor and share your best diving moments with us over a beer.
Thank you so much. We hope you enjoyed reading and will be enjoying your scuba diving days with us soon. The next blog will be coming about scuba diving for beginners in the Andaman Islands soon. Stay tuned.
Originally published at http://seahawksscuba.wordpress.com on July 3, 2021.
