Advanced Open Water in Malapascua: Is It Worth the Extra Two Days?

Yes, Advanced Open Water is worth the extra two days in Malapascua. Open Water limits you to 18 metres, which leaves out the Dona Marilyn wreck (32m), the deeper walls at Gato Island, and the best coral at the outer shoals. It also means you have to go to Kimud with an Instructor for an extra fee – but if you are doing it anyway, why not just include the thresher shark dives in your AOW course and you’ll never have to think about it again. Advanced is five adventure dives, no exam, two extra days, and unlocks the rest of the island.

You’ve got your Open Water certification. You can dive to 18 metres. You’re a diver. So why bother with Advanced Open Water?

Short answer: because it unlocks the best of Malapascua – and the whole world of diving on top.

The Dona Marilyn wreck bottoms out at 32 metres. The deeper walls at Gato Island and the best coral at the outer shoals; all below 18 metres. With only Open Water, you’re watching the party from the balcony.

And while we do offer shark dive packages specifically for Open Water divers at Kimud Shoal (with instructor guidance), Advanced certification gives you more flexibility and independence at the shark sites.

WHAT THE COURSE INVOLVES

Advanced Open Water is not an exam. There’s no written test, no stressful skills assessment. It’s five adventure dives over two days, each focused on a different specialty. Two are required (deep dive and underwater navigation) and you choose the other three from options like: night dive, fish identification, peak performance buoyancy, photography, and more.

Each dive builds a specific skill while you’re actually diving a real site. Your deep dive might be at Kimud. Your navigation dive might be at Lighthouse Reef with seahorses. Your night dive will definitely involve mandarin fish. You’re not practising in a sterile environment; you’re diving Malapascua’s best sites with an instructor who’s teaching you to be a better, more confident diver.

WHAT IT GETS YOU

Certification to 30 metres (the recreational limit is 40m, but 30m opens up almost everything worth seeing). Night dive experience. Better navigation skills. Improved buoyancy. And critically, full independence at the shark diving sites.

Most of our guests who do Advanced say the deep dive and the night dive are their favourites. The deep dive because the reef looks different at depth (colours change, the blue is deeper, everything feels more immersive), and the night dive because the reef at night is genuinely a different world.

THE PRACTICAL DETAILS

Two days. Five dives. All equipment included. You can start any day, and we usually recommend doing it immediately after Open Water while everything is fresh. The back-to-back Open Water plus Advanced track takes five days total and is comfortably the best value way to go from zero to genuinely competent diver.

There’s a short eLearning component you can do beforehand (about 2 to 3 hours), or we’ll help you through it on-island.

IS IT WORTH IT?

If you’re diving Malapascua, absolutely. You flew here, you made the effort to get to this island, you’ve already invested in Open Water. Spending two more days to access the best dive sites and get significantly better at diving is, frankly, an easy decision.

We’ve seen hundreds of divers agonise about whether to add the Advanced course. We’ve never seen anyone regret doing it. Book your Advanced Open Water course at thresher-shark-divers.com.