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Hobby Dive Store
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Bank Fund Transfer, VISA, Mastercard
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PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or equivalent)
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3
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1 Night Twin-Share Room
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Day 1: Light Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, Day 2: Breakfast & Lunch
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18
About the Course
With proper training, equipment and the right attitude to accept the risks involved in independent diving, an experience diver can responsibly engage in dives without a buddy. Self-reliant diving is an adventure activity that is not for everyone, but does have its place. If you have the mental discipline and commitment to learn and follow self-reliant diving techniques, you’ll bolster your skills and confidence when diving alone, in a dive pair or as part of a team.
You need to be a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver who is at least 18 years old and has 100 logged dives to enroll in the Self-Reliant Diver course. You’ll also complete a skills assessment with our PADI Self-Reliant Diver Instructor before diving into the course.
Core Philosophy
- Self-Sufficiency: Relying entirely on your own skills, knowledge, and equipment to manage any dive problem.
- Redundancy: Carrying a backup for every life-support component so no single equipment failure is fatal.
Academic
Learning how to compensate for situations you would normally handle with a buddy is the focus of the Self-Reliant Diver course. This includes proper dive planning using air consumption rate calculations, life support system redundancy, and independent management of dive emergencies. During three self-reliant training dives, you’ll practice:
- Performing an air consumption rate swim to gather information for later calculation.
- Switching to a redundant air supply system during simulated emergency situations.
- Swimming without a mask.
- Navigating to various points, including your exit.
- Using a DSMB.
Equipment
Besides your basic scuba equipment, you’ll need a DSMB, redundant gas source, redundant dive computer, and redundant surface signaling device. Our PADI Instructor or staff will suggest other gear as appropriate.
Highlights
- SAC Rate Calculation: Swim a precise, level course at depth while tracking your breathing. You will calculate your surface air consumption (SAC) rate to mathematically predict exactly how long your gas supply will last.
- Redundant Gas Deployment: Simulate catastrophic equipment failures, such as a regulator free-flow or a primary air depletion. You will practice smoothly switching to an independent backup supply (like a pony bottle or sidemount setup) under pressure.
- Extended Maskless Swim: Swim without a mask for two full minutes at depth. This task builds psychological resilience, ensuring you can maintain perfect buoyancy and navigate to safety if you lose your mask
- Independent Navigation: Navigate complex out-and-back or grid patterns using both a mechanical compass and natural features. You must prove you can track orientation entirely on your own without external guidance.
- DSMB Deployment from Depth: Deploy a Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB) from depth using a reel. You will maintain a stable depth during deployment and reel yourself up safely while managing buoyancy.
