PADI Advanced Course Gran Canaria

The PADI Advanced Open Water Course is the next certification after the Open Water and is designed to develop your diving skills through guided experience rather than exams. At Puerto Rico Diving in Gran Canaria the course takes 2 days and includes 5 adventure dives. Two dives are mandatory — Deep Diving to 30 metres and Underwater Navigation — and you choose 3 more from options including Peak Performance Buoyancy, Fish Identification, Underwater Photography, Night Dive, Introduction to Rescue or Enriched Air Nitrox. All theory is completed digitally using PADI eLearning before you arrive so both days are spent entirely in the water. The course includes all equipment hire, DAN insurance and PADI certification fees.

No — you only need to hold a PADI Open Water Diver certification or an equivalent entry-level certification from another recognised training agency. You do not need any additional experience beyond what you learned in your Open Water Course. In fact many divers complete the Advanced course immediately after their Open Water certification while everything is fresh. At Puerto Rico Diving we regularly run the Advanced course for divers who completed their Open Water with us just days earlier. 

The Deep Dive adventure dive takes you to a maximum of 30 metres — the deepest depth permitted for recreational divers with an Advanced Open Water certification. This is a significant step up from the 18-metre limit of the Open Water certification. During the deep dive your instructor will demonstrate the effects of depth on colour, air consumption and nitrogen narcosis at depth so you understand how to plan and manage deeper dives safely. The other 4 adventure dives are conducted at shallower depths depending on the dive type — navigation dives are typically at 10-15 metres and buoyancy dives at similar depths.

The PADI Adventure Diver is a shorter version of the Advanced Open Water — 3 adventure dives in 1 day instead of 5 dives over 2 days. It results in the PADI Adventure Diver certification rather than the full Advanced Open Water. The key difference is that the Adventure Diver does not require the mandatory Deep Dive to 30 metres, so your maximum certified depth remains at 18 metres. The Adventure Diver is ideal if you are short on time or want to try specific adventure dives without committing to the full course. Any adventure dives you complete count toward the Advanced Open Water if you decide to upgrade later — you simply complete the remaining dives with any PADI centre worldwide.

The Advanced plus Enriched Air Nitrox combination is one of our most popular packages at Puerto Rico Diving. During the Enriched Air Speciality you learn to safely plan and dive with nitrox — air with a higher oxygen content of up to 40% — which gives you longer no-decompression times at depth and shorter surface intervals between repetitive dives. This is particularly valuable for the deeper dives included in the Advanced course and for holiday diving where you want to maximise your time underwater across multiple days. You earn two PADI certifications in the same 2 days instead of completing them separately.

Yes — the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification is recognised worldwide at every dive centre, liveaboard and dive resort worldwide. It is valid for life and never requires renewal. The certification is stored digitally in your PADI account and can be verified by any dive centre in the world using your unique certification number. Many dive operations and liveaboard trips require the Advanced certification as a minimum for deeper sites, drift dives, and certain marine encounters — so holding this qualification opens up more diving opportunities globally.

Gran Canaria offers exceptional conditions for the Advanced course — warm water year-round, excellent visibility and a variety of dive sites at different depths and environments. Your adventure dives take place at carefully selected shore dive sites across the island, including volcanic reef formations, sandy slopes and rocky walls. The specific sites depend on conditions and which adventure dives you choose, but all offer rich marine life including angel sharks, stingrays, octopus, barracuda and colourful reef species. Our instructors know every local dive site and select the best locations to match each adventure dive.

Yes — and we strongly recommend it. All theory for the PADI Advanced Open Water Course is completed digitally using PADI eLearning, which you can access on any device from anywhere in the world. Once you pay your deposit we send your eLearning access code immediately. The Advanced eLearning covers the theory for each of your 5 chosen adventure dives and typically takes a few hours to complete. By finishing the theory before your holiday you arrive ready to dive on Day 1 without spending any time in a classroom.

We maintain a strict maximum of 4 students per PADI instructor throughout the Advanced course — the same ratio we apply to all our courses and significantly below the PADI maximum of 8 students per instructor. Smaller groups mean your instructor can tailor each adventure dive to your specific development needs, give more individual feedback on technique and ensure you get the most from every dive. For groups larger than 4 we assign a second PADI instructor so the 4:1 ratio is always maintained.

Absolutely — and many of our students do exactly that. The moment you complete your Open Water certification you can begin the Advanced course with no gap. At Puerto Rico Diving we can schedule the two courses back to back so you complete your Open Water in 3 days and your Advanced in the following 2 days — giving you both certifications in a single 5-day block. This is one of the most efficient ways to progress your diving quickly while everything from your Open Water training is still fresh. Ask us about combined pricing when booking.