Welcome to the wonderful world of diving! Earning your scuba diving certification will change your life and the PADI Open Water Referral option is the BEST way to get it done while visiting Maui.
Read more: Start at home, finish on Maui: Why the PADI Referral Course is the best way to get certified in Maui!Welcome to the wonderful world of diving! Earning your scuba diving certification will change your life and the PADI Open Water Referral option is the BEST way to get it done while visiting Maui.
The PADI System of diver training is not only internationally recognized, it is also internationally standardized meaning you can start your course in one place and finish it anywhere else in the world! Your first level of certification is the PADI Open Water Diver and this allows you to dive independently (with a buddy but without an Instructor or other scuba diving professional).
In order to earn your PADI Open Water Certification, you need to complete these three components:
- Open Water eLearning: Your digital learning materials are presented on either your phone on a mobile app or on your computer through the PADI website and include book work, videos and quizzes.
- Confined Water Sessions: These sessions are designed to introduce you the basic underwater skills that you need to master during your course. Generally, this is done in a swimming pool or in the sea in swimming-pool like conditions
- Open Water Dives: During these four dives, you will adjust the open water environment and confirm that you have mastered all of the required skills. You will also get to enjoy the underwater scenery.
So with both courses available, why do we recommend the referral option? There are a couple of reasons that really make this the recommended option.
- The course is only two half-days: the full open water course runs over three half-days with a classroom session at the end of day two, but the referral option is only two half-days which optimizes your time in Maui.
- Day two includes boat dives from the Maui Diamond: Not only does this give you extra skills by teaching you to dive from the shore and from our boat, the Maui Diamond, but it is also more fun; who doesn’t want a half day of enjoying Maui from a boat as part of their vacation! The full course is taught exclusively from the shore.
- Conditions don’t play as big of a role: At Maui Dreams, we complete the confined water sessions in the sea, not in a pool, and this means that the sea must be “swimming pool-like with respect to calmness, clarity and depth”. Should conditions be less than ideal, by having completed your pool sessions at home, you are more likely to be able to complete your course should weather take a turn.
Whatever your decision, the full course or the open water referral option, when you dive with Maui Dreams you are choosing to dive with a team who cares about your safety and your experience, so you really can’t go wrong!
