Here in New Zealand we have an incredible education system for students wanting to progress through diver training. If you have never been diving before then you will start with the foundation program that consists of 3 PADI programs:
- PADI Open Water Course
- PADI Advanced Open Water Course
- PADI Rescue Diver Course
These 3 PADI programs make up the NZQA Foundation course and combined together will also gain you a National Certificate in Diving Foundation Level 3!!!! Through the program you will first lean basic open water skills to be ab le to conduct your own scuba dives with a buddy and will be qualified to do so anywhere in the world. The Open water course consists of 3 parts:
- Online Study through state of the art PADI digital products
- Confined water training
- Open Water Training
Foundation students heading out for a dive at Ti Point
Pool training on the foundation course
But this is just the beginning of your diving adventure and will teach you the basics of equipment configurations, handling problems underwater and conducting safe dives with a buddy. Once you’re through the basics of Open Water and have a grasp on safe diving practices we move on to the PADI Advanced Open Water program.
During the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course you will undertake a minimum of 5 PADI adventure dives where you will undertake certain tasks under the water. You will experience deep diving, navigation diving, night diving, and a range of other adventure diving activities like photography, videography, peak performance buoyancy and others. You get to choose!!!
Once the adventure dives have been logged, your next mission will be to start taking care of your buddy during the PADI Rescue Diver program. Cited as one of the most rewarding and challenging programs you will learn how to rescue tired, distressed and unconscious divers all gearing towards some final rescue scenarios and putting your new skills to the test.
As part of the foundation course you will also gain first aid training and log around 40 open water dives!!!! This course will set you up for life as a recreational diver and give you a great foundation of diving skills, but should you want to progress further there is always the option to sign up to a leadership course and start your career as a PADI professional.
When do we run these programs? Throughout the year we run these courses so get in touch to find out when the next intake will start!!!
scuba divers pre dive buddy checks