Complete 5 Adventure Dives to become Advanced certified
I was addicted to scuba diving the moment I put my face in the water. The colours, the kaleidoscope of marine life that buzzed around me and it invited me to reach out, explore, discover more. As I practiced my mask and regulator clearing and fine tuning my elementary buoyancy skills I wondered what the next step was in my search for knowledge and adventure in the underwater world.
My enthusiastic dive instructor was quick to enlighten me that there was a simple solution to my natural inquisitiveness. The Advanced Adventurer program & specialty training courses are perfect for the underwater adventurer seeking new and exciting experiences.
How does the Advanced Course Work?
The Advanced Adventurer certification is granted to a diver who successfully completes 5 Adventure dives. The adventure dives are introductions to individual specialty programs providing you with a taste of different areas of diving. It doesn’t teach me everything I need to know about that particular type of diving, but it provides the basics of that particular discipline.
Then I can chose to specialise the different areas I am interested to grow my diving repetoire. The great thing about SSI, is that I can specialise & extend my limits straight after Open Water, that way I can skip the Advanced Adventurer if I already know the path I want to follow!
While completing the Open Water Course was a real thrill, I quickly realised that I had simply learned the basics. There was so much more to learn and so much experience to gain before I could feel totally confident in my skills and knowledge under the water.
Sure, I had learned the basics, but I understood that I needed far more practice with my buoyancy skills. I figured that Perfect Buoyancy was an ideal starting point to try and improve my comfort as a scuba diver.
Good buoyancy allows you to conserve energy, use less air, move gracefully, and when these things happen you see more. A calm, still diver will experience more than the average beginner as the comfort and poise shown whilst exploring the marine environment ensures fish and other cool stuff are not scared away.
Being able to ascend and descend, and control your position in the water column with ease improves your safety immensely, as it is during these times that accidents can happen. This dive certainly gave me the building blocks to use on all my future dives! Taking the Perfect Buoyancy specialty refines these skills even further!
The underwater world produces magic and beauty
Inquisitive by nature, I wanted to know more about the underwater world. The marine life that lived there, the turtles, and sharks and most of all I was hoping to see a whale shark. Naturally, I chose the Marine Ecology dive.
The underwater world is a myriad of colours, shapes and wonderful new creatures. The way things move and interact is vastly different from terrestrial realms, and the buoyant properties of water reduce the dragging effects of gravity enabling some of the weirdest yet most amazing creatures to evolve and thrive.
Take coral for example. Coral is a tiny upside down jellyfish that learned, over hundreds of millions of years, to secure itself to the bottom, catch its own food and create a solid limestone skeleton! In addition, it developed a symbiotic relationship with an algae, zooxanthellae, which vastly increased its ability to feed through photosynthesis. These animals (yes they are animals!) are often only a few millimetres in diameter however they create structures that can be seen from space! It is this sort of magic I quickly grew to appreciate and one of the reasons I stayed diving for so many years.
Go Wreck diving as part of your advanced course
I completed the Wreck Adventure dive as my final requirement for the Advanced course. The idea of sunken ships has always fascinated me and many a diver for eons. Exploring this structure that, for all intents and purposes should not be sitting at the bottom of the sea. Koh Tao is ideally placed for wreck diving with a couple of good wrecks situated perfectly at recreational diving depths.
Wreck’s can be dangerous places. They exhibit challenges not often faced by normal, recreational diving. Enclosed spaces, dark rooms, entanglement risks…these all combine to make wreck diving an area that requires more training. For my first wreck dive we mapped the wreck and got a thorough orientation of the location as a reference for future forays.
The HTMS Sattakut, one of our 3 wrecks, is a decommissioned Thai Navy vessel over 50m long, and rising from a depth of 30m to the top of the wheelhouse at 18m. At such a size it justifies further exploration and the additional three dives of the Wreck Specialty course provided adequate grounding for this most exciting of undertakings. *
*You must have 12 dives to start the Wreck Specialty course.
Underwater navigation is one of the two compulsory elements
of the Advanced Adventurer Course.
It is a crucial skill that helps on so many levels. By knowing where you are on a dive site you can reduce stress, which consequently reduces air consumption, and allows you to enjoy your dive in the knowledge that you are where you want to be. I always like coming to the surface knowing I don’t have far to go back to the boat. Hopefully I am right under it!
There are so many options to choose from with the adventure dives that go into making up the advanced course it becomes difficult to know what to opt for. I guess the best part is that you are free to do more than 5 adventure dives if you want. Or better still you can continue on to specific specialties that catapult your dive experience to a whole new level.
A World of Scuba Diving Adventures awaits you
Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV): This is an awesomely fun activity to act like James Bond underwater. You can travel a long way and maybe see areas of dive sites that you would never get to simply by swimming. I would love to see a whale shark one day whilst using a DPV. Being able to effortlessly cruise alongside it would be amazing.
Underwater photography: Taking good photos on land is hard enough, taking good photos underwater is almost impossible as a beginner. With so much going on – managing buoyancy, air and where you are underwater, trying to focus on a camera and keep it steady is super challenging. Add to that the changes in the distance light travels and the way colour operates underwater and it is a whole new experience altogether.
Fish Identification: If you are like me, you’ll love fish. Learning what differentiates one from the other is not that difficult, and with a few key pointers you’ll start to know your wrasses from your parrotfish in no time.
Search & Recovery: Learn how to find lost treasures, or simply something you have dropped over the side of the boat. This course was so useful, especially when my $1000 dive computer went missing and I used the skills from the search and recovery course to find it again.
Night diving: Diving at night is one of my favourite activities. The handheld flashlight enhances the colours that are often difficult to see during the day. Some fish sleep at night, while others use the cover of darkness to stalk prey.
There is so much to explore – with so many specialised Instructors we can also offer many Ecology Dives such as Shark or Turtle Ecology as well!
The Deep Adventure dive is a part of your advanced course
The deep dive is the other compulsory element of the Advanced Adventurer course. It is required for a reason. Obviously with added depth comes added risks. These can be many and varied from air management to the increased risk of decompression sickness, but i discovered deep dives introduced me to a whole new world of colours and shapes.
We conducted our deep dive at Chumphon pinnacle which was out of this world amazing. Enormous schools of snapper and big eye trevally circled the large rock pinnacles that rose from the depths. In the midwater, planktivorous fusiliers darted between the shafts of sunlight that shone down through the clear blue waters.
The rock itself was covered in life. Different life from the corals of the shallows. At depth, with sunlight at a premium, different animals thrive. Soft corals and filter feeding sponges dominate the pock marked rock. Moray eels poke their heads out of holes whilst sea urchins hide amongst the crack and crevices. At depth we swam with bull sharks that visit during some of the cooler months. I am told bull sharks can be dangerous but these were nothing but friendly.
Whaleshark – the Largest Fish in the Sea
Deep diving brought in a whole new dimension to the diving experience opening up what appeared to be an entirely new realm. It was something unexpected but one I embraced with amazement and joy.
The greatest experience was no doubt being at around 25m depth and looking up to see the hulking silhouette of a whale shark cruising past the pinnacle.
As we ascended it turned in a wide sweeping arc like an enormous jetliner. Schools of remoras and trevally travelled in concert with the largest fish in the sea, like the contrails of those same airliners as they travel across the sky.
It was an experience I remember with much joy, and one I yearn to repeat somewhere, sometime.
Why take the SSI Advanced Adventurer Course?
Explore New Types of Diving
This course lets you try out different specialties and discover what excites you most—whether it’s wrecks, walls, fish identification, or diving at night.
Dive Deeper
Your Open Water certification limits you to 18 metres. After this course, you’ll be certified to dive to 30 metres—unlocking access to deeper dive sites and more marine life.
Gain Confidence & Experience
With an SSI Instructor by your side, you’ll practice new skills in real dive conditions, boosting your confidence underwater and improving your overall dive technique.
Customize Your Learning
Choose your five adventure dives based on your interests and goals. It’s a highly personalised course that matches your diving dreams.
Prepare for Future Training
Each adventure dive counts as the first dive of the corresponding SSI Specialty, so if you want to go further, you’re already on your way to becoming a specialty diver—or even a Master Diver down the line.
Why Take Your SSI Advanced Adventurer Course on Koh Tao?
Koh Tao is one of the most popular training grounds for divers worldwide, and for good reason:
- 📍 Stunning dive sites like Chumphon Pinnacle, Green Rock, and Twins
- ☀️ Year-round warm waters and great visibility
- 🐠 Diverse marine life, from Whale Sharks to nudibranchs
- 🤿 Professional, passionate instructors at Crystal Dive
- 💸 Affordable pricing and flexible schedules
At Crystal Dive, we offer expert guidance, small groups, and a safe, supportive environment to help you make the most of your Advanced Adventurer journey.
What Can You Expect to Learn?
- How to plan and execute deeper dives (up to 30 metres)
- Navigation techniques using compass and natural references
- Perfecting your buoyancy and trim
- Managing air consumption and understanding NDLs
- Specialty skills like night diving, wreck diving, or photography
Who Is the SSI Advanced Adventurer Course For?
- Anyone certified as an Open Water Diver (from SSI or any recognized agency)
- Divers who want to dive deeper, safer, and smarter
- Adventurous travellers who want to explore more dive sites
- Anyone considering further diving education in the future
Your Adventure Starts Here
The SSI Advanced Adventurer course is more than just a certification—
It’s a passport to new dive experiences, more confidence, and the chance to discover what kind of diver you truly want to be.
Whether you’re dreaming of deep pinnacles, mysterious wrecks, or glowing night dives, this course is your gateway to a whole new world of scuba adventures.
© Crystal Dive Koh Tao
