Beginners Course
PADI offers a resort dive course for people who have never dived and want to see if they like it. The course is basic and you get a single, very restricted dive. There is no CPR requirement.
Open Water Course
In the open water diving course, you learn the basics of how to put on your equipment and begin training in a pool or shallow water. There is no CPR requirement. Maximum depth you can dive to is 60 feet.
Advanced Open Water
The next course in the series is advanced open water diver. You learn more advanced skills and must dive deeper than 60 feet to receive your certificate. This is still a purely recreational course and there is no CPR requirement.
Rescue Diver
After the advanced open water course, you can take the rescue diver course. This is a more technically oriented course specifically designed to let you help other divers with problems. This course requires CPR and first aid certification.
Dive Master
The dive master course requires you to have a current CPR certificate. If you are taking this soon after the rescue diver course, your certificate will be valid.
Teaching Diving
To become a dive instructor, you must take an instructor development class. An instructor is required to have a current CPR certificate.
Article Written By Les Belzer
Les Belzer has been a professor, entrepreneur, farm owner and writer since 1968. He has written in-house articles on education, mathematics and Spanish literature. Since 1999 he has written travel articles for Escapeartist and "International Living." Belzer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish literature from Idaho State University and a Master of Science in math from the Universidad Mayor de San Simon.
