PADI Deep Diver Course Prerequisites

[declan long]

Hi All

I have a ssi open water diver who wants to do the deep padi course with me. in the padi spec. inst. manual the prereqs say something like must have 2 certs, this diver has a lot of other ssi specialities and has alrwady dived to 30m can he do the course?

declan long

 

[Diver0001]

Hi All

I have a ssi open water diver who wants to do the deep padi course with me. in the padi spec. inst. manual the prereqs say something like must have 2 certs, this diver has a lot of other ssi specialities and has alrwady dived to 30m can he do the course?

declan long

SSI OW is equivalent to PADI. In the PADI system you also require 3 adventure dives (or AOW) in order to take the deep specialty. If he has logged proof of dives that would qualify you're good to go.

R..

 

[DevonDiver]

He must hold the equivalent of PADI Adventure Diver certification. I don't believe SSI has that equivalent; the next highest course would be Advanced Adventurer.

I don't believe he can enter the PADI Deep Diver course whilst only holding an OW cert, of any agency. Holding one, or more, specialty courses with another agency may be sufficient. My guess is that he would need to show evidence of further deep and navigation training (the 'mandatory' dives in AD/AOW) before progression to Deep Diver. See below, Deep and Nav training beyond OW are what makes another course "similar". The only way to know for sure is to contact your regional PADI training consultant and ask...

Prerequisites
To qualify for the Deep Diver course, an individual must:
1. Be certified as a PADI Adventure Diver (or have a qualifying certification from another training organization similar to that of a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver.)
2. Be 15 years of age or older.
PADI Deep Diver Specialty Instructor Outline (Rev. 5/05) Version 1.05

 

[Diver0001]

My reading is that the student would be good to go if he had SSI OW + qualifying 4 dives, 3 of which would be dives that you could map 1:1 to some adventure dive. On second thought I think you're right that one of those dives would need to be navigation, and one would need to be deep in order to correspond to PADI AOW.

That said, the PADI/SSI crossover matrix shows PADI AOW as being equivalent to SSI AOW (which it isn't) so if you phone PADI and ask them then they may say that the student needs to have SSI AOW.

I don't know why they would though because you can start PADI deep without having AOW....

meh.... Probably best to phone and ask.

R..

 

[GrayL]

PADI OW allows you to go to 60 feet. AOW goes to 130. To do deep you have to be AOW, because a deep dive is deeper than 60 feet. It would make sense for you to be certified to go deep before you take a specialty on it.

 

[TMHeimer]

PADI OW allows you to go to 60 feet. AOW goes to 130. To do deep you have to be AOW, because a deep dive is deeper than 60 feet. It would make sense for you to be certified to go deep before you take a specialty on it.

AOW goes to 100. Deep Specialty Cert. goes to 130. The Deep course itself is teaching you to go down there. You're not supposed to go below 100 until you are on the Deep course. I'm sure everyone follows that rule...

 

[drrich2]

PADI OW allows you to go to 60 feet. AOW goes to 130.

My understanding is that the recommendations (not laws, of course) for max. depth by cert. with PADI (at least at first, barring informal advancement outside of coursework) are:

1.) OW - 60 feet.

2.) AOW - 100 feet.

3.) Deep - 130 feet (the recommended limit for recreational diving).

Even if you get a Deep cert. (which I did sometime back), I'd recommend supplementing your knowledge with some reading on the forum, particularly threads dealing heavily with nitrogen narcosis, people discussing cases of getting bent, and perhaps some of the threads debating the merits of pony bottles.

If you plan to be diving over 100 feet much, I'd also suggest taking a Rescue Diver course. Not because it teaches you anything specific to deep diving, but because it teaches a mindset of analyzing scenarios, risk anticipation and mitigation, and to 'stop, think, act' rather than 'freak out & flee' (panic & bolt) when you run into trouble. My reasoning is that the deeper you are, the more dangerous panic becomes, and the less desirable a CESA is.

Richard.

 

[DevonDiver]

Personally, I think the syllabus for Deep diver is much too weak and misses many opportunities to effectively train divers for safe deep diving. I now recommend the 'Tec40' as an alternative.

Tec40 versus Deep Diver

Outcome

1. Both courses qualify to 40m/130ft
2. Both courses minimum 4 dives

Tec40 Pros

1. Redundant gas system (large capacity single with 'H' valve, or single plus pony, or doubles)
2. Gas management taught in detail
3. Dive planning taught in detail
4. Nitrox to 50% as an option for safer, more conservative off-gassing on ascent
5. Foundational skills (buoyancy/trim/situational awareness) developed to a high level
6. Multiple emergency drills and protocols taught
7. Conducts 10 minutes (non-accelerated) decompression, rather than 8 minutes 'simulated' emergency decompression
8. Additional communication skills taught
9. DSMB deployment taught
10. Substantially more theory (EANx, DCS, safe deep diving mindset, team skills, narcosis) etc

Tec40 Cons

1. Slightly more equipment needed for Tec40 (including some mandatory redundancy)
2. Requires prerequisite AOW and Nitrox qualifications
3. PADI website says prerequisite of Deep Diver also, but instructors can accept "or show proof of at least 10 dives to 30 metres/100 feet." according to the instructor manual.
4. Diver must have experience of "a minimum of 30 logged dives, of which at least 10 dives were made with enriched air nitrox deeper than 18 metres / 60 feet".

IMHO, the above prerequisites aren't unrealistic, or overly demanding, if someone wants to dive below 100ft/30m...

The Tec40 course is described as 'covering the gap between recreational and technical' diving. It can be run very much as an entry-level technical program (with doubles) or as a 'tecreational'-style serious deep diving course for recreational depth limits (using less demanding redundant gas/equipment options).

Most experienced divers would state that the Deep Diver course "can be okay" providing the instructor supplements the training with additional knowledge and skills. The Tec40 achieves this as a matter of course. An instructor qualified to teach Tec40 is also likely to be significantly higher qualified and more (deep diving) experienced than a recreational instructor 'signed off' after 1 day training to teach Deep Diver...

 

[Peter Guy]

Andy -- thanks for that. I hadn't thought about suggesting that people substitute Tec 40 for Deep, although it makes a lot more sense.

OK -- and just where did you pick up "tecreational" as a word?

 

[rick00001967]

so to do a padi deep diver course you need to be at least a padi "adventure diver". adventure diver is any ow diver that has dived at least 3 of the listed padi adventure dives. funny enough, a deep dive is one on the list.

so for an ssi diver to qualify, they would have to achieved "advanced adventurer" which is any ow diver that has dived at least 5 dives from the list of specialty dives. so assuming the ssi diver has done 3 of the 5 dives that are also on the padi adventure dive list they should qualify to do the padi deep diver course.

thats how i would read it. am i incorrect ??

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