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If you cannot dive, this is the ideal time to give it a try. S.C.U.B.A. (self contained underwater breathing apparatus) is one of the most flexible tools available to someone hoping for marine life encounters. Here at Reefwatch we can certify you as an internationally recognized diver, holding the certification from the largest and most professional of the world's diving federations.
 

P.A.D.I (Professional Association of Diving Instructors).
Average course length for the first level of diver - Open Water - is around four days, although the schedule can be adjusted for a more relaxed pace. We recommend students who have not dived before sign up for our Marine Explorer Program, which starts with the less demanding Discover Scuba Experience, then proceeds to the full course.
The full system of P.A.D.I courses from Open Water to IDC Staff Instructor is available. Marine life identification courses, videography and photography are our primary specialties, and our local life identification courses can be as simple or complex as you choose to make them.
Qualified P.A.D.I Instructors and Divemasters carry out all instruction.
More detailed information on each course is available by clicking on the course you are interested in.
For the latest prices please email us, ian@reefwatchworldwide.com

PADI Courses

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Junior Diver Courses

Next Generation Divers
Reefwatch welcomes all members of the family. Thanks to advances in technology, children as young as 8 years old can enjoy the thrill of breathing underwater in controlled conditions. For those younger than that, we offer informative and entertaining marine life encounters using snorkeling equipment and life jackets. Take a look at our course programs below and remember, if you have any questions, feel free to Email us.

Diving Programs
Bubble maker
Min age 8.
The ideal introduction to scuba for all age groups. Conducted in a swimming pool or a similar environment no more than two meters deep.
Discover Scuba Diving
Min age 10.
One day introduction course, training in confined shallow water followed by closely supervised dive with an instructor to a maximum of 12m (40 ft). Following this course you can do repeat dives. Again under close supervision.
Course length (1/2 day)
Jnr. Scuba Diver
Min age 10.
A program leading to our first permanent certification card. The rules of diving are taught in more detail, and skills are developed more thoroughly. Training is exactly the same as that given to adults taking the Scuba Diver Program. The course consists of three theory sessions, pool work and two open water dives. After the course, you can dive to 12m for the rest of your life (although if you do not dive for a while, we recommend taking a scuba review before resuming). Course length 2 days.
Jnr. Open Water Diver
Min age 10. All dives limited to 12m max.
Age 12 + 3rd and 4th dives may be to 18m max.
The full certification course giving an internationally recognized diving card. Depth limitation depends on age. Videos, theory sessions and pool work are used to promote your knowledge of diving safely. In approximately four days, you will have gained the skills and knowledge necessary to plan and conduct dives in conditions equal to or better than those, you were trained in. In certain conditions, you will not require professional supervision, although in most areas, using the services of a competent dive guide will improve your enjoyment of the dive sites immensely. Four training dives are part of this course allowing you to practice your skills successfully in deeper water. This repetition of skills will help build your confidence in your ability to handle routine events in any depth up to 18m.
Course length. 3 - 4 days.
Jnr. Advanced Open Water Diver
Min age: 12
Max. Depth: 21m/ 70 ft.
Building on the skills learned on the Open Water Course, the Advanced Course involves trying out various areas of specialty diving under the guidance of a qualified instructor. For more details on course content, see Adult Advanced Course.
Course length. 2 days
Jnr. Rescue Diver
Min age: 12
Max. Depth: 21m/70ft.
Apart from the depth limitation, this course is identical to the Adult Rescue Diver Course
Course length. 2 - 3 days.

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Try Dives / Discover Scuba
The simplest and easiest way to get wet. If you are at all interested in diving just come along to the centre and see us. After a short chat to explain the rules of diving, you will be introduced to the sensation of breathing underwater. Your instructor will then show you a little marine life, without you ever going out of your depth. This course is our cheapest option and is only meant to give you a taste of what diving is about. Normally you spend around 10 to 15 mins. Underwater. After that, there will be no stopping you!
Discover Scuba Diving
The next step is to evaluate how much time you have to go diving. If you have the time, we recommend taking the Open Water or Scuba Diver courses, which will give you the benefit of internationally recognized certification. Without a card, the amount and type of diving you can do is limited. If you do not want to commit yourself to a long course straight away. For people in this situation, or for those with too little time, we recommend you take the Discover Scuba Diving Program. Discover Scuba Diving lasts around half a day. It consists of watching a short video explaining a little about the most important rules of diving. Your instructor will then chat to you about anything you didn't understand and explain what you'll be doing later. Before going out, you will be introduced to using the equipment and certain techniques to cope with any problems in an area of confined water. This means you can get used to being underwater gradually and in water not out of your depth. Once you are comfortable, your instructor will take you off on a nice shallow dive then bring you back to shore. At this point, you will have two options for further diving. The first is to enroll in a full Open Water Course and get a license - your Discover Scuba Diving may be credited towards qualification if you enroll within a couple of days after your Discover Scuba diving experience. This will bring a discount in the price of the Open Water Course. The second option is that you can keep diving with direct professional supervision. However, the maximum period you can do this without repeating the course is two weeks. Due to the level of supervision involved, you will notice that follow up dives are a little more expensive than those offered to fully qualified divers.

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Open Water Diver
Course prerequisites: Comfortable in water. No diving experience is required.
However, for complete beginners we'd recommend a try Dive or Discover Scuba Diving Course first. Min age (15): Children aged between 10 -14 may take the Junior Open Water Course for children between 8-10 we are happy to offer the Bubble maker Course. 

The philosophy behind the P.A.D.I modular scuba course is to teach people how to dive in a stress free environment. Information is repeated throughout the course and often you are learning without knowing it. First of all you will be given a manual, the longer you can spend reading, the easier you will find the course. The book is divided into five chapters or modules. Each module corresponds to a video and lecture which your instructor will give you. A short informal quiz allows your instructor to spot anything you might have missed and clarify it for you before moving on to the next module. At the end of each module is a section describing the skills which you will be learning in confined water later. Confined water is always shallow and calm or in a pool, so don't worry that you'll be out of your depth or unable to stand up when you first start to learn. Once you have learned a skill and practiced it in shallow water, you will repeat it several times during the series of training dives that make up the most fun part of the course. The first dive is just for experience and you will only have to swim with your instructor and look at the fish. On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, training dives you'll be practicing a few skills as well as touring for fun. By the end of the course you'll be certified to plan and conduct dives in conditions better than or equal to those you were trained in without close professional supervision. Common sense should apply as to whether you are ready to dive without guides in certain situations. Evaluating whether a dive is suitable for you is one of the most important skills you will learn on this course. Learning to dive is great fun, so come on and explore the sea!

Average length of the course is 4 days.

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Advanced Open Water Diver
Course prerequisites: Certified as Open Water Diver or equivalent rating.
Min age: 15, but children between 12 and 15 can take the Junior Advanced Course (see below) 

Building on what you learned in your Open Water Course, the Advanced Course offers you an introduction to the many and varied types of specialist diving available around the world. The course consists of five dives and self-study knowledge reviews. You will be introduced to the thrills of deep diving and taught how to acquire the added discipline and techniques required to safely explore what lies beyond 18m. You will also hone your navigation skills beyond what you learned in your first course. Good navigation skills will add to your confidence and increase your eagerness to start planning your own dives. These two dives are required by P.A.D.I in order to achieve the Advanced Diver rating. You can choose the other three dives in the course. Simply pick the areas of diving that interest you!
Night Dive - Learn the techniques involved in safely diving in darkness. Ideal for those wishing to take part in our observation projects or just the casual fish watcher! The reef is an entirely different place at night. Fish you might have seen dozens of times before during the day act completely differently. Lobsters, crabs and mantis shrimps scuttle about looking for a meal, whilst trying to avoid becoming dinner for the larger nocturnal hunters like the octopus and moray eels that are now also moving about. A fascinating experience that no diver should miss! As with all the dives in the Advanced Course, the Night Diver Experience Dive can be credited towards achieving the Night Diver specialty rating. 
Naturalist Dive - Pretty much our house specialty. Learn about marine life. If your interests lie here, you will want to check out our Reefwatch Marine Life Courses. 
Underwater Photography Dive - Learn the basics of using an underwater camera to document your dives, and help you identify marine life. Photo experience dive can be counted towards the U/W Photographer specialty rating.
Underwater Video Dive - You will be amazed how easy it is to prepare and use a video camera underwater. The results will amaze you. Once you learn the basics, we can teach you more advanced shooting and editing techniques on the U/W Videographer specialty. 
Multi-Level Dive - Learn to use P.A.D.I recreational dive planner to safely extend your bottom time. Now you will be diving deeper, you will need to master the techniques involved in planning and executing multi-level dives. You should remember from your Open Water Course that the deeper you go, the less time you can stay without incurring decompression penalties. A quick look at dive tables will tell you that a dive to your new maximum depth of 30m (following the deep dive of this course) will give you a maximum bottom time of 20 mins. (Not so long.) Using the techniques you learn in this course, you can plan to ascend to a shallower level where not so much nitrogen is being absorbed into your body and continue diving for much longer. You can learn more about multi-level diving in the Multi-Level Diver Specialty Course. 
Drift Dive - Obviously dependant on the time of day and the tides. Learning how to ride the current opens up a wider vista of diving sites. Learning to drift dive requires a good sense of team work and close understanding with your diver group and cover boat. The rewards are effortless glides over great distances, improved chances of observing Pelagic marine life and fish that like strong currents ( like manta rays). When you are more confident, there is nothing like the adrenaline rush of jetting down narrow coral canyons like a fighter pilot on a low-level run. Again, the Drift Experience Dive introduces you to the techniques you will perfect in the Drift Diver Specialty Course. 
Search and Recovery Dive - Occasionally things get lost off the side of boats. Likewise, as a research diver you can often find yourself responsible for setting or resetting buoys. In this dive experience, you are introduced to the techniques for thoroughly and systematically searching an area and rigging and lifting objects. The skills you learn on this dive will give you a good head start when you go on to become a rescue diver. Your dive also counts towards Search and Recovery Specialty Course.
Peak Performance Buoyancy - We have all done it, one minute you are swimming along perfectly neutrally buoyant, and then suddenly you are plummeting towards the reef! - So now you add a squirt of air to the bcd but oops - now you are rising too quickly! Scenes like this are familiar to most divers. By learning to perfect your movement underwater, you can cut out many of the causes for these yo-yo periods. By getting your buoyancy right, you'll find you use less air, avoid a lot of ear squeezes by controlling your descent rate, have a better time, and finally, understand what your instructor meant by being able to fly in slow motion. No more hanging on to the ascent line for dear life to keep from blowing the safety stop! Buoyancy control is an art that takes time to master but, by taking this dive, you will be sure to pick up a few hints and tips that will make your dives feel more under control. A full peak performance Buoyancy Specialty Course is available to help you further refine this most valuable of diving skills.
On completing the course, you will be issued the P.A.D.I Advanced Open Water Diver Certification, which enables you to participate in diving activities at depths of 18 - 30m. Advanced Diver Certification is a prerequisite to many specialty diver ratings and the Rescue Diver Course.

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Emergency First Response
Medic First Aid is a skill no diver should be without. Not a diving specific course, it teaches the same techniques used by paramedics and doctors to approach a medical emergency. This includes C.P.R and thus is ideal to fulfill the prerequisites for the Rescue Course.
Course length: 8 hours.

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Rescue Diver
Min age 15: 
(Divers between 12-15 can do Junior Rescue Diver Course )
Prerequisites: Advanced Diver or equivalent. 9+ logged dives. Medic First Aid/ C.P.R. course within the last 12 months.
Becoming a rescue diver is an exciting and rewarding goal that every diver should aspire to. Knowing how to cope with various stressful situations before they become emergencies will boost your confidence and open up a whole realm of diving opportunities. On this course you will be taught a lot more about how to evaluate dive sites, boats, and conditions with an eye towards diving safety. This course serves as a perfect introduction to the techniques used the world over by divemasters and instructors to conduct safe and fun dives. The main point taught on the course is that prevention is better than cure. The majority of all stressful situations encountered on dive trips can be avoided by good planning. The P.A.D.I Rescue Diver Course teaches you to see problems before they occur. As with all P.A.D.I courses, Rescue Diver is a modular course that starts with how to respond to simple potential problems, then moves on step by step to situations as complex as organizing an entire search and rescue. Ordinarily lasting between two and three days, the course begins with videos and theory sessions in the classroom. You will then move on to practicing assisting other divers in the water, before beginning to role-play more serious situations. By the end of the course you will be confident and competent to organize and coordinate searches with multiple dive teams as well as be able to perform resuscitation and Casevac. Some people are daunted by the idea of this course, but you will soon find you are much more capable than you think. Two months after I finished my Rescue Course, a girl I was diving with put her hand on a sea urchin and started to panic. The techniques I learnt in the course came instantly to mind and, just by gaining her attention with a gentle touch to show I was there, she got things back under control and made a slow ascent back to the surface. When we got back to the boat, we found the Thai boatman had gone off fishing. This was a long time ago and neither of us was sure if that particular kind of sea urchin was poisonous. We were only a couple of hundred metres from the shore, so rather than wait for the boatman, we snorkeled in and got treatment. The instructor at the dive shop was so impressed by the way I handled the situation he convinced me to do my Divemaster course and I never looked back.

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Deep Diver Specialty Course
Min age:15
Prerequisites: Advanced Open Water Diver or equivalent.(4 Dives)

Diving deeper brings unique challenges, mainly relating to gas management and narcosis. The P.A.D.I Deep Diver Specialty Course equips you to meet the challenges involved in planning and conducting dives in the region between 30 and 40m. It is in this area that the effects of nitrogen narcosis begin to affect your awareness. In addition, this deep - your air supply will be used faster, and dissolve into your blood at a rate that would quickly require you to make decompression stops, should you exceed the limits of the R.D.P. As you can see, coping correctly with planning and executing deeper dives requires a little more discipline than the diving you might have done so far. So why bother to dive deep? As a marine life research centre, one of the answers we could give you is to encounter and film the different forms of life. Another good reason occurs if you are attracted to wreck diving, or cavern diving. In both of these areas, exploration can take you deeper than the techniques taught to you in the Open water and Advanced courses. More than half the big wrecks in Scapa Flow and Truk Lagoon lie at 30 plus metres and, although today's dive computers can accurately plan for such over-runs, diving beyond the depths you are trained for is a very foolish thing to do. The Deep Diver Course can be structured in two ways. The first option is for those who have recently completed the deep dive of the Advanced Course. In this case, Dive One of the Deep Diver Course is waived, or a qualified instructor will take you on a deep tour. If it has been sometime since you did that course, we usually recommend you repeat the Advanced Deep Dive to refresh your memory. The following three dives will teach you some of the specialized techniques needed for deeper diving, such as rigging and using drop tanks, pony bottles, and roping off (where you use jump lines to stay attached to a descent line). This is more properly a technique used in extended decompression diving. It is taught here for added safety value, the thinking being, should you suffer problems with your air supply at 40m, you are hooked up to the descent line which has a spare tank and reg. at 5m, thereby lessening your chances of losing the line in an emergency). You will also learn some simple ways to check yourself and your friend for narcosis (sometimes called 'rapture of the deep').

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Night Diver Specialty
Pre-requisite: P.A.D.I Open Water Diver or equivalent.
Min age: 12
Course length: 3 dives

Night diving is an activity that offers something for everyone. There are many reasons for you to learn to night dive, for instance flexibility. By learning to dive at night, you can dive on weeknights to unwind after a hard day at the office. You will also find diving at night changes the whole complexion of the reef. The fish you see by day will all be sleeping and the reef will come alive with nocturnal hunters and creeping crabs. Even the hard rock like corals change putting forth spongy petal like tentacles and taking on a soft feathery outline. Night diving is fun and easy, but requires certain techniques and, of course, controlled supervised practice before you are ready to go exploring independently, or at more challenging sites. The Night Diver Specialty Course provides gentle introduction and instruction in techniques that you can refine and perfect as your confidence grows. You will find many of our behavioral experiments are conducted at dawn and dusk. This is because the majority of predators on the reef are crepuscular (hunting at dawn and dusk). Most successful predation occurs at this time as animals are just waking up or going to sleep. By learning how to dive at night, you will gain an invaluable tool in understanding marine life. Night diving will also provide keen photographers and videographers with many new opportunities to photograph species that are unapproachable or hidden by day.

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Underwater Photographer
Min age: 12
Prerequisites: Open water diver or equivalent.(2 Dives)

Underwater photography is one of the most challenging and intriguing activities in diving. Once you take it up you will never find any dive site boring again. Whether you just want to learn how to take snaps of your friends or capture images of the undersea world in all its glory a photography course is where you will want to start. In this course, you will be introduced to the basics of preparing and using cameras underwater. If you are keen on Marine life you will find that using a camera to snap pictures of those mystery fish will help you to identify them when flicking though the guide books. You will also find photography to be a rewarding hobby in itself. Instead of going diving and photographing what you see, you will find yourself planning dives around getting the pictures you want. Reefwatchs' unique research based dive schedules mean we are very flexible and have a lot of scope for you to do this. We also have a lot of knowledge about how certain fish and animals behave and where and how to get the best pictures of them. Those of you who develop a serious interest in photography will find plenty of chances to exercise it by signing up to assist in our reef observation projects. In order to classify and monitor the condition of the reef, and to better understand the behaviour of its inhabitants. Many of our projects involve taking pictures of corals and the like. If your interested in such things please check out of section on research diving. The basics of this course are taught in the classroom followed by two dives on which you will be learning how to estimate distance underwater and taking photos of various subjects. The cost of the course includes all dive equipment and rental of a camera. Film is developed in town then in the evening your instructor will go over your photos and tell you how to improve them. Note that if you have your own camera it must meet certain specifications to be used in the official P.A.D.I course.

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Equipment Specialist
Min Age: 10
Prerequisites: None

Designed to teach you how to choose diving equipment and extend its active life by treating it properly. Scuba regulators and BCDs are life support equipment and their servicing should be left in the hands of qualified personnel. However, there are many things you can do to make sure your equipment does not let you down. This course takes you on a systematic tour of how all scuba gear functions and should be treated before, during and after a dive. Badly fitting or poorly maintained equipment can ruin your dive. By taking this course, you can avoid many problems before they become a danger. For Divemaster Trainees or other interested parties we can also arrange a basic equipment-servicing course. We can also familiarize you with the basics of Nitrox and other mixed gas equipment. Course normally lasts 1 day.

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Drift Diver
Min age: 12.
Prerequisites: Open Water or equivalent. (2 Dives)

Drift diving is one of the most fun and relaxing kinds of diving you will ever encounter. Learning how to use the power of the sea, drift diving involves riding the oceans' currents to preserve energy. Some of the best dive sites in the world are swept by strong currents, big ocean going fish often feed in such places and it is here that you stand your best chance of seeing the ocean leviathans. There's nothing quite like hanging in a current, letting it propel you gently down a reef as large fish cruise effortlessly past. With experience you'll be ready to dive in faster waters, further broadening the amount of marine life you can observe and film. The P.A.D.I Drift Diver Course concentrates on the specialized techniques involved in fast water diving. Different descent and entry techniques are used from those performed on normal dives. You also need to understand why and how tides change and to be able to work out when high, slack and low tides are. You will also learn how to organize and liaise with the skipper of your cover boat. (One of the main things that appeals to most divers about drift dives is that you avoid those embarrassing lapses of navigation that lead to you missing the boat at the end of the dive. In drift diving the boat shadows you and picks you up at the end of the dive). As is normally the case in P.A.D.I courses, you begin learning in the classroom before going out and putting what you have learned into practice under professional supervision. The course consists of a theory session and two dives.

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Naturalist Specialty
Min age: 10
Prerequisites: Open Water Diver. (2 Dives)

Learn a little about the marine environment and its inhabitants. Course includes lectures on marine life identification and two guided dives. As a conservation and research centre, we would like to think our courses in this area are maybe a little special. Why not check out our own Reefwatch Marine Life Programs (Reefwatch projects page)

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Peak Performance Buoyancy
Min age: 12
Prerequisites: Open Water Diver or equivalent. (2 Dives)

Buoyancy control is the ability to hover whenever you want. To have complete control over your movement through three dimensions. No matter what you have heard from other divers, it does not come overnight. Taking this course will give you a leg up however, and teach you how to fine-tune everything from your weight belt to your body position when swimming. Improving your buoyancy not only adds to your freedom of movement it will also cut back on your air consumption and let you take better photos and videos. A sizeable amount of this course takes place in confined water or the pool. This allows you to refine your breath control, learn to hover face down, and navigate through an under water obstacle course. Other important skills are simulated safety stops and assessing the effects of surge in water. Being able to hold your position for 3 mins at 5m is something most divers need to practice. The two training dives we include in this course allow us to evaluate what you have learned and coach you on your technique as we dive. Before the end of the course, you will feel a lot more in control, and will soon be able to approach the reef confident of your ability to move clear with a simple inhalation of breath. Course length: 1 day - includes theory, confined water practice and two training dives.

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Search and Recovery Specialty
Min age. 15 (Age 12 -15 can take jnr. Search and recovery specialty)
Prerequisites: Advanced diver or equivalent certification. (4 Dives over 2 days)

The old favorite among British taught divers. Normally involving grubbing around in near zero visibility looking for bits of equipment dropped from boats in marinas (or on dive trips!). Here however, we have things a little easier in terms of visibility. The heart of search and recovery is making sure you search the right area thoroughly. There are many techniques for doing this, for instance if you were looking for golf balls in murky lake where you could only see 2 ft you wouldn't use the same technique as you do on a coral reef where you can see 30ft. Search and recovery is based on locating and raising inanimate objects although the things you learn on this course are equally applicable to the business of searching for lost divers and snorkellers, as such this course is the ideal step to take between your advanced and rescue course. You will also find the techniques of search and recovery diving useful if you have an interest in underwater archeology, mapping reefs, or our own observation programs. As part of our experiments, we must sometimes be sure we have examined an entire section of reef, and search patterns are often used when studying habit and behaviors among certain species. The second part of search and recovery, relates to the rigging and raising of lost items using air bags. These techniques are also useful in conservation and professional diving when you might be helping to place marker buoys or artificial reefs. (Note if your interested in this kind of thing check our research and observation programs). This course consists of theory and practical sessions before moving out into the water to practice search patterns and lifting techniques. Over four dives we will move from simple to complex searches, raising, and lowering items of various sizes, using a variety of lifting devices. Course length: 2 days, Theory, practice, 4 training dives.

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Enriched Air Nitrox
Min age: 15
Prerequisites: Open Water Diver or equivalent.

As you might remember from your Open Water Course, nitrogen is the gas that causes all the problems in diving. The rate at which you absorb it into your body controls how long you can stay under the water before having to come up. By removing some of the nitrogen from the mix of gases that make up air and replacing it with oxygen, you can increase the amount of safe bottom time available at certain depths. For instance, the no decompression limit for 18m is 56 minutes. Using nitro 32 (32% oxygen as opposed to the 21% in normal air) the safe limit is 95 minutes. Using the other most common blend, nitrox 36, it rises to 125 minutes. You will find this extra time especially useful if your photographing or observing marine life (check the Reefwatch Programs link - we specialize in such activities). Another nice thing about this course is you have already done most of the work involved once. You have learned how to use the nitrox tables and how to analyze the gases in your tank. Diving on nitrox is exactly the same as diving on air. The course consists of theory session explaining the techniques involved in diving with higher oxygen partial pressures, using an analyzer to check gases and two experience dives to get you used to planning and executing dives with enriched air nitrox. Course length is usually 2 days. After which you will be certified to use gases up to 40% oxygen.

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Underwater Navigator
Min age: 12
Prerequisite: Open Water Diver or equivalent

The ability to navigate accurately underwater is valuable to all divers. First of all, knowing where you are reduces stress. You enjoy your dives a lot more if you know that you are heading back to the boat and are not wandering in circles. On deeper dives or in strong currents, it can be vital to return to an ascent line, whereas in search and recovery or rescue diving, the ability to be sure you covered an area thoroughly and quickly can mean the difference between finding and missing what you are searching for. Navigation is also important to those interested in observing and photographing marine life. Many of our experiments here at Reef watch require us to return to the same sites month after month to record how much a certain piece of coral has grown for instance, or to see if a species of moray eel uses the same hole to sleep in each night. All these situations depend on good navigation. Fortunately, navigation is fun and simple to learn. Over the two days of this course, you will learn how to use both natural features and the compass to find your way around underwater. The course progresses from reminding you how to use a compass on land to the techniques in handling multi-leg long distance courses. Also included is how to locate and mark interesting sites for relocation. Above and beyond what you learn in this course, you should be aware that proven ability to navigate accurately is what dive shop owners look for when considering whether to let you dive independently. Course length: approx. 2 days. Includes theory, practice navigation on land, 3 training dives.

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Underwater Videographer
Min age: 12
Prerequisite: Open Water Diver or equivalent.

It's hard sometimes being a diver you are sitting somewhere with a bunch of friends trying to explain just how beautiful and alien a reef can be -or when you've seen something new on a dive and are desperately trying to explain it to a baffled divemaster to find out what it was. All these problems can be solved by learning how to use underwater video cameras. With advances in technology, it is actually easier to make an underwater film than it is to take pictures. What you see on the video screen underwater is what you get (as long as you remembered to push the record button!) Underwater video is one of the most fascinating and yet simplest kinds of specialties around. The P.A.D.I course teaches you all about lighting, shooting angles, preparing equipment and editing. (We also offer our own Reefwatch Film Maker course, which covers how to make full underwater documentaries). Course length: approx. 2 days. (includes use of digital video camera, copy of tape, editing suite time) Note* You can also rent cameras to take pictures of yourself/ friends/ partners or use them to film what fish you see and then get our staff to help you identify them.

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Divemaster – Intensive 2 week course
Min age: 18
Prerequisites: Rescue diver, EFR or equivalent within last 24 months. Min. dives 20. You also need to have made at least 60-logged dives at the end of the course to be certified and acquire professional qualifications.

Divemaster is the first professional level in the P.A.D.I system of education. As a P.A.D.I Divemaster, you will be certified to lead tours, manage dive groups and lend a hand to assistant instructors and instructors when they are teaching courses. At Reefwatch, we offer two methods of achieving this rating. The first is an intensive two-week course, which mainly consists of role-playing and academics to fulfill the course requirements in the time available. The second option is an internship, which lasts between 6 - 9 weeks. During this period, you work with our staff during actual courses and tours to gain hands-on experience in running safe fun dive trips and courses. You will also find yourself assisting and guiding divers on our observation/research projects, (we will give you an excellent grounding in marine biology, which will stand you in good stead when seeking employment). You will also learn a lot about all other aspects of the diving industry whilst training with us.
Please note that as an intern you will be a part of the team and will be expected to conduct yourself in an appropriate manner. Please note Reefwatch trained D.M's may also enroll for the Assistant Instructor Course and obtain a substantial discount.

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Divemaster – Internship 6-9 week course
Min age: 18
Prerequisites: Rescue diver, EFR or equivalent within last 24 months. Min. dives 20. You also need to have made at least 60-logged dives at the end of the course to be certified and acquire professional qualifications.

Divemaster is the first professional level in the P.A.D.I system of education. As a P.A.D.I Divemaster, you will be certified to lead tours, manage dive groups and lend a hand to assistant instructors and instructors when they are teaching courses. At Reefwatch, we offer two methods of achieving this rating. The first is an intensive two-week course, which mainly consists of role-playing and academics to fulfill the course requirements in the time available. The second option is an internship, which lasts between 6 - 9 weeks. During this period, you work with our staff during actual courses and tours to gain hands-on experience in running safe fun dive trips and courses. You will also find yourself assisting and guiding divers on our observation/research projects, (we will give you an excellent grounding in marine biology, which will stand you in good stead when seeking employment). You will also learn a lot about all other aspects of the diving industry whilst training with us.
Please note that as an intern you will be a part of the team and will be expected to conduct yourself in an appropriate manner. Please note Reefwatch trained D.M's may also enroll for the Assistant Instructor Course and obtain a substantial discount.

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Assistant Instructor
Min age: 18
Prerequisites: Divemaster

Gain valuable working experience teaching portions of the Open Water, Advanced, and Rescue Courses of the P.A.D.I system. This will be a huge advantage when you go on to do your Instructor Development Course and Instructor Examination. (Feel free to consult with us about dates and locations for I.D.Cs and I.Es). As an Assistant Instructor, you will be able to teach many aspects of the P.A.D.I courses independently. This makes you a much more attractive prospect to dive centres hiring staff. You will also be able to certify people as P.A.D.I Skin Divers, and conduct the Discover Scuba Program without any supervision at all. There is no doubt that Assistant Instructors attending I.D.Cs and I.Es are vastly better prepared for the academic and water portions of the course. Course length: (Variable) 2 - 6 weeks. Please visit our IDC page for more information.

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