PADI Specialties
Central Coast Dive Center offers a wide variety of PADI Specialty Diver Classes!
Our divers take Specialty Courses when they want to add to their underwater skill set, such as learning how to take photographs underwater in the Digital Underwater Photographer Specialty Course, or learning how to plan a successful night dive in the Night Diver Specialty Course. Learning new skills is fun, and it’s a great way to meet new people who have the same interests as you do.
Our Most Popular Specialty Diver Courses
Underwater Digital Photography
One of our most popular courses! The rise of digital underwater photography technology has made it easier and more fun than ever. The PADI Digital Underwater Photographer course gets you going quickly with today’s modern digital equipment, whether you use a point-and-shoot snap camera or a sophisticated D-SLR like the pros.
Underwater photography is also a great way to relive the adventures you’ve had, and capture images to share with your friends and family. We also offer a full range of underwater cameras, cases, lights and accessories in our on-site dive shop!
Deep Diver
After your first few scuba dives, you may want to explore a bit deeper than 60ft. There’s something exciting and mysterious about exploring during deeper depths that brings divers to this course over and over again! We teach you the techniques for diving safely in the deeper range of recreational diving, 18-40 meters/ 60-130 feet.
Our divers say this experience is an exhilarating adventure! Only a small fraction of the world’s population has ever seen the underwater world in person at depths below 60ft – and now you can be one of them!
Enriched Air “Nitrox” Diver
The PADI Enriched Air Diver course is PADI’s most popular specialty scuba diving course, and it’s easy to see why. Scuba diving with enriched air nitrox gives you more no decompression dive time. This means more time underwater, especially on repetitive scuba dives.
You can typically stay down longer and get back in the water sooner. No wonder many divers choose this as their very first specialty.
Wreck Diver
Whether sunk on purpose as an artificial reef or the result of mishap, wrecks open fascinating windows to the past. Most divers find wrecked ships, airplanes and even automobiles nearly irresistible because they’re intriguing to explore, exciting avenues of discovery, and usually teeming with aquatic life. The PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course teaches you the ins and outs of rewarding, responsible wreck diving.
The fun part of the PADI Wreck Diver course is visiting wrecks, unlocking mysteries and starting to gain the knowledge and experience that allows you to see things that others overlook. Sometimes, only the trained, experienced eye recognizes that a small hole or open door likely caused the vessel’s demise.
Central Coast offers a Dry Suit specialty course! If you’re going to dive all year long, or you’re planning a trip to Iceland, you will need a dry suit certification. This course is one of our favorites to teach! Please email us if you’re interested, this course is scheduled (for the most part) on a private basis.
Night Diver
As the sun sets, you don your dive gear, slip on your scuba mask and take a deep breath through your regulator… then step off the boat into the underwater night. Although you’ve seen the reef many times before, this time you drop into a whole new world and watch it come to life under the glow of your dive light. This is the exciting world of night diving!
Introduce yourself to the whole new cast of critters that comes out after the sun goes down! Night diving gives you a whole new perspective on the underwater world. Doing your first night dive with a trained instructor can make this new experience enjoyable and relaxing.
Underwater Navigation Diver
Be the diver everyone wants to follow and make your sense of direction legendary with the PADI Underwater Navigator Specialty course. Finding your way is not a matter of luck! When everyone’s buzzing about a reef or checking out a shipwreck, they’re having a great time – until it’s time to go. Then they turn to you, because as a PADI Underwater Navigator, you know the way back to the boat.
Underwater navigation can be challenging, but in the PADI Underwater Navigator Specialty course, you master the challenge. You learn the tools of the trade, including navigation via natural clues and by compass.
Earn Your Master Scuba Diver Rating
Your Specialty Diver Certifications can help you earn your Master Scuba Diver rating! This rating means that you have reached the highest non professional level in the PADI System of diver education, and you have acquired significant training and experience in a variety of dive environments.
To achieve the Master Scuba Diver rating (in addition to a few other requirements), you must complete at least 5 Specialty Diver certifications – so each Specialty Course you take with Central Coast will count toward you becoming a Master Scuba Diver!
Call us at (859) 426-0020
Other Benefits of Specialty Diver Certifications
When you learn a new specialty, you’re constantly improving your basic diving skills at the same time! This is because while you learn the new skill for the specialty, you’re practicing your basic dive skills – such as buoyancy and proper weighting.
Another benefit our divers often notice when they achieve several Specialties is improved Air Consumption Rates. They become more and more comfortable underwater, and that in combination with improved basic dive skills can drastically improve your air consumption. This helps makes your dives longer and more enjoyable overall.
