Should I Take a PADI Specialty Course?

Dan Travieso   Apr 15, 2025

Congratulations, you have reached your goal of getting scuba open water certified and you are exploring the underwater world! But why take more scuba training if I am already certified?

PADI Specialty courses are a series of dives related to a specific underwater activity. Courses such as Deep Diver, Wreck Diver, Underwater Photography, Enriched Air, Underwater Navigation, Search & Recovery are all PADI Specialty courses.

So why should an Open Water diver consider taking Specialty courses? The Open Water course teaches the basics and lays the foundation for scuba diving. But there is more to scuba diving than simply swimming around at 60 feet. Below are our top reasons for taking a PADI Specialty Course:

• Specialty courses provide you the comfort of continuing to dive with your scuba instructor and leverage the wisdom of experienced divers
• Learn new skills and advance your scuba diving experience such as:
  • Learn to dive with Enriched Air/ NITROX
  • Learn to safely dive deeper than the recreational limit of 60 feet or at night
  • Learn to improve your buoyancy and navigation skills
  • Learn how to locate small items (ie. Cell phone) or recover heavy objects (like a boat anchor) and bring to the surface
  • Learn how to take beautiful underwater pictures
  • Learn how to safely dive inside a shipwreck
  • And so much more!
• Work towards achieving the highest recreational diving level, PADI Master Scuba Diver!
  • Completion of 5 Specialty Courses is one of the requirements

Contact Sandhills Scuba to learn more about a Specialty course that may interest you!