All advanced courses are not created equal.

There are a lot of different training agencies that offer an advanced course. At Aquatech, we want our divers to be trained to the best of their abilities, and then some.
That's why we choose SSI&SDI for our training. SSI's & SDI'sAdvanced Course requires training and experience. You must have a minimum of 24 dives and 4 specialties to be considered an advanced diver.

There are some agencies that push an advanced course on their divers as soon as they get out of the open water course. In their open water training, they complete 4 open water dives in two days. The next weekend, they are pushed into an advanced class and they complete 5 more dives, for a total of 9 dives. All their dives are with an instructor. They don't do a single dive without an instructor, but are considered an advanced diver.

Ask yourself, "Are you really an advanced diver with only 9 dives?" At Aquatech, we will not issue a full advanced card to someone with just 9 dives. However, what we do have is a rating called an Advanced Adventurer that is equivalent to what every other agency out there offers. You complete all of the requirements the same as the other agencies (5 dives), but you are not considered a full Advanced Diver. Let's break it down.

PADI's Advanced course requires that just 5 dives be completed before advancing to their Advanced Diver Level. The curriculum that is taught is that of a full Advanced Class.

NAUI requires 6 dives be completed before advancing to their Advanced Diver Level.

SSI & SDI Advanced Adventurer requires 5 dives, which can be counted toward the Advanced Diver Level.

SSI's And SDI's Advanced Diver Course requires 24 dives and 4 specialties. You might ask yourself why SSI and SDI requires much more than the other agencies. The answer is simple: experience. SSI & SDI wants to make sure that each and every diver is completely comfortable with the new skills they have learned before advancing to the next level. Additionally, the skills learned during an Advanced Diver Course require that a diver have the experience to navigate more advanced dives. The more experience a diver has, the more comfortable he or she will be in their his or her abilities to advance to the next level.

Simple laws of mathematics prove that SSI and SDI divers are better trained simply because they have completed more dives.

Bottom line: if you are only interested in a card that says you are an advanced diver, you know the route to go. However, if you want the training to go along with it to back it up, SDI and SSI is the best solution.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please feel free to call me, and I will be happy to answer them.

Larry Babcock
812-479-5764