Explore PADI Specialties

Do you want to learn how to best support a dive buddy who has a physical or mental challenge? The PADI® Adaptive Support Diver course will increase your awareness of divers' varying abilities, and explores adaptive techniques to apply while diving or freediving with a buddy with a disability.

Everyone likes to scuba dive or snorkel in warm, clear water on a vibrant coral reef, yet many people know little about what they're seeing or the importance of reef ecosystems. The Coral Reef Conservation Specialty course helps you appreciate the complexity of these habitats and teaches you how you can help conserve these vital systems.

Boats and currents are two common factors associated with many dive sites. Boaters don't always recognise that divers are in the area and current can carry you further than expected. Launching a delayed surface marker buoy (DSMB) before you surface can alert others to your location in advance of your ascent. Adding another layer of safety, you can also use the DSMB line to complete your safety stop.

Make a difference on every dive by activating your inner citizen scientist. During the Dive Against Debris Diver Specialty course, you’ll learn how ocean plastic and trash cleanups not only keep your local dive sites healthier, but also how to contribute to a global database that documents our planet’s marine debris problem. Under the guidance of your instructor, you’ll participate in a Dive Against Debris survey and turn your passion for the underwater world into real action.

Scuba diving in a current can be both relaxing and exhilarating. You may slowly glide over a reef, or zoom over an underwater landscape so fast it feels like flying. By the end of your drift diver course, you’ll have the skills you need to confidently go with the flow.

Being First Aid Trained can literally save the life of someone you care about. Whether you are a diver or not, this course is for you and will teach you basic life support to give someone you love the best chance of a positive outcome whilst you wait for emergency services to arrive.

Knowing how and when to administer emergency oxygen is a valuable skill to have in a dive emergency. PADI® Emergency Oxygen Provider prepares you to offer aid and teaches you to recognize scuba diving injuries and illnesses requiring emergency oxygen.
This is an excellent course for scuba divers, boat crew, lifeguards, freedivers, mermaids or anyone who spends time in and around water. No age restrictions or water sessions required.

Don’t miss a dive due to a broken fin strap or wetsuit tear. Learn how to fix minor gear issues and how to clean, store and maintain your dive gear so it lasts a long time.
The PADI Equipment Specialist course teaches you to manage basic repairs and adjustments. You'll also learn more about how your gear works, making you more comfortable with it and better prepared to take care of your investment.

Working divers, such as public safety divers, use full face masks because they protect the eyes and nose from contaminants in the water, provide comfort in cold water, and allow for communication. If you're interested public safety diving, scientific diving, or venturing into extremely cold-water, then learning to dive with a full face mask is definitely for you. Because full face masks allow you to breathe from your nose, they are also beneficial for those who have difficulty using standard scuba masks.

The PADI AWARE Specialty course is an introduction to the global AWARE movement for ocean protection. It focuses and expands on the 10 Tips for Divers to Protect the Ocean Planet. Through interactive discussions, you'll learn how you can make a difference for ocean protection every time you dive or travel. A dry, ‘fins off' course, this specialty is ideal for divers and nondivers alike to gain insight into how decisions above and below the surface impact our water planet.

The next time someone loses an item underwater, you can be the hero that finds the missing object.
In the PADI Search and Recovery course, you’ll learn how to find lost objects underwater. You’ll practice different types of underwater search patterns and learn how to use a lift bag as you plan and execute mock search operations.

Love sharks? Scared of sharks? Or do you just want to know more about them? This course will help you discover the value of sharks to marine ecosystems and economies. You'll learn more about the causes of declining shark populations and the actions you can take to become a knowledgeable and passionate shark defender. By being informed, you can dispel misconceptions and act to protect sharks. Sharks need you!

Take the PADI Underwater Naturalist Specialty course and you'll see new things, even on the most familiar scuba diving sites. Why? Because when know more about symbioses, underwater ecology, and aquatic plant and animal habitats, you notice behaviors and see creatures you may have previously missed. Learn more about the local ecosystem and take a closer look on your next scuba diving adventure.

Whether purpose-sunk as an artificial reef for scuba divers, or lost as the result of an accident, wrecks are fascinating windows to the past. Ships, airplanes and even cars are fascinating to explore and usually teem with aquatic life. Each wreck dive offers a chance for discovery, potentially unlocking a mystery or spying something others have missed. The PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course is popular because it offers rewarding adventures while observing responsible wreck diving practices.

If you love to travel, the PADI Boat Diver Specialty course will prepare you to dive from small inflatables all the way up to large liveaboards. Learn how to enter and exit the water, use current lines and manage seasickness.

During the PADI Deep Diver course, you'll learn how to plan deep dives, manage your gas supply and how to identify and manage narcosis.
You'll learn about buddy contact procedures, safety considerations and buoyancy control at depth and become certified to 40m.

You could spend hours learning underwater photography through trial and error, or you can take a shortcut. Learn professional tricks and tips for taking great photos underwater and the best way to capture video while scuba diving with a GoPro (or other action camera).

Diver Propulsion Vehicle, also called underwater scooters, allow you to see more, conserve air and get from one place to another faster - with a huge smile on your face.
Scuba diving with a DPV is some of the most fun you can have underwater. During the PADI Diver Propulsion Vehicle course, you’ll be surprised how much you can see on one tank of air. Your instructor will show you different maneuvers and answer any questions you have.

During one pool session and two open water dives, you'll learn how to comfortably and confidently dive in a drysuit. An experienced instructor will help you dial in your buoyancy and shorten the learning curve.

This handy capsule sized version of the UK HSE 3 day long First Aid at Work Course is perfectly sufficient for most smaller businesses to meet their HSE obligations by having a trained first aider.

Enriched air, also known as nitrox or EANx, contains less nitrogen than regular air. Breathing less nitrogen means you can enjoy longer dives and shorter surface intervals. No wonder Enriched Air Diver is the most popular PADI specialty.
Learn why nitrox allows you to make longer dives and how to dive nitrox safely through online independent study. Meet with your PADI Instructor for hands-on practical exercises, then plan two dives.

“What was that fish?” is a common question heard after a dive. If you want to be the scuba diver with the answers, instead of the one asking the questions, then take the Fish Identification Specialty course. You'll enjoy your dives even more when you recognize the creatures that you see and can identify the main fish families and their characteristics.

The thought of dipping below the surface at night seems mysterious, yet so alluring. Although you've been scuba diving at a site many times before, at night you drop into a whole new world and watch it come to life under the glow of your dive light. The scene changes as day creatures retire and nocturnal organisms emerge. If you've wondered what happens underwater after the sun goes down, sign up for the PADI Night Diver Specialty course.

Excellent buoyancy control is what defines skilled scuba divers. You've seen them underwater. They glide effortlessly, use less air and ascend, descend or hover almost as if by thought. They more easily observe aquatic life without disturbing their surroundings. You can achieve this, too. The PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty course improves the buoyancy skills you learned as a new diver and elevates them to the next level.

With proper training, equipment and the right attitude to accept the risks involved in independent diving, an experience diver can responsibly engage in dives without a buddy. Self-reliant diving is an adventure activity that is not for everyone, but does have its place. If you have the mental discipline and commitment to learn and follow self-reliant diving techniques, you'll bolster your skills and confidence when diving alone, in a dive pair or as part of a team.

The Gas Blender course will train you as a qualified gas blender, allowing you to provide gas mixes to appropriately certified consumers

Be the scuba diver everyone wants to follow because you know where you are and where you're going. The PADI Underwater Navigator course fine-tunes your observation skills and teaches you to more accurately use your compass underwater. If you like challenges with big rewards, take this course and have fun finding your way.