You’ve mastered the basics. Now it’s time to take your diving to the next level.
The SSI Advanced Open Water Course is designed for certified Open Water Divers who want to build confidence, gain experience and discover the many different adventures that scuba diving has to offer.
Rather than focusing on one specific area of diving, you’ll complete five Adventure Dives, each introducing you to a different type of diving. By the end of the course, you’ll have expanded your skills, experienced new underwater environments and discovered where your interests lie as a diver.
Whether you dream of diving deeper, exploring shipwrecks, improving your buoyancy or experiencing the reef after dark, this course opens the door to a lifetime of underwater adventures.
Why Take the Advanced Open Water Course?
The Open Water Course teaches you how to scuba dive.
The Advanced Open Water Course teaches you how to become a better diver.
Every dive introduces new skills, new environments and new experiences, helping you become more confident, more comfortable and more aware underwater.
You’ll quickly notice improvements in:
- Buoyancy and trim
- Air consumption
- Confidence underwater
- Underwater navigation
- Diving awareness
- Equipment use
- Dive planning
Perhaps most importantly, you’ll discover what type of diving excites you most.
Course at a Glance
Duration: 2 Days
Minimum Age: 12 Years
Prerequisites:
- SSI Open Water Diver or equivalent certification
Certification:
SSI Advanced Open Water
Includes:
- SSI Digital Learning
- Professional SSI Instructor
- Five Adventure Dives
- Full scuba equipment
- Dive computer
- Boat trips
- Certification fees
Itinerary at a Glance
Every Advanced Open Water Course is different. You’ll choose your Adventure Dives with your instructor based on your interests, experience level and the conditions during your stay.
Day 1 – Choose Your Adventure
10:00 – Meet your instructor at Funky Turtle Divers
10:15 – Course orientation and select your Adventure Dives
11:00 – Dive planning, equipment preparation and dive briefings
11:30 – Lunch break
12:00 – Afternoon boat departs for Adventure Dives 1 & 2
17:00 – Return to the dive centre, debrief and log your dives
18:00 – Evening boat departs for your Night Adventure Dive (if selected)
20:00 – Return to shore and final debrief for the day
Day 2 – Build Your Experience
06:30 – Meet at Funky Turtle Divers
07:00 – Morning boat departs for Adventure Dives 4 & 5
11:30 – Return to the dive centre, final debrief, certification and congratulations!
Congratulations – you are now an SSI Advanced Open Water Diver.
Your Five Adventure Dives
The SSI Advanced Open Water Course is built around five Adventure Dives, giving you the opportunity to experience different styles of diving while continuing to build your confidence and skills.
Two Adventure Dives are mandatory:
- Deep Diving
- Underwater Navigation
These provide the essential skills every advanced recreational diver should have, teaching you to safely explore greater depths while navigating confidently underwater.
The remaining three Adventure Dives are your choice, allowing you to personalise your course around the type of diving that interests you most.
The most popular combination is known as the “Famous Five”, which includes:
- Deep Diving (Mandatory)
- Underwater Navigation (Mandatory)
- Perfect Buoyancy
- Wreck Diving
- Night Diving
This combination offers an excellent all-round introduction to recreational diving and includes some of Koh Tao’s most popular underwater experiences.
If you’d prefer something different, there are plenty of other Adventure Dives to choose from, including:
- Enriched Air Nitrox
- Search & Recovery
- Fish Identification
- Marine Ecology
- Coral Identification
- Science of Diving
- Computer Diving
- Boat Diving
- Waves, Tides & Currents
Your instructor will help you choose the Adventure Dives that best match your interests, previous experience and the conditions during your stay.
Deep Diving (Mandatory)
Discover what lies beyond the 18-metre limit of your Open Water certification.
During your Deep Adventure Dive you’ll safely extend your recreational depth limit while learning how increased pressure affects your body, your equipment and your air consumption.
You’ll also cover gas management, narcosis awareness, dive planning and safe ascent procedures, giving you the knowledge and confidence to explore deeper dive sites safely.
Underwater Navigation (Mandatory)
Knowing where you are underwater is one of the most valuable skills any diver can develop.
During this Adventure Dive you’ll learn to navigate using both a compass and natural references such as reef formations, sunlight, sand patterns and depth changes.
These skills make every dive safer, more relaxed and help you become a more independent diver.
Perfect Buoyancy (Highly recommended)
If there’s one Adventure Dive that will improve every future dive you make, it’s Perfect Buoyancy.
You’ll refine your weighting, improve your trim and learn how to hover effortlessly above the reef with minimal effort.
Better buoyancy means improved air consumption, greater control, less effort and less impact on the marine environment.
Wreck Diving
Wrecks are some of the ocean’s most fascinating dive sites.
During your Wreck Adventure Dive you’ll learn how to safely explore the exterior of a wreck, understand potential hazards and discover why these artificial reefs attract such an incredible variety of marine life.
It’s an exciting introduction to one of scuba diving’s most popular specialties.
Night Diving
Everything changes after sunset.
Armed with your dive torch, you’ll descend into a completely different underwater world where nocturnal marine life comes alive.
Watch hunting predators emerge, sleeping fish settle into the reef and experience the ocean in a way very few people ever will.
For many divers, Night Diving becomes the highlight of the entire course.
What You’ll Learn
Throughout the course you’ll develop practical skills that you’ll use on every dive for years to come.
These include:
- Improved buoyancy and trim
- Better air consumption
- Greater confidence underwater
- Compass and natural navigation
- Deep diving procedures
- Dive planning
- Equipment configuration
- Improved situational awareness
- Better buddy communication
- Experience in a variety of diving environments
By the end of the course, you’ll simply feel like a more capable and confident diver.
Your Certification
Upon successful completion, you’ll become an SSI Advanced Open Water Diver.
Each Adventure Dive also counts as the first training dive of its corresponding SSI Specialty Course.
If you later decide to complete one of those specialties, you’ve already made a great start.
As you continue diving, complete Specialty Courses and log additional dives, you’ll progress towards the prestigious SSI Advanced Specialty Diver recognition.
Why Learn with Funky Turtle Divers?
At Funky Turtle Divers, we believe continuing your education should be every bit as enjoyable as your first certification.
Our instructors keep groups small, tailor every course to the individual diver and focus on developing real diving skills – not simply ticking boxes.
Because you’ll choose three of your five Adventure Dives, every course is unique. We’ll help you select the dives that best suit your interests, experience level and the conditions during your stay, ensuring you get the most from your time on Koh Tao.
The result?
You’ll leave as a noticeably better diver, not just with another certification.
Is This Course Right for Me?
This course is perfect if you:
- Have recently completed your Open Water certification
- Want to improve your confidence underwater
- Want to dive deeper
- Want to experience night diving
- Are interested in wrecks
- Want to improve your buoyancy
- Want to continue developing your diving skills
- Simply want to become a better diver
What’s Next?
The Advanced Open Water Course is designed to introduce you to different styles of diving and help you discover what you enjoy most.
The natural next step is to complete one or more SSI Specialty Courses. These courses allow you to explore a particular area of diving in greater depth, with additional academic learning, practical training and certification.
Whether you’re interested in becoming an expert in Perfect Buoyancy, Deep Diving, Night Diving, Wreck Diving, Enriched Air Nitrox or one of many other specialties, each course builds your knowledge, confidence and experience as a diver.
As you continue your training and log more dives, you’ll also work towards SSI’s internationally recognised diver ratings:
- SSI Specialty Diver – Complete 2 Specialty certifications and log 12 dives.
- SSI Advanced Specialty Diver – Complete 4 Specialty certifications and log 24 dives.
- SSI Master Diver – Complete 5 Specialty certifications (including Deep Diving and Stress & Rescue) and log 50 dives.
These recognition levels celebrate your growing experience and are respected throughout the diving industry.
For many divers, this is just the beginning. As your passion and experience continue to grow, you can progress to Stress & Rescue, Divemaster, and ultimately become an SSI Open Water Instructor, sharing your love of diving with others around the world.
Dive & Stay Packages
Koh Tao is famous worldwide for scuba diving, and Funky Turtle Divers is a great base for guests looking to explore underwater too.
Ask us about:
- Beginner dive experiences
- Open Water courses
- Advanced courses
- Fun diving trips
- Accommodation + diving packages
