Many people unknowingly believe that there is only one scuba certification, when in fact, the certifying agencies offer a continuing education program. The basic or openwater certification prepares the diver to dive to depths and in like conditions of those in which they learned. The new diver holding an openwater certification is ill prepared to fly Palancar Reef on a swift drift dive or descend down a plunging wall in the Bay Islands of Honduras. Once earning an openwater certification, the diver can enroll in an advanced openwater course and learn the basics of night diving, deep diving, underwater navigation and search and salvage. In addition, there is a long list of specialty courses to enhance the diver’s experience and skill including underwater photography, deep diving, wreck diving, high altitude diving and underwater hunting and collecting. In recent years recreational divers have had the opportunity to learn technical diving including utilizing mixed gas for deep forays to shipwrecks and wall exploration.

Openwater opportunities abound for the advanced diver in offshore kelp beds, on drift dives over coral reefs, descents down steep walls and in conditions that are out of the realm for the less experienced diver. Keep diving, keep learning.