Course overview

Build on your Open Water certification with the PADI Advanced Open Water course in Cairns and open up the deeper, more varied dive sites of the Great Barrier Reef. Over five adventure dives, including a Deep dive to as much as 30 metres and an Underwater Navigation dive, you gain confidence and skills at outer reefs such as Flynn, Milln and Thetford. It is the natural next step and a prerequisite for the Rescue Diver course.

What you’ll learn

• Plan and execute a Deep dive to recreational limits of up to 30 metres
• Navigate underwater accurately by natural references and compass
• Choose and complete three elective adventure dives such as Peak Performance Buoyancy or Fish Identification
• Manage gas and time across deeper, longer reef dives
• Improve trim, buoyancy and air consumption on the outer reef
• Apply more advanced dive planning across repetitive reef trips

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 12 (Junior Advanced) or 15
• PADI Open Water Diver or a qualifying entry-level certification
• Basic comfort and watermanship in open water
• Diver medical clearance signed where any health condition applies

What's included · What's not

Probability of sightings · month-by-month

What you're likely to see each month, based on historic operator logs.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   Deep and navigation dives

   Complete the required Deep adventure dive to up to 30 metres and the Underwater Navigation dive at an outer reef site such as Flynn or Milln Reef.
2. Day2
   Elective adventure dives and certification

   Complete three elective adventure dives such as Peak Performance Buoyancy, Fish Identification or Night, then certify as an Advanced Open Water Diver.

Verified through iDive

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Frequently asked questions