PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course – Dive Deeper, Explore More
Ready to take your scuba diving skills to the next level? The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course at The Diving Academy is designed to enhance your confidence and expand your underwater capabilities. Whether you’re based in Reading, Swindon, Oxford, or Bristol—or travelling to us from abroad—our expert PADI instructors will guide you through exciting new diving experiences at carefully selected UK dive sites. This course builds on your Open Water Diver certification and introduces you to deeper dives, better navigation, and a range of specialty experiences.
Why Choose The Diving Academy for Your Advanced Certification?
Diverse Training Locations: Explore a variety of underwater environments with The Diving Academy.
Expert Instruction: Learn advanced techniques with our professional and passionate PADI team.
Flexible Course Options: Choose weekday or weekend schedules to match your lifestyle.
Internationally Recognised: Earn a PADI certification that’s respected by dive centres worldwide.
What You’ll Learn and Do
You’ll complete five adventure dives: two required (Deep and Underwater Navigation) and three of your choice—such as Night Diving, Wreck Diving, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Search and Recovery, or Underwater Photography. Each dive develops new skills and gives you hands-on experience in a range of underwater conditions, all under the safe guidance of your instructor.
Ideal for:
Certified Open Water Divers looking to gain confidence and skill.
Divers ready to explore more challenging dive sites.
Anyone interested in trying specialty diving before committing to full specialty training.
Where We Train:
The Diving Academy provides advanced scuba training from our locations in Reading, Swindon, Oxford, and Bristol. We use a range of well-maintained UK dive sites for your adventure dives, carefully chosen for training quality and safety. We also welcome international visitors seeking high-standard PADI training in the UK.
Advance Your Diving Journey Today
Take your skills to new depths with the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course at The Diving Academy. Whether you’re growing your experience or preparing for professional-level diving, this course is your next step. Book now and dive into new challenges with confidence.
Prerequisites
The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course prerequisites:
- Must be a minimum of 12 years old.
- Must hold PADI Open water Diver qualification or equivalent entry level certification.
Course Medical Requirements
Scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic health conditions, certain medications and/or recent surgery may require you to get written approval from a physician before diving.
Avoid disappointment, download and review the Diver Medical form to ensure you won’t need a physician’s approval to dive before enrolling in a scuba course. Instructors, divemasters and dive shop staff are not physicians and should not be asked for medical advice; only medical professionals can give medical clearance to dive.
If you (or your physician) have questions about medical fitness to dive, contact the experts at Divers Alert Network (DAN).
Next Steps
Independent Study
Step 1 – PADI eLearning®
PADI eLearning makes it easy to fit scuba lessons into a busy schedule. Learn about scuba diving principles and terminology whenever, wherever it’s convenient for you.
- eLearning time commitment: 6-18 hours
At The Diving Academy
Step 2 – With Your Instructor
The course includes five dives: a deep dive below 18m/60f, a navigation dive, and three specialty dives. Gain experience, build confidence and discover your diving abilities.
Youth Academy
Youth Diving At Diving Academy
For children and young adults, mastering the art of scuba diving is an experience like no other. Your child’s first breaths underwater mark the beginning of a life changing journey as a PADI diver. With great benefits for both educational and personal growth, diving provides the opportunity to put classroom knowledge into practice, while learning new skills and building long-lasting friendships.
Diving requires patience, dedication and great sense of humour. While mastering PADI’s specific performance requirements, students will develop positive characteristics such as communication, trust and open-mindedness, all while gaining a great sense of personal achievement.
Encourage them to push the boundaries of what they dream possible.
As an PADI approved Youth Training Centres we adhere to strict health and safety practices and comply with government legislation for working with young people.
This includes implementing our Dive Centre Child Protection Policy with dedicated liaison and carrying out comprehensive DBS (Disclosure Barring Checks) with all PADI professionals before allowing them to work with our young people.
When you choose to work with us as a PADI Approved Youth Training Centre, you can feel confident your young persons are enrolled with the most instructionally sold diver training system available worldwide.
Your child’s introduction to the underwater world with PADI will open the door to a lifetime of discovery and exploration.
Course Locations
Dive Centre
Diving Academy – Dive Centre, Sunfield Business Park, New Mill Road, Wokingham, RG40 4QT
Pool Training Sites
Wokingham – The Forest School, Robin Hood Lane, Winnersh, Wokingham, RG41 5NE
Yateley – Yateley School, School Lane, GU46 6NW
Hagbourne – Hagbourne School Pool, Main Road, East Hagbourne, OX11 9LR
Swindon – Halo Highworth Recreation Centre, The Elms, Highworth, Swindon SN6 7DD
Open Water Training Sites:
London – Wraysbury Diving Lake, Station Road, Wraysbury, Berkshire, TW19 5ND
Radstock – Vobster Quay, Upper Vobster, Radstock, BA3 5SD
Leicester – Stoney Cove, Sapcote Road, Stoney Stanton, Leicester, LE9 4DW