Open Water Certification in Hawaii

Hawaii has been a popular diving location for many years offering year round warm waters and some of the most famous dive sites in the world. Diving in the Hawaiian Islands is popular for its underwater topography and incredible diversity of fish species, over 30% of which are found nowhere else in the world. There are amazing formations like lava tubes and caverns formed from volcanic eruptions.

Oahu, one of the 7 main Hawaiian Islands, offers a range of scuba diving options, from shore dives to boat dives, from the beginners to advanced dives. During a dive you will more likely to see colorful reef fish, coral, sea turtles, octopus, lobster, shells of different shapes and sizes, and much more. Hawaii has more than over 650 species of reef fish, and 200 of these fish are unique species not found anywhere else in the world. When scuba diving off Oahu’s coast, unique species of marine to look out for are moray eels, frogfish, scorpion fish, marine flat worms, nudibranchs, shrimp and giant sea turtles.

Once certified, diving depths range from 30 to 105 feet. On the North Shore, you can dive in Shark’s Cove nearby Waianae Bay in the summer. Depths run to 45 feet and sights include a reef with caves, lava tubes and ledges. The variety of diving depths available makes Oahu a great place to get certified to dive.

Open Water Diver training is your gateway to the world of scuba, providing you with full PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certification that qualifies you to dive with a buddy to depths of 60ft anywhere in the world for your entire lifetime. *Note: as of 2020 Island Divers Hawaii primary certification agency is SSI (Scuba Schools International).  This is now our default training agency, though PADI courses are still available for higher prices.

You’ll go from your first introduction to dive theory, all the way to making free open ocean descents. Once you’ve completed your certification, you’ll be ready to start exploring the waters right off the coast from shore dives to any of the dive boats that we charter regularly.

What do you look for to find a reputable Dive Center?

It is important to find the right Dive Center to learn how to scuba dive. Even though it is easy to learn how to scuba dive it is a serious sport that involve some risks; however if you are taught properly it is easy to avoid these certain risks or know what to do if they ever arise. Main criteria to look for in a dive center are:

• What type of scuba diving training is offered?
  Preferably you want a dive center who offers courses from Professional Association of Diving Instructors or PADI. This organization is more widely accepted around the world. Look to see which ones from the initial list is a PADI Dive Center, or A PADI 5 Star Dive Center which offers more courses and services then a regular Dive Center. IDC stands for Instructor Development Course which is the training program required to train Scuba Instructors. Therefore a PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Center would offer the highest level of certifications as well.
• How diverse are the courses that they offer?
  At this point you would want to look on their webpage to see what courses they offer. Does the course list match the areas of diving that you are interested in; such as underwater photography, Deep Diving, Wreck diving, or on a more professional level Divemaster or Scuba Diving Instructor certification.
• Narrow The List by Scuba Equipment inventory and knowledge:
  Scuba diving is an equipment intensive sport. It is most helpful if your Dive Center sells and services scuba equipment. If they have a good inventory of items on hand and if the sales people in the Dive Center are knowledgeable about the products that they carry, then they are seasoned and well informed about the diving industry. Some of the major lines of scuba equipment are Aqua Lung, Scuba Pro, Oceanic, Aeris, Sherwood, and Suunto dive computers (to name a few).

Who can become Open Water Certified?

Anyone 10 years of age or older in good health is qualified to begin Open Water training. For prospective divers between the ages of 10 and 14, they may participate in the Junior Open Water Program, which is a slightly restricted form of the normal Open Water certification.

You will be required to verify your health by signing the standard medical statement before class begins. If you have a yes to any of the medical questions you will need to get cleared by a doctor before being able to participate in Scuba Diving.

What is the classroom like?

The class is conducted over the course of 2 full days or our week long course is conducted in the evening from 6-9pm Monday thru Thursday with your check out shore dives on Saturday and Sunday.

You’ll begin by completing the digital learning. It’s nice to know why we do certain things underwater, like equalizing our ears. The digital learning is coupled with learning in the pool. We’ll cover everything from what each piece of equipment is called, to teaching you the basics of neutral buoyancy. Everyone is encouraged to participate and ask questions during the class so you’ll know how it all works inside and out..

Once all the pool work is over, you move to the ocean for your open water dives. With instructor supervision, you’ll demonstrate all the skills you practiced in the pool and spend a part of each dive exploring the underwater world. The Open Water program requires you to complete four dives in the ocean, and we’ll be with you the entire time, coaching you along the way. You won’t do anything in the ocean that you didn’t do in the pool, so by the time you get to the ocean, you’ll be rock solid with all your skills.

Where will you learn?

One of the benefits of participating in Island Divers Open Water certification is the flexibility you have with how you want to structure your class. Everyone’s time demands, ability to travel and budgets are different, so we’ve developed options to allow you to choose different paths towards certification.

The most popular option is the 2 day semi private course with a student the instructor ratio of 4:1.  You will go to the pool each morning and do a 2 tank boat dive in the afternoon.