Why You Should Take Your Advanced Scuba Course After Open Water (and Do Them Back-to-Back)
Many new divers face the same question: Should I take my advanced scuba course after open water, or should I just go fun diving for a while?
You’ve just finished your Open Water certification. The last dive ended, your instructor signed your logbook, and you’re buzzing with excitement. You can now dive to 18 metres with another certified diver (no instructor required). The world beneath the waves has officially opened up to you
So, what’s next?
At Crystal Dive, we believe the smartest move, for your safety, confidence, and overall diving enjoyment, is to immediately take your Advanced course after Open Water. It’s one of the best investments you can make in your dive training.
By choosing our open water and advanced combo, you’ll build momentum, save money, and set yourself up for a lifetime of better, safer, and more adventurous diving.
What You Can Do After Open Water and What You Can’t
Earning your Open Water certification is a huge personal achievement. It’s your license to explore the ocean, giving you a solid foundation in scuba skills and safety. But while it opens the door to adventure, it also comes with limits.
As a newly certified diver, you’re qualified to:
- Dive to a maximum depth of 18 metres
- Dive with another certified diver without supervision
That’s a great start, but many divers quickly realise these boundaries can feel restrictive. Sites that have greater depths or conditions that are slightly more challenging are often just out of reach.
And even within the 18-meter limit, two divers with only four dives under their belts rarely feel confident enough to plan, execute, and problem-solve on their own. New divers often:
Struggle to control buoyancy consistently
Get anxious in unfamiliar conditions
Forget key safety procedures without instructor guidance
It’s not that the Open Water course doesn’t prepare you; of course, it does. But it’s like passing your driving test: you’re legal to drive, but that doesn’t mean you’re confident navigating a busy motorway during rush hour.
The Advanced diving certification is designed to bridge that gap, building on your fresh skills and taking you from “I know the basics” to “I feel comfortable and safe exploring underwater.”
What the Advanced Diving Certification Involves
The Advanced course is all about experience and skill expansion. Rather than sitting in a classroom, you’ll spend your time underwater, building confidence and adding variety to your diving.
The program includes five specialty training dives that you can choose based on your personal interests:
Popular choices:
- Deep Dive — Extend your depth limit to 30 metres, opening the door to deeper diving after open water and the amazing marine life found at greater depths.
- Underwater Navigation — Master compass work and natural navigation techniques so you can find your way without surfacing.
- Wreck Diving — Discover fascinating shipwrecks and the unique ecosystems they support.
Other choices: Choose three other specialties, including:
- Perfect Buoyancy
- Night Diving
- Wreck Diving
- Underwater Photography or Video
- Search & Recovery
- Marine Ecology
- Underwater Scooter (DPV)
- Fish Identification
At Crystal Dive, our most popular options are Perfect Buoyancy, Night, and Wreck, but you’re free to make your own choices. We also structure the course so that the first couple of dives are shallower, giving you time to warm up before tackling the 30-meter requirement.
Why Back-to-Back Training Works Best
Some divers think they should “get more experience” before starting their Advanced course. In reality, the best way to gain that experience is often to take the Advanced course immediately after your Open Water certification.
Here’s why:
1. Momentum of Learning
You’ve just spent several days learning skills like mask clearing, buoyancy control, and safety stops. If you take a long break before your next training, you’ll forget some of it and need to re-learn. Continuing right away means you’re building on fresh muscle memory.
2. Mastering Buoyancy Sooner
Perfect buoyancy isn’t just about looking graceful; it’s about conserving air, protecting the reef, and avoiding injury. Many divers never fully develop buoyancy control if they only fun dive without feedback. In the Advanced course, you’ll get constant coaching so you improve faster.
3. Confidence in Varied Conditions
Your Advanced dives may include deeper sites, mild currents, or night conditions. Experiencing these while an instructor is there to guide you removes the intimidation factor and helps you learn proper techniques from the start.
4. Comfort Through Repetition
In Open Water, you only get four dives, just enough to feel capable, not confident. The Advanced course adds another five, meaning by the end, you’ll have nine dives under your belt, refining your skills on every single one.
5. Safe Way to Push Limits
Without further training, many divers either stay in shallow, simple environments or take risks they aren’t ready for. The Advanced course lets you safely push boundaries under professional guidance and gives you deeper diving after Open Water without unnecessary stress.
How Advanced Diving Certification Expands Your World
Completing your advanced scuba course after open water is more than just ticking a box. It transforms the kind of diver you are and the adventures you can access. With your advanced diving certification, you’ll find entire categories of dive sites and experiences suddenly open to you.
Here are just a few of the doors that certification unlocks:
Depth Access:
Sites between 18–30m often feature unique marine life, wrecks, and dramatic landscapes you can’t experience at shallower depths.
Night Diving:
See the reef come alive with nocturnal creatures, hunting predators, and bioluminescence.
Special Environments:
From mysterious wrecks to exhilarating drift dives, your dive options widen dramatically.
Travel Perks:
Many dive centres around the world require Advanced diving certification for certain trips or locations, increasing your holiday options.
In other words, you won’t just have more dives to choose from; you’ll have more memorable and adventurous dives to choose from.
Addressing Common Concerns
“I’m tired after all that Open Water theory.”
We get it. The Open Water course is packed with new concepts. The good news? The Advanced course has no exams, no long videos, and minimal theory. Each dive has a short knowledge review, and most of your learning happens in the water.
“I just want to fun dive for a bit.”
Great news! The Advanced course is fun diving. You’ll still see amazing marine life, explore different sites, and enjoy the underwater world. But you’ll also learn something new on each dive.
“It’s too much too soon.”
We ease you in with shallower dives first, and the deep dive is adapted to your comfort as much as possible. You won’t be pushed beyond your limits.
“I can always do it later.”
That’s true, but skills fade quickly if you don’t use them. Taking the Advanced course after Open Water straight away keeps your progression smooth and saves you from having to re-learn later.
Why Our Open Water and Advanced Combo Is the Best Value
At Crystal Dive, our Open Water and Advanced combo package is designed for maximum learning and enjoyment at an incredibly good price. It’s the easiest, no-fuss way to super-size your dive training experience on Koh Tao.
Time-efficient:
Complete both courses in under a week; perfect for holiday schedules.
Cost savings:
Bundling both courses costs less than booking them separately.
More diving:
Nine instructor-led dives, with time to explore multiple dive sites and environments.
Skill reinforcement:
You’ll leave Koh Tao not just certified, but confident and capable..
Take Your Advanced Course After Open Water? YES!
If you’re serious about diving, whether you plan to explore tropical reefs, wrecks, or take up underwater photography, the best thing you can do after your Open Water course is to keep going.
Taking your advanced scuba course after open water gives you the skills, experience, and confidence to get the most out of every dive trip you take from now on.
Book the Open Water and Advanced combo with us today, and by the end of the week, you’ll be ready for deeper diving after Open Water, exploring new sites, diving longer, and experiencing more of the underwater world than you ever thought possible.
0 Comments