Our Top Phuket PADI Specialty Courses List
Become a Specialty Diver in just 1 day!
Even as an Open Water Diver you can complete some PADI Specialty Courses with just 2 dives – perhaps even as part of your 3rd PADI Open Water Course day!
As a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver even more PADI Specialties become available, some which you can complete with just 1 more course dive – perhaps the last dive of a 6 dive Advanced Course!
What are PADI Specialty Courses?
PADI Specialty Courses focus on a particular diving activity and can help you become better, more experienced and knowledgeable diver. Most specialties require you to be at least a (Junior) Open Water Diver, however there are even diving-related specialties with no diving requirement!
Here’s our PADI Specialty Courses list:
(Recommended specialties in bold.)
2 Dive Specialties:
3 Dive Specialties:
4 Dive Specialties:
Non-diving specialties:
Basic requirements key:
* Adventure Diver certification.
** Advanced Diver certification.
+ Min age 15. ++ Min age 18.
All others 10 / 12 years.
(Self-Reliant: 100 logged dives.)
Note: 1 less specialty dive may be required if you already have the Adventure Dive logged.
Maybe you could improve as a diver and perhaps practice a few simple things yourself during any dive. But doing a specialty with one of our experienced PADI instructors will broaden and accelerate your learning, will be safer, and you’ll be able to get properly certified for some things that you really shouldn’t / can’t try by yourself!
Some Cool PADI Specialties!
Benefits of PADI Specialty Courses:
Most PADI Specialty Courses involve completing specialized skills during 2 – 4 dives, however there are also non-diving (but diving related) specialties.
Diving specialties focus more on enhancing your underwater experience – improving and / or extending dive skills – although there’s always some theory / knowledge development too.
Non-diving PADI Specialties aim at increasing your knowledge and awareness, rather than dive skills / activities – they usually take about half a day.
There are many standardized PADI Specialty Courses and also Distinctive Specialties (special courses written by PADI Instructors, that have been approved by PADI).
How much do PADI Specialty Courses cost in Phuket and what’s included?
PADI Specialty Course Prices
(Click the ‘Price’ buttons for more info.)1 day trip needed to complete that specialty with up to 3 dives available.
Deep, DPV, Drift, Fish ID, Peak Buoyancy, Photography, Naturalist, Navigation, Nitrox, Search & Recovery, Self-Reliant, Shark Aware, Videographer.
2 days needed to complete that specialty with up to 6 dives available. (Night: 3 beach dives. Sidemount: 1 day pool + 1 day 3 dives.)
Deep, Night, Search & Recovery, Sidemount, Wreck.
3 days to complete that specialty. Cavern needs 1 beach + 3 cavern dives. Wreck needs 4 wreck dives. (Up to 9 dives available.)
Cavern, Wreck.
Where you can complete an extra specialty with any ‘spare’ dives not being used for your ‘main’ specialty, on the same day(s).
Possibly any of the specialties from those above, except Cavern or Sidemount.
No diving needed – so you can even do the same day as flying!
Enriched Air Nitrox, Equipment Specialist.
Remember: 1 less dive / day may be needed if you have that specialty’s Adventure Dive logged.
Wreck and Cavern may need 3 days depending on how many wrecks / caverns are possible on the trips.
* A small surcharge may be required for DUP & DPV specialties, depending on requirements.
What our PADI Specialty Course prices include:
Boat dive Option:
Breakfast, lunch, snacks, water, soft drinks & beverages.
Speedboat Option:
Light lunch, fresh fruit, water & soft drinks.
Beach Dive Option:
Drinking water.
Our most popular Specialty Courses involve full day trips, on a nice large boat, and so include breakfast, lunch etc. A speedboat option may be available at request, therefore you can enjoy breakfast in your hotel due to a later start & earlier finish on those days. Some specialties can be done beach diving (also a later start) where you can either bring snacks or purchase lunch at the beach-side restaurant.
What are the best PADI Specialty Courses in Phuket?
What the ‘best PADI Specialty Courses’ are for you depend on your previous diving experience, what want to learn / improve on, what type of environment you want to dive, and your budget and time limits.
The best PADI Specialty Courses in Phuket, that we recommend, are: Deep, Enriched Air Nitrox, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Sidemount Diver and, for the more adventurous, Cavern Diver and Wreck Diver.
PADI Specialty Course details to help you choose:
Cavern Diver
Practice reel, line & light usage and emergency procedures on land, followed by a shallow water training dive, then 3 real cavern dives make this a very special 3 day specialty!
Deep Diver
Safely explore new depths, down to 40m, with no-decompression limit and air usage planning, observations of the effects of depth, and separate back-up air source use.
Digital Underwater Photographer (DUP)
Practice using all of your camera system’s options & settings and learn about image composition & lighting to get amazing underwater images – then back them up for sharing & safe keeping.
Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV)
This course teaches you how to dive safely with an underwater scooter, how to dive in tandem with a buddy, and basic care / maintenance – it’s a lot of fun!
Drift Diver
Learn entry, exit, descent and ascent techniques for when diving in strong current, plus how to stay neutrally buoyant and in buddy contact – and enjoy the ride!
Enriched Air Nitrox Diver
Increase your dive time (no-decompression limits) through the use of air that has more oxygen added to it. It can be a big advantage but also reduces the depth to which you can dive (MOD).
Equipment Specialist
Learn proper equipment care and simple maintenance, gain valuable insight to how all your scuba gear works, plus an introduction to new diving systems and recommended accessories.
Fish Identification
Being able to identify and tell people about the fish you’ve seen (even to non-divers) is a lot of fun. Soon you’ll have a bucket list of names for special fish you want to see next!
Night Diver
Diving at night can completely transform a dive site and the diving experience!.You’ll learn light usage and communication, navigating at night, and even ‘seeing’ a dive environment without any lights!
Peak Performance Buoyancy
Improve your buoyancy & air usage through correct weighting & better trim, practice fining techniques & gliding, and swim a fun obstacle course with neutral buoyancy games.
Search & Recovery Diver
Learn multiple search patters, using a compass and line / reel, to locate heavy missing objects, then easily & safely bring them to the surface using a lift-bag.
Self-Reliant Diver
Know how to dive safely, independent of your buddy, though the use of additional required equipment and more advanced diving techniques & practices.
Aware Shark Conservation
Learn more about sharks and the impacts on their environment that effect these much misunderstood and amazing marine creatures – diving with sharks is awesome!
Sidemount Diver
This course has so many benefits: Double the gas supply, extra security through redundancy, super streamlining etc. Dive with 2 tanks at your side for tec diving, cavern & wreck penetration – it’s super cool!
Underwater Naturalist
Knowing whether what you see when diving is a vertebrate, an invertebrate or a plant can be very surprising – you’ll likely learn that what you see is perhaps not what you thought!
Underwater Navigator
Though use of distance measurement, compass usage and natural reference observation, you’ll know how to map a dive site, be able to locate special parts of a dive site and get back to the boat.
Underwater Videographer
Explore techniques for better camera use, create a storyboard for your video, then capture cool sequences during your dives and piece them together into your own underwater mini-movie.
Wreck Diver
Learn how to evaluate a wreck for navigation & penetration, practice how to tie-off and use a line & reel on the outside of wreck, and then plan & perform an actual penetration of a wreck (or explore outside again).
Popular PADI Specialties / Combos
(Click the ‘Specialty’ button for more info.)
Why do your PADI Specialty Courses in Phuket with Patong Dive Center?
We are a well established PADI 5 Star PADI Dive Center with experienced PADI Instructors who offer expert diver training for numerous Specialty Courses. We use top quality equipment and provide excellent dive services at Phuket’s amazing variety of dive sites. We’ll make your PADI Specialties as ‘special’ as possible!
We can also provide a free refresher at the start of our PADI Specialty courses, for any divers who’ve not been diving for a while. Doing a specialty course is a great way to get back into diving and get a new certification card at the same time!
Things you should know about doing your PADI Specialty Courses in Phuket
Here are a few helpful reminders of things you should know about diving and doing PADI Specialties:
Please be kind to the reefs! Enjoy your diving but please also take care to protect the environment. Only use reef friendly sunscreen, don’t throw rubbish into the sea and please don’t feed or touch marine life.
When doing a 2 or 3 day specialty, we recommend getting more out of your dive trips by using any spare dives and adding on another PADI Specialty – especially if you already have other Adventure Dives logged.