Learn to Breathe Underwater!
The PADI Open Water Diver Course certifies you to dive with a certified buddy to a maximum of 18m.
If you’re looking to get SCUBA certified in the Maldives on a budget, then completing the PADI Open Water Diver Course here in Fulidhoo is the perfect choice!
The PADI Open Water Diver course will certify you to dive to 18m with a buddy (rather than an instructor) and is the first course you should sign up to if you do not have any scuba certifications.
YOU MUST BE ABLE TO SWIM 200M IN THE OCEAN WITHOUT STOPPING AND TREAD WATER UNAIDED FOR 10 MINUTES TO SIGN UP FOR THIS COURSE.
Although in some places you can get certified in 3 days, that’s not how we do things at Fulidhoo Dive. We don’t like to put such a short time constraint on things, and we like to give people time to get the hang of the skills, which can be fairly tricky!
If you’re looking to complete your course in a rush, then we aren’t the right place for you. We like to take things slow, be thorough in our teaching, and give our students enough time to mess up and try again. We very rarely have four students in a batch, so often you’ll find yourself either learning by yourself or just with one or two others.
So we ask our guests to stay for a minimum of 5 nights in Fulidhoo, to allow them to take their time with the course. We then conduct the course over about 4-5 days with one of our in-house PADI instructors. The course includes: 5 confined water sessions in the lagoon for skill learning, 4 open water dives, theory, 5 knowledge reviews, 5 quizzes, a multiple choice final exam, a swim test and a survival float test.
Before you arrive, you can choose to sign up for PADI E-learning so that you can read all the theory (5 fairly long chapters) and complete the five corresponding knowledge reviews, quizzes and the multiple choice final exam.
Others still prefer to learn from a book, so this option is available too. This is a good option for those who are staying for more than 5 nights and won’t have time to do the reading before arrival.
So chat to us about your preference when you make your booking.
Good to Know
Medical Questionnaire
Minimum Age
Teaching Language
Swim Test
Student:Teacher Ratio
Other Things to Consider
When booking your PADI Open Water Diver Course with us, there are a few things that are worth considering.
Firstly, you should know that diving insurance is mandatory. You can either purchase your own insurance, or you can purchase Divers Alert Network (DAN) insurance from us directly for 15USD per week.
Second, please be aware that we follow the Maldivian Diving Regulations and therefore you cannot dive for 12 hours after flying or 24 hours before flying.
Lastly, if you complete the Open Water course with us, you might want to stay on for a couple more days to do a few fun dives with us (so you can see what diving is like when you don’t have to perform course skills!) Many guests stay on to complete the first dive of their Advanced course, the Deep Dive to 30m, and others choose to stay on to do the night/twilight dive to Alimatha with dozens of nurse sharks.
