Course overview

Become a fully certified diver with the PADI Open Water Diver course in Hikkaduwa, the world's most popular entry-level certification. The town's calm, shallow house reef and coral gardens on Sri Lanka's south coast make an ideal, forgiving classroom to learn core scuba skills and complete your training dives. You finish certified to dive to 18 metres anywhere in the world with a buddy.

What you’ll learn

• Assemble, check and care for scuba equipment
• Breathe, clear your mask and recover your regulator underwater
• Achieve and control neutral buoyancy
• Manage your air supply and plan no-decompression dives
• Handle common problems and respond to a buddy in need
• Plan and complete open-water dives to 18 metres

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 10 (Junior Open Water Diver) or 15 for full certification
• Able to swim and float comfortably
• No prior diving experience required
• Diver medical questionnaire, with physician sign-off if needed

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
   Theory & confined water

   Knowledge development and the first confined-water sessions learning core scuba skills in shallow water.
2. Day2
   Confined water & first dives

   Finish confined-water skills and complete the first open-water training dives on Hikkaduwa's calm house reef.
3. Day3
   Open-water dives & certification

   Complete the remaining open-water dives on local reefs and the final exam to certify as an Open Water Diver.

Verified through iDive

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Frequently asked questions