NAUI Specialty Courses

Whether you are interested in underwater phototgraphy, hunting &: collecting, search &: recovery, or expanding your training to include advanced rescue skills or diving with Nitrox, NAUI has a specialty course for you!

Below are just some of the more popular courses available to you as a certified scuba diver. Read on...there's bound to be a NAUI course that's just right for you!

Deep Diver

Does the thought of deep diving fascinate you? If you are at least 18 and have a NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver certification or the equivalent, you can enroll in a Deep Diver course where you'll gain the knowledge and skills to plan and make enjoyable deep dives while minimizing risks of deep diving.

Although this is not a decompression techniques course, you will learn about decompression procedures including nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness, and the use of dive computers including avoiding the need for stage decompression. Your course will also include teachings on the purpose, problems, hazards, planning, preparation, equipment, air supplies, personnel, techniques, gas management, emergency procedures, and depth limits for recreational diving. Deep diving is defined as dives made between 60 feet / 18 meters and 130 feet / 40 meters.

Dry Suit Diver

While dry suits were once used almost exclusively for situations such as ice diving or deep wreck diving, many sport divers are now using dry suits regularly for every day recreational dives all over the world. Perhaps you live in a cold-water climate or want to travel to one? If so, the Dry Suit Diver course is for you!

The Dry Suit Diver course will give you a basic knowledge and skills needed to minimize risks and gain experience in dry suit diving, as well as train you to properly use and maintain your dry suit.

NAUI Scuba Diver certification or the equivalent is required for enrollment - or your NAUI instructor can teach you both courses in combination so you can be comfortable and warm from your very first open water dive.

Enriched Air Nitrox Diver

Want to extend your bottom time, lessen your surface interval, and maximize every dive? Become an Enriched Air Nitrox diver!

You will learn how to choose the proper blend of Nitrox for your dive profile, determine maximum depth limits for your Nitrox mixture, analyze your breathing mixture, and plan and safely execute each dive. Your instructor will teach you about the physiology of oxygen and nitrogen; advantages, disadvantages, and risks of nitrox; oxygen toxicity; hazards and precautions of handling oxygen; the concept of Equivalent Air Depth; use of EANx with standard Air Dive Tables; common gas mixing procedures; and more.

After your exam, you can qualify for the Nitrox recognition card, or go ahead and complete two dives to receive your Nitrox Diver certification card. And, your NAUI instructor can integrate your Nitrox course into your Scuba Diver course!

Scuba Rescue Diver

Once you are 15 years of age and a certified scuba diver, you can expand your diving knowledge with a Scuba Rescue Diver course. Learn how to manage risks and effectively handle limited in-water problems and diving emergencies, how to assist and transport divers, and how to perform surface rescues and rescues from depth involving both boat and shore based skin and scuba divers.

CPR and First Aid certifications are required to complete this course. Your Scuba Rescue Diver training moves you on your pathway to becoming a NAUI Leader: Skin Diving Instructor, Assistant Instructor, Divemaster, or Instructor.

Search & Recovery Diver

At some point in your diving career, you or your buddy will either loose or find something underwater and the knowledge and skills you gain in the Search and Recovery Diver course will help you when you do!

In your Search and Recovery Diver course you'll learn about underwater navigation using natural and compass techniques; the problems, methods, equipment, hazards, and safety procedures regarding limited visibility diving; proper search methods and techniques; and how to handle light salvage or recovery, including rigging and knot tying.

Training Assistant

If you possess the desire to assist in the training of other divers, a Training Assistant specialty course might be for you. This course will qualify you in the skills and knowledge necessary to perform as a training assistant during diver training courses overseen by an active-status NAUI Instructor.

As a certified NAUI Training Assistant, you will be qualified to temporarily directly supervise students while an instructor conducts skills with other students; escort students on the surface or on underwater tours; and assist an active-status NAUI Instructor with other tasks, all under the direction of a NAUI instructor.

Compass navigation; underwater communications; assisting divers with cramps, anxiety, breathing difficulties, and signs of pre-panic; escorting a diver to safety; escorting divers during an open water dive; and performing a scuba diver rescue are just some of the techniques and skills you will learn during your course.

To enroll in a Training Assistant course, you must be at least 18 years old, have the training and experience equivalent to at least NAUI Advanced Diver, have certification in NAUI Scuba Rescue Diver or equivalent, and have current CPR and First Aid certifications.

While certification as a Training Assistant does not confer any NAUI Leadership certification, the experience, knowledge and confidence you gain working as a Training Assistant can help you achieve your goal of becoming a NAUI member!

Underwater Archeologist

Qualified divers are essential to collect and record archaeological data on submerged cultural resources and often perform invaluable volunteer assistance to accredited archaeologists by assisting during field work.

In the Underwater Archeologist course you will learn specific skills and knowledge that are helpful for wreck diving activities and provide increased enjoyment when visiting submerged cultural resources. You'll gain the basic information and skills that are used in underwater archaeological interpretation of wreck and other sites, as well as mapping, sketching, and researching techniques.

Underwater Ecologist

As you become more environmentally aware of your underwater surroundings, you may find yourself particularly interested in the ecology of two major oceanic environments, the Kelp Forests and the Coral Reefs. NAUI proactively promotes sound environmental diving techniques to help protect our planet's ecosystems, and teaching divers how to better interface with the delicate kelp and coral environments. Through the Underwater Ecologist courses, you will learn more about our favorite diving environments.

Underwater Ecologist: Kelp Forest

The Underwater Ecologist (Kelp Forest) specialty course focuses on the complex and productive ecosystem bordering much of the west coast of North America, from Alaska to Baja California. Kelp forests are also found in other cooler coastal waters of South America, Tasmania, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and many other locations. This course examines the kelp forests, their occupants such as mollusks, crustaceans, fish and marine mammals.

Underwater Ecologist: Coral Reef

Coral reefs are primarily found in three major biogeographic regions of the world: The tropical western Atlantic (Caribbean), the Red Sea, and the Indo-Pacific region. Coral colonies are composed of thousands of tiny polyps, each with its own protective skeleton. The Underwater Ecologist (Coral Reef) specialty course focuses on the vertebrates and invertebrates of the complex living reef. This course examines coral zonation, seagrass beds, lagoons, mangroves, and the common reef algae, invertebrates and reef fishes.

Underwater Environment

Want to learn more about the underwater environment in which you dive? Enroll in an Underwater Environment course and learn about the physical and biological aspects of the diving environment with emphasis on your local area. You'll study related sciences, such as oceanography, limnology, geology, biology, and ecology, and learn about various types of plant and animal life, conservation and pollution issues, the characteristics of water movement, shore, bottom and surface conditions, and how to plan dives in diverse diving locations.

Your course may include trips to aquariums or oceanariums, exposing you to several diving environments such as lakes or the ocean, rocky reefs, and sand beaches. Whether you are a skin or scuba diver, an Underwater Environment course will catch your interest!

Underwater Photography

Our underwater environment presents divers with scenes of breathtaking beauty with wild and weird creatures that amaze and fascinate. How can you possibly remember each one unless you bring them back through photography?

In the Underwater Photographer course you will be taught the skills, techniques, and tricks of underwater photography including lighting, use of photographic equipment, the fundamentals of photography, underwater camera techniques, and underwater photo problems. For added interest, you can combine other diving courses or activities to provide additional photographic opportunities.

Underwater Hunter And Collector

If spearfishing or collecting underwater specimens interests you, the Underwater Hunter and Collector course may be just right for you. You'll learn about skin diving techniques, hazards and cautions, safety concerns, spear-fishing and collection equipment, and specific techniques on how to hunt and collect responsibly, while minimizing the diving risks of such activities.

Your instructor will also teach you about conservation, fishing laws and regulations, sportsmanship, utilizing your catch, selecting specimens, preservation, shell collecting, aquaria, and hunting and collecting dive locations.

Wreck Diver (External Survey)

If you are at least 18 years old and have a NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver certification or the equivalent thereof, you can take a Wreck Diver (External Survey) course and start exploring sunken vessels, aircraft, and other amazing wrecks in the underwater world.

Your NAUI Wreck Diver (External Survey) instructor will teach you about safety, hazards and cautions, special risks of overhead environments, entanglement, limited visibility, deep diving, equipment, location of wrecks, sources of information, search methods, underwater navigation, legal aspects, artifacts, treasure, salvage, archaeology, and much more. Get ready to start exploring!

More...

The courses listed above are only some of the more popular NAUI Specialty and Recognition courses available. Contact your local NAUI Dive Center to learn more about the dozens of specialty courses that can help you expand your diving experience and enjoyment.