Should I Do Peak Performance Buoyancy Training?

When it comes to scuba diving, good buoyancy makes all the difference in the world!

Mastering buoyancy allows a diver to become better with air consumption and having good buoyancy is important to protect fragile coral reefs which are damaged easily.

Your enjoyment and comfort levels increase exponentially when your buoyancy is well controlled, your kicks are smooth and you are streamlined.

The PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty is a great 2-dive specialty designed to improve your buoyancy, but for those short on time, you can still do the PADI PPB Adventure dive to get a head start on buoyancy improvement!
For our PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course, we always recommend starting the course with the PPB Adventure dive because it can make your subsequent dives easier and more fun, and most PADI professionals will agree that it’s one of the most beneficial dives you can do.

Even doing just one PPB-centric dive will make you a better diver in the long run, so consider a PPB dive the next time you go diving.

Improve Your Buoyancy Control

• Determine the exact weight you need, so you’re not too light or too heavy.

• Trim your weight system and scuba gear for perfect balance in the water.

• Streamline to save energy, use air more efficiently and move more smoothly through the water.

• Hover effortlessly in any position – vertical or horizontal.

Interested in continuing your diving education with Roatan Divers? Contact us and get started on becoming a more engaged diver today!

Am I Ready To Do My PADI Advanced Open Water Course?

For many Open Water Divers, the Advanced Open Water course can seem like an elusive or possibly intimidating certification. Do I have what it takes to be an advanced diver, and why should I even take a course like this?

Fear not, diving friends! Let's shed some light on what it takes to complete your PADI Advanced Open Water course. Enthusiasm is not required, but it's a huge plus!

The Advanced course takes a minimum of two days and consists of five PADI Adventure dives.

PADI offers many types of Adventure Dives to choose from. Underwater Navigation and Deep Dive are required, giving you three more Adventure Dives that you can choose. Here at Roatan Divers, the most popular Adventure Dives we teach are the Night Dive, Drift Dive, Underwater Naturalist, and Peak Performance Buoyancy.

Classroom time: For the Advanced course, you complete the Knowledge Reviews for the Adventure Dives you have chosen, then after a thorough briefing from your PADI Instructor, you go on an open water dive to apply what you have learned. Unlike the PADI Open Water Diver course, there are no confined water skills.

Why should I become a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver?  

We love getting this question! One of the most common motivators for divers to pursue this certification is their desire to go on more elaborate, adventurous dives! Perhaps a deep dive to the El Aguila ship wreck that sits at 30m/100 feet? Maybe a night dive to catch the magical bioluminescence, or better buoyancy to give you control and confidence to avoid unwanted contact with the reef when looking at smaller marine life.  

The very popular Deep and Night Dives can be a bit more complex, so they require additional knowledge and safety aspects to consider. This course allows you to expand your skills and confidence to make you a more well rounded scuba diver. 

One of the biggest struggles for new divers is gaining better control their positioning and buoyancy on a dive. The Peak Performance Buoyancy dive is a great opportunity to experiment and challenge yourself in this area. It can even help improve your air consumption along the way!

Common misconceptions

Let's clear up a few of the myths that might be stopping you from starting your PADI Advanced Open Water course. 

• There is no minimum number of dives required if you're already a PADI Open Water or Junior Open Water Diver. 

• As a PADI Open Water Diver you are certified to a depth of 18m/60ft, so if you'd like to go deeper, additional training is strongly encouraged. 

• Open Water divers over 15 years old can participate in ALL of the Adventure Dives that are available in the PADI Advanced Open Water course. After completing the course, they will be certified to dive to a depth of up to 30m/100ft.

• Junior Open Water divers over the age of 12 can participate in many of the Adventure Dives as well. After completing the Advanced course they will be certified up to 21m/70ft, which will automatically upgrade to 30m/100ft when they turn 15.

Now that you have a better understanding of what the PADI Advanced Open Water course consists of now, you can talk to your local dive shop if this is the right course for you!

If you're interested in speaking to us or have any additional questions, please contact us today!

4 Great Reasons to Do Your PADI Deep Adventure Dive

Congratulations, you're a certified diver! As a PADI Open Water Diver, you are certified to plan and execute a dive on your own with a buddy to maximum 18 meters/60 feet. You are well on your way to an exciting underwater adventure and a profound relationship with the planet's waters.

While you will be planning and executing dives just with a dive buddy or under the indirect supervision of a dive professional in many places, especially in Europe and North America, there are also a lot of places around the world that you will be guided by a professional on all your dives. The dive centers will set your gear up, take it apart, brief you, and guide you. It's very easy to get complacent after your course when you don't have to lift a finger or plan your dives anymore.

At Roatan Divers, we're all about 60 minute dives, so we normally set our dives to maximum 18 meters/60 feet, unless a specific dive site warrants a deeper depth, for better air consumption and longer no-decompression limits. We're also very strict about sticking to the depth limits of each divers' certification levels, so we pick our sites based on certification and experience levels.

When we have divers that are Open Water certified and want to go to El Aguila wreck (or other deep sites), we always do the dive as a PADI Deep Adventure dive, for our divers' safety and future opportunities.

What is the PADI Deep Adventure dive?

The PADI Deep Adventure dive is one of the required dives of your PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course, and is the dive that certifies you to maximum 30 meters/100 feet. As an autonomous, certified diver, you can go to whatever depths you want, and many dive centers around the world will take you past your certification limits, but there are multiple reasons why you should do your PADI Deep Adventure dive before going deeper than 18 meters/60 feet:

1. Extra training is always good

There are additional risks to consider when diving deeper, so it's always a good idea to get the proper training. In the theory for the PADI Deep Adventure dive, you learn more about no-decompression limits, decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, and about the protocols for deeper diving, all of which will benefit your diving and your safety in the future.

2. You have greater opportunities for your future diving

A lot of dive centers divide groups up based on their certification and experience levels. If you are an Open Water Diver with 50 dives but don't have the training to go deeper, then you may be put in a group of less experienced divers and taken to easier dive sites. If you have the training to go to 30 meters/100 feet, then that will certainly open up your diving opportunities.

3. It counts as credit for future courses

The PADI Deep Adventure dive counts as credit towards your PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course, as well as your PADI Deep Diver specialty course. So on top of the extra training that you get and the opportunities it opens up, you also have the opportunity to get more certifications in the future! It's a win all around.

4. Insurance purposes

While good diving insurance will cover you with regards to diving accidents, there is a very high chance they won't cover you if you exceed the limits of your training, so if you are a PADI Open Water Diver and get into an accident at 30 meters/100 feet and haven't completed the PADI Deep Adventure dive, then your insurance may not cover you because you made the choice to exceed your own limits. It's a bit of a bummer of a reason to do the Deep dive, but an important reason to consider.

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As a scuba diver, you should never stop learning. Never stop your pursuit of continuing education, never stop practicing. Scuba diving is a fun experience that brings groups of people together, but it's also a sport, so it's important to keep your skills updated. There is always more you can learn to become a better scuba diver.

Happy diving!