Quick Details
Don’t Spend Your Vacation in a Classroom!
The PADI eLearning Open Water Course is a 2-day course that consists of 5 confined water dives (in a pool) and 4 open water dives.
Dive Kauai makes the process simple! If you’ve always wanted to take scuba diving lessons, experience unparalleled adventure and see the world beneath the waves, this is where it starts.
Get your scuba diving certification with the PADI Open Water Diver course – the world’s most popular and widely recognized scuba course. Millions of people have learned to scuba dive and gone on to discover the wonders of the aquatic world through this course.
Learning to scuba dive requires both knowledge development – including facts, principles and concepts – and dive skills including techniques and methods. PADI Open Water Diver Online uses videos, audio, graphics and reading to help you learn, plus short quizzes that let you gauge your progress, and then offers a review of anything you happen to miss.
You develop dive skills during actual dives with a PADI Instructor at Dive Kauai. By completing knowledge development online, you’re ready to meet with your instructor and start having fun in the water rather than sitting in the classroom on your vacation!
What You Will Learn
The PADI Open Water Diver course consists of three main phases:
- Knowledge Development (online) to understand basic principles of scuba diving
- Confined Water Dives to learn basic scuba skills
- Open Water Dives to use your skills and explore!
What Scuba Gear Will You Use?
In the PADI Open Water Diver course, you learn to use basic scuba gear, including a mask, snorkel, fins, regulator, buoyancy control device, and a tank.
Dive Kauai Scuba Center provides all gear/equipment at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE for use during your course! Many shops will charge you to rent the gear or sometimes require you purchase the gear. We will not. We want you to become just as passionate about Scuba as we are before you make the investment in your own gear!
Your PADI Open Water Scuba Course is conducted in 3 parts:
Knowledge Development Independent Study: Once you are scheduled for your certification course, we will send you the eLearning Code so you may begin your Knowledge Development online. Who wants to spend their entire vacation sitting in a classroom? We would prefer to help you have more fun in the sun while on vacation! You will be responsible for completing the 5 chapters of reading, 5 knowledge reviews, 4 quizzes and 1 final exam all prior to beginning the practical course work. Please DO NOT wait until the last minute to complete this section. We cannot even begin the course with you if this is not 100% and will incur additional charges to reschedule, (if even a possibility).
Confined Water Skills Development: Once your knowledge development is complete, we will get you in the pool to teach you the necessary skills to begin your scuba certification process. Learning the fundamentals in the clear confined water of a pool leads our students to greater success when reaching the ocean dives because you were able to master the skills and gaining confidence in your ability to execute those skills without having to worry about poor visibility or constantly battling waves as a first-time diver.
Open Water Dives: Finally, we will get you out to the open ocean to practice your newly acquired skills and begin to experience the magic of the underwater world.
What is Your Typical Schedule?
A typical course, once the eLearning Knowledge Development is complete, is conducted over two (2) days. The first day being the longest: 7:30am to 5:30pm. We will begin in our pool to teach you the “Confined Water Skills” in the clarity and calmness of the pool. This will last most of the morning. (We do recommend bringing a “Grab & Go Lunch” with you incase we run short on time). The afternoon session will head to our shore dive site to do the first two “Open Water Dives” where you not only will get a sense of deeper water than the pool, but you’ll also get to be face to face with marine life and begin exploring the underwater world.
The second day is just a half day typically 12:30pm – 4:30pm (depending on our schedule) to complete the final 2 “Open Water Dives”. These dives will also be from our shore location. Please Note: We do always recommend students complete the course from the shore and then add an additional “Fun Dive” from the boat once you’ve completed the certification process. The reason being its that we have “bigger” water conditions in Kauai and the shore leads to a higher success rate of completion for our students. Plus, once you complete the certification course, you’ll receive 20% discount for any additional “Fun Dive”. This will make the boat dive less expensive than adding it on for the course!
We conduct the course in a ***more expedited manner*** than shops on the mainland. People on vacation don’t want to spend their whole vacation on just one activity, especially on Kauai. We understand this can be a lot of pressure. Therefore, if you tend to pick-up new skills, concepts and learn in this quicker more expedited manner, then the full certification course should be no problem for you. HOWEVER, if a relaxed, go-at-your-own-pace learning environment is more important to you or if it takes you many attempts to learn new skills and gain information, you may benefit by starting with a dive shop close to home prior to arrival. (Using two dive shops will increase the cost of your course, but may prove to be more conducive for your learning style.)
Should you need to discuss this with our team, please call us right away at 808.742.7422.
Course Skills Prerequisites & Minimum Age
Course Prerequisites:
- Able to swim, medically fit for diving, comfortable in the water
During the Open Water Diver Course, your instructor will ask you to:
- Float or tread water without aids for 10 minutes
- Swim 200 meters/yards with no aids OR 300 meters/yards with mask, fins and snorkel
- Minimum age: 10 (No exceptions)
- Divers certified between the ages of 10-14 earn a Junior Diver Certification. Junior Open Water Divers automatically become Open Water Divers at age 15.
If you’re unsure about meeting the above requirements or if trying something new in a group setting makes you uncomfortable or if you’re unsure if scuba diving is for you, we would strongly suggest starting with our Discover Scuba Dive experience before committing to the full Open Water Certification. You’ll get to try on the gear, test your comfort level in more calm shallow water environment with our PADI Dive Pro and ensure committing to the full Open Water Certification is for you.
Not All Students May Be Able To Complete The Course
Our instructors are all PADI professional dive instructors who have to adhere to very strict teaching guidelines. Just because you enrolled in a course doesn’t mean you will become certified. If students are not able to properly complete the course requirements per these guidelines, due to anxiety, poor performance, health issues or other circumstances, we will be unable to process your certification. Our team strives to work with each individual to help them overcome fears and work on specific skills where we identify struggles, but sometimes the expedited manner of the course is not conducive to the student. In this scenario we will modify the course to best fit the situation. If we cannot get you fully certified as an “Open Water Diver”, we will strive to at least get you a partial certification called “Scuba Diver”. Doing this will allow you to still receive a partial certification without a time limit for completing the full course. (Some scenarios this may not be possible either). There is no difference in price of the course when these modifications must be implemented. Should the schedule allow additional days to help complete the course, we will do so at $95+tax per person/per day.