Scuba certifications do not expire, but they are valid for life. Most scuba certifications, including those from PADI, SSI, NAUI, and SDITDI, are valid for life. However, it is important to stay updated on your skills and keep your certification card up-to-date.
Recreational scuba certifications from PADI never expire, but professional certifications like Dive Master or Scuba Instructor may expire if someone hasn’t been practicing as a DM or Instructor for a long time. Some agencies like CMAS have a set date for expiring certifications.
In summary, PADI scuba certifications and PADI cards are valid for life, regardless of the certifying agency for your course. However, if it has been a while since your last dive, a scuba certification may expire. Some dive operators and resorts may have their own requirements for accepting certified divers.
Scuba certifications do not expire, but regular refresher courses are recommended to maintain skills and safety. Many dive operations require logged dives within the last 6 or 12 months, without which they will require a refresher. As an PADI Open Water Diver, your certification is good for life, but if you do not actively participate in scuba for an extended period, many dive operations will require a refresher.
In conclusion, scuba certifications do not expire, but it is essential to stay updated on your skills and keep your certification card up-to-date.
📹 Dive Instructor Ranks all PADI Scuba Diving Courses( + best and worst specialties )
Dive Instructor Katt ranks all the PADI scuba diving courses and specialties. Let me tell you what to not waste your money on I’ve …
📹 My scuba tanks expired!! Really??
Scuba tanks with Special Permits “Special Permit” scuba tanks have an expiration date. Which brands, when do they expire and …
Good article! \r IMHO if you dive in cold water Dry Suit Diver Specialty is a MUST do. Don’t even don a dry suit if you are not certified (or going through the certification course). Linnea Mills paid with her life for trusting the wrong instructor and dive shop. Her dry suit squeezed her to death at Lake MacDonald in Montana. \r \r “Plan your dive & dive your plan.”
I am doing my AOW now and think it’s indeed epic. The cool thing about it is that if you’re not sure which course to take after you can check out other specialties by choosing them as adventure dives within your AOW. I’ve only done two dives yet: the deep dive and the drift. During the deep dive, I found a fully functional torch. This experience helped me to decide which specialty I want to try next, which is search and recovery. The current was my biggest concern while diving so I went for drift diving. It was a little scary but I learned a lot. I would definitely move the Drift Diver Course to must-dos because you acquire such a valuable skill of dealing with current underwater besides it is so fun and makes you a better diver.
a Divemaster here: In my humble opinion, Basic Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Enriched Air – Nitrox and Rescue Diver are the certs all divers will benefit from. I agree, also, that if you want to dive in a drysuit, you should get instruction. if your basic open water instructor isn’t teaching new divers the skills to give a new diver the best possible buoyancy to prevent damage to the u/w environment, that diver is being underserved. the idea of obtaining a c-card to dive off a boat or drift dive (to me) is ridiculous. I began diving in 1983, and in my experience, instruction was more comprehensive back in those days.
Hi Katt! Thank you for the article, it was soooo helpful to undestand better all the range of options PADI offers. I just finished my Open Water course in the Gold Coast and I heard you mentioning some places in Queensland for certain courses. Could you extend a little on this? or suggest some Diving Centres? I want to do my Advanced now and I don’t know where, since I don’t want to repeat the diving spots I did in the Open Water. Also, I’m sooo interested in the Underwater Photography specialty but I can’t seem to find any Centre that offers it or includes it in the Advanced. Thank you so much again for the helpful article!
If anyone is serious about diving, look at technical agencies such as GUE or TDI. I did my cave training with TDI and they have high standards that a recreational diver can adopt. GUE famously offers “Fundamentals” in which you get a rec pass (single tank), tech (twins) pass or fail (which is very possible). All that nonsense offered by PADI, SSI, etc. is not sufficient and I can immediately tell the difference when I’m diving between recreational and technical divers.
I think DSD is a great idea. It gets people into Scuba and I’ve seen a lot of shops that do it for free, or a nominal fee. So great value and so gives people an easy way to find out if they love diving. My personal priorities were the ones that would allow me to do what I want to do and make me the safest diver I could be doing it. So Drysuit, Deep, Nitrox, Nav and of course Rescue were easy picks. What I did decide from my training was that peak performance buoyancy shouldn’t be a separate course, it should be imbedded in Open Water and AOW. If you want to shoot a DSMB, penetrate a wreck, do articlegraohy or not stand on a sea urchin at night, proper trim and buoyancy are key everywhere! Oh and Rescue is absolutely both the most epic and a must do!
I’ve done all of mine through SSI, so I am not thoroughly familiar with the PADI system, please correct me if I am wrong. One of the common differences that come up through post dive chats is the PADI depth allowance of AOW with the single dive to 30m within the course. Some of the dive sites near me will only accept a separate deep certification for anything below 60 feet, (everything locally deeper than that is also cold water). What are your thoughts on the differences between the programs, and do you feel that people are adequately prepared to dive to 30m by the PADI AOW program?
agreed with most things..couple i would change would be drift as a must do, even epic. basically all the diving I do is drift (in Galapagos islands) and Im surprised about how poorly ppl handle current. On that same note id say DSM diver is a MUST for drift diving, boat diving, CCR (rebreather) and a bunch other types of diving. Deploying a SMB is NOT nearly as easy as ppl often think and, again, im absolutely shocked on how many experienced advanced divers are completely unable to deploy a marker. This skill is essential on my experience.. and lastly id say PPB is a must do, if not epic course. This ofcourse depends on your instructor, but overall a proper and thougtfull PPB course can help new divers master bouyancy (best case scenario) or at least stop diving as a sea horse!
Overall a ok job on the article. I have been teaching Scuba for 38+ Years (SSI) 30 years (SDI/TDI). Im in Colorado, USA I tell my students that most of the classes are great to take, and we talk about them. All agencies have specialty classes – most of the classes are designed to teach and make you a better diver. However, there are some classes that are just about money… (Not bashing any agency). Let’s start with an SSI Advanced Diver. It is more of a recognition level is ANY 4 specialties and 24 dives. It is automatically issued. Master Diver is also a recognition level from SSI, you have to have advanced, Stress & Rescue, the First aid set of classes (First aid/CPR/AED/O2), and have 50 dives. On to the specialty classes Epic Deep, Night/Limit Visibility, Nitrox, Navigation, Stress & Rescue (Rescue), First aid/CPR/AED/O2 (Many names), Must do Perfect Buoyancy (This is a pet peeve of mine — The industry as a whole sucks on this…. Partly because the Open water classes don’t generally have time to work on this skill. The old adage of just adding more weight instead of teaching them correct buoyancy techniques. The dive guides is the islands are just as bad!!! Lucky, the industry is trying to correct this problem.) Equipment Techniques (This teaches more about how to fix minor problems that normal divers can fix, – Mouth pieces, hoses, straps, some computer batteries, etc. – It does not teach them how to service their gear). Special interest – Good to have Disabled Buddy diver (special training with diving with disabled divers), Ice Diver, Self-reliant (solo) diver, Tec classes — Professional levels Dive Guide & Dive Master (the information in these classes is great and most people will benefit from taking the classes for what they will learn.
in some rivers in Switzerland drift diver is required, so if you want to dive in Switzerland in all rivers, it’s a must do. At River Rhein you don’t need this certification, but there are some you must have. Often you could do it there. To me a certification makes more sence when I can see and feel the benefit, so, I would do attitude diving in the Moutains, night dive I would love to do in the ocean, not in a lake where I may couldn’t see anything. Just as you said about photographer, some specialities makes more sence doing it at the right place.
Just finished OW last weekend. “Gateway into this alien world” sums it up pretty well. When surfacing from our 60′ dive on dive 4, all 5 of us were smiling ear to ear. We really didn’t even see much because visibility was about 6ft and it was completely dark after 45-50ft. We basically saw some Comb Jellies and silt covered limestone – but it was EPIC!!! Until someone goes through certification, there is just no possible way to explain the overall epic-ness of it all.
I agree nearly with all of your rankings and my reasons are 95% the same. OW: epic. It’s a prerequisite and covers the basics of scuba diving. It’s a good way to tell how much you may like diving Divemaster: never done it but would love to if I had the time, money, or I was going pro Bubblemaker: I was raised in the water so didn’t bother. I dove twice when I was 12 and went straight to OW at 18. Discover: only do this if you’re apprehensive and don’t want to commit to OW yet. Also, doesn’t satisfy prerequisites like OW does Boat: living in Hawaii every dive was a boat dive so this was unnecessary Navigation: why not. It’s good to know PP buoyancy: very good to know but is usually in AOW AOW: epic. Also a prerequisite for a lot of higher courses. As she said, let’s you go up to 30m instead of 18m. Night: epic. If you haven’t gone at night you have only seen half of it Rescue: epic. This is the next one I plan on doing Drift: meh Multi level: meh. That’s what computers are for Altitude: at least why not. However, not offered or necessary in Hawaii. Most computers can be set to compensate for this. Ice: epic. Same reason as night Cavern: epic. I take that back,if you haven’t gone at night you have only seen ¼ of it. The rest is night, ice, cavern, and wreck Wreck: epic, nuff said Shark: if you haven’t seen 1 shark on one of your dives are you really diving? Photography: idk I have a love/dislike for taking pictures DPV: why not? But I love diving with the scooter Self: must. Most of my dives are alone Drysuit: must.
When i got certified in the 80’s Padi was all about numbers ! So i went Naui and never looked back. There rrvord st that time was in the toilet. Not sure what they are now. Just getting back into diving. Live in a ssnd pit state with big ponds on either side. Don’t like what the water does to your equipment here and swiming with prehistoric critters isn’t my cup of tea either. Still hsve my Sherwood Magnum Blizzard and freedom bc from 88. I went with Sherwood because i figured anyone asks me if i want to go diving ——- I’ll just say ——-, SHERWOOD 😂. Ordered a Scuba Pro full face mask and waiting for it’s arrival. Found out too late that my blizzard would work with this mask after i found a beautiful G-250 SP second stage. Now doing the upgrade to the barrel. May I give a BIG shout out to SASS in Battle Creek Mi. Great people. Kim and her husband. ( sorry but my memory is getting bad,, but he has a twin brother who used to hard hat commercial dive. Great people great friends. Excellent servise from SUB AQUATICS SPORTS & SERVISE !!! Hi Kim 👋. You know who it is. Boat racer. 😊 Just came to me. RICK 👋
Really good tier list! Finally one that is in the proper tier format! Thanks! Now Comments & changes: Open water – should have simply been “must have”, basic training cannot be epic, it devalues the epic’ness of the other classes. Photo/Video and Night – all should go to Why Not – those are specialities, for some more interesting, for some not, no harm done in doing them, you actually get some value and new knowledge, but otherwise they are not necessary. Peak buoyancy – … why not is the highest possible tier. But I can tell you why not – because buoyancy is a core skill you need to get good at during OW and then to be working on it all the time, yourself and hire instructors to help you develop, why pay fees for a “certification” in a core skill?? Naturalist & Fish ID – is NOT a must do!! Its a why not at best if you feel like it. But again, why do you need a certification in being a “naturalist”? Full face mask – that’s a must-do If you want to use a FFM, but otherwise its a Why Not if you want to expand your skill set range. Multi-level – its skip. I mean, we have computeres these days, no one’s using diving tables. So a Meh at the very very best.
Concerning Altitude Diver: I dont’s see it as must do. I live in Switzerland where basically every Lake is an Altitude Lake. You learn the Altitude Theory already in the Open Water, altough you don’t get the Specialty. Computer does the rest. So all you learn in the specialty is theory that can be broken down to 2 sentences and the order to set your computer properly. And then 2 Fun dives with an instructor, which is always nice. So to me it’s not more than nice to have.
Hi, i am full cave diver and normoxic trimix technical diver. First of all you need to find as good teacher as you can find, owervise it’s just badges and cards. Epic courses: deep, rescue. Must: ow, aowd, wreck, ean. Depending on conditions there your prefer to dive: dry suit, ice, drift. Other courses just skip.
cheap oilless compressor 9l, water/oil seperator with micron filter 50m hose. cheap regulator battery and inverter easy safe diving down to 30m. all the diving/compressor stuff lands on around 200 dollar battery depends on your choosing my pack with inverter coast 900 and good for 2 ppl for 3-4 hours (can then only go 15m unless 2 oilless compressors) well above 2k hours diving so far. “scuba” is cheap if you want it to be
I think it better to separate cards into “Access” “Good training, worthless card” and “Worthless” Access cards being cards required to access certain types of diving, these are things like OWD, AOW, drysuit, etc. Worthless being obvious. But the “Good training, worthless cards” are for things where the training is valuable but there is no reason to pay PADI for the card as no one is going to ask for the card. A good example of this is the Sidemount Diver card, no one is going to ask you for the card. Another great examples are the photography and articlegraphy courses, in fact in this case the person teaching doesn’t need to be a professional diver, it is probably a good idea for they themselves to be one for insurance reasons, but what matters is the quality of the work the person is able to produce and their ability to teach. Now I should mention there is no universal rebreather certification, the units are all so different that the certifications are unit specific, even within brands like someone that is certified on a KISS Sidewinder can’t take rent a KISS Classic without taking the class to crossover.
I think all these extra “specialties” are all BS. Nothing but ways to bilk people out of their bucks. I’ve had my OW since 1974. I was an Army brat, and was taught by Army divers. Class work/theory/charts. Pool work and then an open water dive, and I was good for 130fsw. We didn’t have BCD’s and computers back then. It was a lot more physically demanding. Hundreds of Olympic pool laps surface swimming, lots and lots of subsurface laps, treading water with weights overhead, donning and doffing and good old fashioned drown proofing. That’s all that is really needed. The rest is just common sense, ie, don’t kick up the silt when you penetrate a wreck, take one fin off and grab the ladder when the boat is on its way up. Just common sense stuff. But the next logical step for an additional certification would be deco dives and navigation etc. But paying for a certification that says you know how to get back on a boat is ridiculous.
aow should be after at least 50 dives not 8 it would give it more credibility. perfect buoyancy should be #1 after ow. i wish the dive guide would tell people when they step off a boat improperly for there own safety. dsmb is not as easy as it looks and if your in open water you should carry a dsmb and practice releasing it for your own safety.
Dive against debris as why not??? Boat dive as skip… Don’t see your logic, honestly most of padi courses are a total skip. Must: OW and nitrox. Why not (depends of what you want from scuba, for many 18m is plenty, for other the ones I’m listing as why not are musts as well): AOW, deep, wreck, divemaster and above, emergency, rescue. For technical diving there are better agencies than padi and with cheaper progression. All the rest is just Padi sucking money out of you, especially peak buoyancy which is only needed if you had crap instructor which should have his credentials reviewed as he/she wasn’t able to teach you the absolute basic… Like buoyancy… Most of the specialities if you do some research and study you’ll get the same or more than from the course like in everything related to conservation and similar.
Total hokum…. Anyone who puts a buoyancy cert as a must do isn’t training their students well enough. Full stop. New paragraph. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all people should have amazing buoyancy right off the bat. And that some people wouldn’t benefit from working on their buoyancy with an instructor. But having to be sold a course and a certification to work on it?! Totally unnecessary. If one wants to work on their buoyancy as their OW instructor didn’t do a good enough job when they were originally certified, then find a better instructor and pay them to help work on it. One does not need to pay an additional premium to a certifying agency just for a certification. Same goes for night, and nav. And UW Photography… This more than anything does not need a certifying agency to get involved. Ever. As you pointed out, find someone who is highly regarded in the field, that also does courses, and take the course from them. But there does not need to be a certification coming off the back of it. Also, if you are putting Dry Suit in the Must Do, then Full Face Mask is the same. But obviously (as you pointed out) they are only Must Do if you intend to do that type of diving. Although, if people are coming to diving from seeing it in the movies, try perusal a movie this day and age containing SCUBA where the protagonist isn’t wearing an FFM… (Sanctum, Deep Blue Sea, 47m Down, 47m Down: Uncaged, The Deep House, Deep Fear, The Dive… To name a few…) So some people may see this as standard SCUBA these days.