Course overview

Become a fully certified diver with the PADI Open Water Diver course in Hikkaduwa, the world's most popular entry-level certification. The town's calm, shallow house reef and coral gardens on Sri Lanka's south coast make a forgiving classroom to learn core scuba skills and complete your training dives. You finish certified to dive to 18 metres anywhere in the world with a buddy.

What you’ll learn

• Assemble, check and care for scuba equipment
• Breathe, clear your mask and recover your regulator underwater
• Achieve and control neutral buoyancy
• Manage your air supply and plan no-decompression dives
• Handle common problems and respond to a buddy in need
• Plan and complete open-water dives to 18 metres

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 10 (Junior Open Water Diver) or 15 for full certification
• Able to swim and float comfortably
• No prior diving experience required
• Diver medical questionnaire, with physician sign-off if needed

What's included · What's not

Not included? Sort the rest of your trip

Flights and accommodation aren’t part of the course price, here’s how to book them around your dates.

Probability of sightings · month-by-month

What you're likely to see each month, based on historic operator logs.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   Theory & confined water

   Knowledge development and the first confined-water sessions learning core scuba skills in shallow water.
2. Day2
   Confined water & first dives

   Finish confined-water skills and complete the first open-water training dives on Hikkaduwa's calm house reef.
3. Day3
   Open-water dives & certification

   Complete the remaining open-water dives on local reefs and the final exam to certify as an Open Water Diver.

Verified through iDive

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Frequently asked questions