NOTE: Travel to various local dive sites are required for this course. Seawater, boat dives are required for completion of this course.

OVERVIEW AND QUALIFICATIONS

The course is a continuing education certification course for divers who wish to increase their understanding and enjoyment of diving. Emphasis is on student participation and practical application of knowledge in open water after a classroom discussion of subjects. This course is an excellent progression toward NAUI Leadership roles. Some subject areas are a review and expansion of material from previous courses. Each subject area is a progression in study not a definitive study in the particular diving activity. However, instructors will specify performance objectives for related course diving activities; for example, during a navigation dive the student will swim a reciprocal course to within 3m (10 ft.) of its origin. The course may be divided and taught in sections with the student’s Diving/Training Log being signed off for each activity until all requirements are met. Upon successful completion of this course, graduates are considered competent to engage in open water diving activities without supervision, provided the diving activities and the areas dived approximate those of training.

Prerequisites

• Age. Minimum is 15 years by the water phase of the course.

• Certification/Experience/Knowledge. Certification as a NAUI Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver or the equivalent is required. The instructor is to ensure adequate student knowledge and capability before any open water training and shall use skill or other evaluations to do so. One open water dive (which does not count toward the minimum number of dives required for the course) may be used as a screening and evaluation dive. This is not required when the student’s diving proficiencies are well known to the instructor.

• Equipment. Students shall furnish and be responsible for the care and maintenance of their own equipment. The instructor shall initially assist the student in checking all student gear to ensure it is adequate and in proper working order.

Course Description (minimum of 23 academic hours, 8 practical application hours and a minimum of 10 open water dives)

REQUIREMENTS – ACADEMIC

• General. This includes classroom sessions, eLearning, and on-site discussions, briefings, and debriefings, as necessary to prepare for or conclude a dive’s activity in confined or open water.

• Projects. Assignment of independent projects outside of class may be utilized to enhance the learning of the students.

• Applied Sciences. This area is a review and continuation of the material covered in the NAUI Open Water Scuba Diver and Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver courses. Included are physics, physiology, medical aspects and fitness. Emphasis must be placed on the applied aspects so that the diver is able to perform diving skills and tasks involving buoyancy control, pressure changes, air consumption and personal limitations.

• Diving Equipment. This area reviews and expands upon the information presented in the Open Water Scuba Diver course by covering the care of equipment, detailed functioning, specialized gear, and applications, plus additional gear to be used in the Master Scuba Diver course. Technical information on scuba mechanics may be included.

• Diving Safety. This is to cover rescue, first aid, and emergency procedures as applied to diving in open water. Underwater communication, orientation and navigation, the environment, dive planning, and safety measures, including the benefits of emergency oxygen first aid, are also to be covered. First aid is to include the definition, types, causes, prevention, signs, symptoms, and care of: shock, wounds, drowning, heart attack, fractures, sunburn, overheating, exposure, hypothermia, lung overexpansion injuries, decompression sickness and seasickness. Rescue training is to include problem recognition, diver assists, rescues, in-water rescue breathing techniques, transports, carries, and an orientation to CPR.

• Diving Environment. This area is to provide the diver with a better understanding and appreciation of both the physical and biological aspects of the environment that affect or engage the diver. Coverage is to include: plant and animal identification, relationships, dangers, regulations, and uses; conservation, preservation and pollution; water movement and characteristics; shore, bottom, and surface conditions; and diving locations.

• Diving Navigation. This area provides the diver with the skills needed to use a compass and natural aids for orientation in order to: establish relative position, swim in prescribed directions for set distances and find particular locations while submerged and at the surface.

• Night and Limited Visibility Diving. This area prepares the diver to function safely and effectively in dirty water or at night. The problems, techniques, skill levels, hazards, and safety procedures are to be covered.

• Search, Recovery, and Light Salvage. This area provides the diver the information and training needed to select an appropriate search pattern and method for a given area and then perform a search using proper techniques. The problems, planning, methods, techniques, and equipment are to be covered. This area prepares the diver to recover intermediate-sized objects with limited or basic equipment. Theory, problems, hazards, methods, gear, rigging, calculations, and principals involved are to be covered.

• Deep and Simulated Decompression Diving. This area enables the diver to anticipate and prevent problems, utilize concepts, methods, and equipment used in this type of diving. The diver is to acquire a thorough knowledge of the dive tables. Deep diving in this case is defined as any actual or simulated dive made between 60 and 130 feet (18 and 40 m).

REQUIREMENTS – SKILLS

• Scuba Diving (open water). Skill requirements shall be targeted toward the specific activities of the dives conducted and shall be performed at a level significantly higher than that expected of divers at previous levels. The following considerations can be utilized in determining required dives and associated skills:

  • SITES. The greatest possible variety of diving situations shall be used, such as: boat, shore or dock; lake, ocean, quarry, reservoir, or river; surf or current; weeds, kelp, sand, reef, wreck, rock, mud, and so on.

  • DIVES. Open water diving activities shall follow as closely as possible after the academic preparation on the subject and include those listed below. The required dive topic areas listed represent five separate dives of the minimum eight required. The remaining three dives shall be planned by choosing from that list, from the electives listed or from interest areas of the class. Dive topics may be combined or repeated to complete the minimum of eight open water dives:

    • Required Dives

      • Emergency procedures and rescue

      • Deep/simulated decompression diving

      • Limited visibility or night diving

      • Underwater navigation

      • Search and recovery- light salvage

    • Elective Dives

      • Skin diving

      • Review of basic scuba skills

      • Environmental study or survey

      • Air consumption (practical application)

      • Boat diving

      • Shore diving

      • Hunting and collecting

      • Special interest

SOS-ER Requirements

• The class sessions (in addition to eLearning) will consist of

  • 4 or more virtual classroom sessions

  • 4 or more confined water sessions (the later sessions may be held at a local quarry). This sessions do not count towards the required open water dives in order to obtain certification.

  • A Minimum of 8 open water dives with the instructors.

  • A Minimum of 2 seawater, boat dives with the instructors.

  • The maximum depth for any open water dive during this course is 40m (130 ft). No dives are to require actual staged decompression.

Provided Gear

• We can provide buoyancy compensator (BC), regulator sets, cylinders (tanks), and air fills for the course.

Students must provide their own:

• Mask, snorkels, fins, dive boots, weight belts, and soft weights (we will assist in where to obtain this gear).

• Wetsuit or any other rental gear.

• Open water Checkout Dive options:

  • Local Quarry check out dive fees (usually a daily fee per diver) are not included in the cost of the course.

  • Open water checkout dive trip to Florida is not included. These cost will vary by season, locations in Florida, economy, and personal preferences of the student.