PADI Specialty courses are great options for divers who already have a good amount of experience and are looking to learn something new or fine tune their skills.

The big 3 ‘specs’ that most people do are the Deep Spec (going to 40 meters), the Wreck Spec (penetrating shipwrecks) and the Enriched Air Spec (using nitrox).  One great course that’s often overlooked, however, is the Navigation Specialty Course.

Learning to navigate is one of the most important skills you can master in diving and many people find it challenging at first.  It’s very easy to get disoriented underwater and sometimes people struggle with exactly how to use a compass.  You learn a bit of how to use the compass on your open water course, and then a bunch more on the navigation adventure dive in the advanced course.  But on the navigation spec you really get good at it, having to be responsible for navigating a dive site entirely on your own.

The course consists of some theory and three dives.  The first dive is the covered by the Navigation Adventure Dive of the PADI Advanced Open Water course.  On the second dive, you learn to navigate complex patterns with headings that are not just the usual north, south, east, and west.  Then on the third dive, you go on a little underwater treasure hunt using the navigation skills you’ve learned, and you draw a map of the site.  Most importantly though, you learn how to use things like natural references and bottom contour to really know where you are at all times underwater.

OK, it’s useful, but really boring right?  Not so!  I recently took three DJL students all the way up through Master Scuba Diver and the spec they enjoyed most was navigation.  They talked about it for the whole boat ride back to Sairee Beach and at dinner that night, discussing where they thought they were at certain points, what they used as references and how the map they drew compared to the actual map of the dive site.

It’s a fun, useful course that will really improve your underwater experience.

Pete G

After finishing teaching an advance course my students had enjoyed the wreck that much they decided to take there Wreck Speciality course.

The course enables people to safely map, navigate and penetrate ship wrecks using specialist equipment.

Out dives were carried out on the HTMS Satakut. She is an excellent wreck for training. We had great fun producing detailed maps to enable us to plan our penetration dives.

They also learnt reel techniques, lost line procedures and many other skills.

Our last dive we penetrated the wreck swimming inside the vessels corridors using reels and torches to help with navigation.

Why not add to your specialities with DJL

It has been a phenomenal year for us here at DJL , with our fantastic team working hard to introduce new divers to the underwater world, and train new professionals to look after certified divers.

Our hard work has been recognized by PADI Asia Pacific, and we have been rewarded with an award for “Outstanding Contribution To Diver Acquisition”. We were delighted with a personal visit from PADI President and CEO , Drew Richardson, Vice President of PADI Asia Pacific, Henrik Nimb, and Director of Sales and Field Services of PADI Asia Pacific, Mark Spiers, during which they presented our award to Course Director Peter Nieuwhof, and our fearless leader, Tim Lawrence (aka Davy Jones).

Each and every member of our team enjoys watching new divers fall in love with the underwater world during their PADI Scuba diver or PADI Openwater courses, and continue on to take the next step or just do more diving.

This award is the result of the hard work of the whole team from Marketing to boat staff and everyone deserves a great big thank you!!!