Course overview

Earn your full diving certification with the SSI Open Water Diver course in Hikkaduwa, a globally recognised entry-level qualification. The town's calm, shallow house reef and coral gardens on Sri Lanka's south coast offer a gentle, forgiving setting 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

• Set up, check and maintain scuba equipment
• Breathe, clear your mask and recover your regulator underwater
• Establish and control neutral buoyancy
• Monitor air and plan dives within no-decompression limits
• Manage problems and assist a buddy
• Plan and complete open-water dives to 18 metres

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 10 (Junior) 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

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

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

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

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Frequently asked questions