Exploring SSI AOWD and ASD: Different Options for SSI Advanced Diver Education
What is SSI Advanced Diving Education?
SSI Advanced Diving Education has tailored a set of learning process from introductory to mastery for divers, so that ReefMax can introduce you to what is SSI Diver's Advanced Education course and how to choose the most suitable course for your needs among the many specialty courses through the illustrations and text in this article.
Undoubtedly, we encourage divers to persist in their enjoyment of diving and gather essential practical diving experience!
Before we start this article, we need to understand the purpose of SSI Advanced Education, that is, to continuously improve the diver's skills and gain more related skills and knowledge, so that divers can gradually accumulate more diving knowledge and skills from the introductory stage, and be able to explore more advanced dive sites. Therefore, in addition to attending the course, Fun Dive (Dive Tour) is also a very important part of improving the diving ability!
Choosing Between SSI AOWD and ASD
Once you've earned your Open Water Diver (OW) certification, there are several ways to extend your dive learning journey!
- Continue to dive (FUNDIVE) and gradually accumulate diving experience , allowing the basics and techniques learned by Open Water Divers (OW) to become muscle memory.
- Choose to participate in SSI's advanced education courses, such as the Advanced Open Water Diver (AOWD), or enroll in various SSI specialty courses (which can be selected based on personal interests).
- We also offer the Advanced Scuba Diver (ASD) specialty package for divers, or you may choose to pursue individual specialties directly.
What is AOWD? What is ASD?
Divers often ask me about the Advanced Diving Program, but what exactly is the Advanced Diving Program?
Effective October 2025, SSI's Advanced Adventure Diver AA course has been officially renamed AOWD (Advanced Open Water Diver). The original AOWD award certification has been formally renamed Advanced Specialty Diver (ASD).
What's the difference between AOWD and ASD? Actually, the PADI AOW course is equivalent to SSI's AOWD course. Both require completing five “Adventure Dives” to earn certification. After finishing the AOWD course, you'll be able to dive according to your Adventure Dives and explore at a maximum depth of 30 meters.
Within the SSI system, the AOWD certification is now equivalent to the PADI AOW level. The Advanced Scuba Diver (ASD) award certification operates as a recreational certification within the SSI system.
We also offer the Advanced Scuba Diver (ASD) Specialty Package.
In short, as long as you meet the requirements, the system will automatically award you this ASD certification! (This signifies the diver's achievements and milestones.)
You will receive SSI's ASD Award certification (automatically determined by the system) if you meet both of the following conditions:
- Four independent specialty certifications
- 24 actual dives recorded
AOWD Course Specific Curriculum Content
In SSI's Advanced Open Water Diver course, the five required “Experience Specialty Dives” involve selecting five distinct specialty dives from the numerous options listed in the chart above, attempting and experiencing each one. These typically include the following:
- Experience Deep Diving (Required)
- Experience Navigator (Required)
- Experience Perfect Neutral Buoyancy (Optional)
- Experience Boat Diving (optional)
- Experience Night Diving (optional)
Each of these five dives is an experience in a different specialty (i.e., an adventure dive done in a different way), so you will not have a great deal of in-depth knowledge of each topic of the dive upon completion of the course. If you find that you are particularly interested in one of these experiences and would like to go deeper, you can choose to take the corresponding "Specialty Course" to learn that area independently.
Of course, you can also skip this part directly and start your advanced education directly from the specialty course training path.
SSI ASD Award Certification
SSI's educational philosophy recognizes that the ability to dive requires constant "learning" and "practice". Looking back at the OWD program, divers learn how to control their descent and ascent, maintain neutral buoyancy, and use their flippers effectively in order to have a good dive. Of course, there are also many other diving skills.
However, the skills and experiences learned need to be practiced over and over again. Therefore, FunDive is a good way to improve your skills and experience. If you rush to advance to AOW without having good scuba skills and experience, you may get half the result with twice the effort.
Therefore, SSI's ASD award certification includes the requirement of “24 logged dives.” Advancing only after mastering scuba skills and gaining sufficient diving experience may be the best choice! Of course, if you believe you already possess the necessary skills and experience, you may enroll in the advancement course. However, a minimum of 24 logged dives is required to earn the award certification and become a truly qualified Advanced Specialty Diver.
Advanced Scuba Diver (ASD) Award Certification lists all completed specialty courses.
How do I choose a specialty program or pursue my advanced scuba education?
We use a learning schedule to help you understand the process.
Most divers attend advanced education to explore more advanced dives, such as those exceeding the OW limit of 18 meters or less.
You can enroll directly in the Advanced Open Water Diver course. After completing this program, you will be able to conduct scuba dives within a depth limit of 30 meters following your specialty experience courses. However, this is merely an introductory specialty adventure course, and you may not gain sufficient understanding of the specialty you experience. Therefore, we recommend skipping the AOWD course and directly selecting individual specialties for your advanced training. You can advance based on your interests by selecting from specialties such as Deep Diving (recommended), Underwater Navigation (recommended), Perfect Buoyancy, Night Diving, Boat Diving, and Enriched Air Nitrox (recommended).
We also offer the Dive Specialist Package (2 distinct specialties) and the Advanced Diver Specialist Package (4 distinct specialties) for you to choose from.
Century Diver (commonly known as Breaking 100), celebrating the milestone of a diver's first achievement
SSI SPECIALIZED PROGRAMS
SSI offers many practical specialty courses, Reef Diving will list some popular courses for your reference:
Deep Diving
Boat Diving
Low visibility and night diving
Nitrox Diving
Perfect Buoyancy
Stress and Rescue
Underwater Navigation
photo and video
Drysuit
Side-mounted diving
DPV
