PADI Drift Diver
The PADI Drift Diver Specialty course introduces you to the coolest magic carpet ride you’ll ever experience.
Enjoy rivers and ocean currents by “going with the flow”, whilst staying with your dive partner, communicating with the dive boat, and knowing where you are the whole time!
1. Course overview
You’ll get to complete the course over 2 dives, with the knowledge development carried out through PADI e-Learning in your own time.
You already need to be a PADI Open Water diver (or equivilent certification from another training agency), and you need to be at least 12 years old.
2. What you'll learn
You’ll learn how to plan and organise drift dives safely, as well as understand the different procedures, techniques, problems, and hazards of drift diving. This includes staying close to a buddy or together as a group.
As part of the course, you’ll also have some introduction to drift diving equipment, such as floats, lines and reels – as well as learn about site selection and overview of aquatic currents, their causes, and their wider effects.
During drift diving, buoyancy-control, navigation and communication is key – so you’ll review important skills here too.
3. Equipment
Unlike our introductory courses, you’ll either need to provide your own scuba kit, or hire some from us for the duration of your course. If you want to look at purchasing your own, we’d be happy to help you also.
As a minimum, you’ll need a mask, snorkel, fins, buoyancy compensating jacket (BCD), scuba regulator, and the instrumentation to monitor your depth and air supply. You can hire cylinders from us, or bring your own in-test cylinders with you to be refilled at the dive site.
You’ll also need adequate exposure protection for the conditions you’ll be diving in (this could be a wetsuit or drysuit) to keep you comfortable on your dives. If you dive in a dry suit, you need to ensure you have the correct training for this too.
Some courses may require additional equipment, depending on the individual course requirements.
Any equipment you provide yourself must be in a serviced, well-maintained and safe condition. No exceptions!
4. Learning materials
We will send you any e-Learning materials needed for your specialty course, which will take you to the registration area of the PADI site. This teaches you the background information you need for your course, and allows you to study at your own pace.
You can complete this on pretty much any device with an internet connection.
Some courses also have physical learning content, which we can give you once you’re enrolled.
Ready to start?
You can book and pay for your course with us online, either for yourself or someone else. We’ll send over any e-Learning content to your email, and we can then work with you on suitable dates and times for any in-person sessions.
We have availability throughout the year, although if you have specific dates or a timeline in mind, please check with us first.
Your next adventure...
In many parts of the world, drift diving also involves diving from a boat. The PADI Boat Diver course teaches you valuable skills, including how to manage the key differences you’ll encounter boat diving, including important terminology, etiquette, safety and various operating procedures.
Whilst we’re on the topic of vehicles, have you seen our PADI Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV) course? It’s as close to flying as you can get underwater – you have to experience it to believe it!
The Stellar Crew
We have a very straightforward philosophy; we are totally committed to ensuring you – our customer – have the best, safest and most enjoyable experience possible. It’s as simple as that!
Here at Stellar, we all love to scuba dive, and we love to have fun doing it. We absolutely want you to feel the same way when you dive with us.
We can very proudly boast that we’re a PADI 5-star Instructor Development Centre. Put simply, this means we also train the trainers – so naturally we take our education of safe diving very seriously. You’re in safe hands, and you’ll have a lot of fun in the process too.