Divers all over the world are self-isolating, waiting for the day they can visit the ocean again. It’s easy to feel unmotivated during this time, but there are actually productive things you can do from home to improve your dive career.

Thanks to the internet, PADI has courses you can start online from the comfort of your own home. When your local dive operator reopens, all you need to do is complete the required dives (so, the fun part) and your certification is done!

Enriched Air Diver

The Enriched Air Diver course is PADI’s most popular specialty course. Enriched air, or nitrox, gives divers a longer bottom time. So, if you’re a diver who is always yearning for more when it’s time for the three-minute safety stop, this may be the course for you! The eLearning can be completed online in as little as one day. When your local dive shop reopens, all you’ll need to do is meet with an instructor to demonstrate proper procedures for obtaining and analyzing enriched air.

Now is the perfect time to become an enriched air diver – once you can dive again, you’re going to want to spend as much time as possible underwater!

Digital Underwater Photographer

While diving is always about the experience first, many divers appreciate photos and videos of their time underwater. Photography gives you something to look back on, captures new creatures you discover, and memorializes the different underwater places you’ve explored around the world.

Through the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer course, divers learn how to choose the right underwater camera, principles for good composition of underwater images, and practical techniques to take great photos. You can sign-up for the eLearning option to get started from the comfort of your own home, at your own pace. Plus, with all this extra time at home, you can research underwater cameras and decide which one to buy before completing the dives and hands-on training with an instructor. More time to prepare is never a bad thing!

Project AWARE Specialty

As divers, we should all be advocates for the ocean and ensure that our actions and decisions positively impact the planet. Project AWARE is a nonprofit organization that empowers divers to protect the ocean by acting in their own communities. The Project AWARE Specialty course gives divers the tools and expertise to make a difference for ocean protection every time they descend beneath the surface. This course is completely dry, meaning that all you have to do is take the online course and you’re done!

If you’ve been wanting to expand your scuba knowledge but didn’t have the time, ran out of vacation days, or got stuck waiting for good weather, these courses are for you! Now, you can improve your diving skills without even putting on a wetsuit – and we all know that’s the worst part!