Continue your PADI Adventure on Malapascua Island
Now that you know how to dive, the fun can really begin! The PADI Advanced Open Water Course takes your diving further across five specialty adventure dives — including a mandatory Deep dive to 30m and Underwater Navigation. It is not an “advanced course” in the sense of being difficult; it is about expanding what you can see and do underwater.
No exams, no classroom tests — just a few easy chapters to read and the dives.
1. Reading
Read 6 short chapters and complete knowledge reviews before your dives. Use PADI eLearning to finish before you arrive — more time diving, less time studying.
2. Buoyancy & Navigation
Master peak performance buoyancy and compass navigation on Malapascua’s pristine reef sites. Two of five dives that make you a better, more confident diver.
3. Shark Dives & More
Your Deep dive takes you to 30m. Add a shark dive at Kimud Shoal and choose from Night, Wreck, Photography, or Naturalist for your remaining adventure dives.
Choose Your AOWC Option
There are many options to do your Advanced Open Water Course at TSD, and here are three of them. All include PADI eLearning, the manual, your certification, full equipment rental, and tuition from our experienced PADI Instructors. We teach in many languages.
Free refresher dive included in every AOWC option. Most shops charge PHP 4,000-5,000 for the same thing.
Elective Adventure Dives
Choose three from the specialties available on Malapascua: Underwater Photography, Naturalist, Wreck, Night, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Search and Recovery, or others.
We will recommend the best options based on conditions during your stay. Night dives reveal Malapascua’s incredible nocturnal marine life including mandarin fish, hunting cephalopods, and bioluminescence.
What is Involved
Duration: 2 days, 5 adventure dives
Certification: PADI Advanced Open Water Diver
Maximum depth: Increases to 30m
Your PADI Advanced Open Water on Malapascua includes adventure dives at world-famous sites like Kimud Shoal and Gato Island.
No Exams: The Advanced Open Water Course involves no written exams and no classroom presentations. You read 6 short chapters and complete knowledge reviews. You can do this using PADI eLearning, which we issue in advance. Learning happens entirely through the adventure dives and pre-dive briefings.
The PADI Advanced Open Water Diver manual is included in the course price. We recommend completing the online elements before arrival to maximise your time diving rather than studying.
Haven’t dived in a while? Not a problem!
Six months out of the water? A year? Two? Then you definitely need a refresher.
Every AOW course at TSD includes a free refresher dive with an instructor before the course starts.
Most dive shops charge PHP 4,000 to PHP 5,000 for a refresher and treat it as a separate booking. We include it in every Advanced Open Water Course at no extra cost. Rebuild buoyancy, re-do basic skills, and ask the questions you’ve forgotten the answers to.
Then start the course feeling ready, not nervous.
Tell us at booking if you want the refresher. We schedule it as part of your first dive, usually Peak Performance Buoyancy.
Prerequisites
PADI Open Water Diver certification (or equivalent) required. Minimum age is 12 (Junior AOW) or 15 (full AOW). No minimum dives required.
Our instructors know exactly which adventure dives work best at which sites on Malapascua and will plan the course around the best conditions available during your visit in discussion with you.
Optional Add-ons
Add any of these to any AOWC option at booking.
Add Nitrox
Longer no-deco time on your deeper dives and every dive after. PADI Nitrox certification included and free nitrox fills for life at TSD.
Add Return Transfer
Round-trip from Cebu Airport: private van to Maya port, ferry to Malapascua, transfer to your hotel. Reverse on departure. Skip the logistics.
Add a Photographer
Have a professional underwater photographer join your thresher dive at Kimud Shoal. High-resolution digital files of you with the threshers, delivered the same day.
Already AOWC, or want to go further?
Several PADI specialty courses extend AOWC nicely: Wreck, Deep, Night, Underwater Photography, Naturalist, and our Thresher Shark Diver Specialty (unique to TSD). Pair Nitrox with any of them for longer bottom times.
Or take your dive skills to the next level with the PADI Rescue Diver Course.
If you have at least 10 logged dives and are AOWC certified, you can also start technical diving with us. We are a PADI 5-Star CDC and run regular IDC and Tec Rec programmes.
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