PADI Drift Diver Course – Indepth Dive Centre Phuket

PADI Drift Diving: Time to learn how to fly underwater!

The PADI Drift Diver Specialty course is actually only 2 dives but we include a 3rd dive with your PADI Instructor for fun. This also gives you more practice handling reels and lines and launching an SMB at the end of a dive. Initially, this can be more to handle than you expected, depending on your experience level and just how strong the current is. You may be surprised what problems can occur sending up an SMB, in fact when handling lines underwater. Consequently, you will also use at a variety of different reels and lines of your dives.

Which Phuket Dive Sites can I dive?

The dive sites of Phuket, The Similan Islands, Racha Yai and Noi, Ko Dok Mai make for great drift dives when the conditions are right. Also, when choosing Phuket dive sites and planning the dives, you should always look at the Tide Charts first. There is a LOT than can be learnt about Tide Tables and how important they are. hence, the above dive sites can have absolutely no current at all or can be ripping!

You start your PADI Drift Diver Specialty Diver Course by first reading the PADI Drift Diver manual and completing Knowledge Reviews. In addition, your PADI Instructor will review these with you before you do the actual dives.

Course Topics covered include:

• Planning, organization, procedures, techniques, problems and hazards of drift diving
• An introduction to drift diving equipment: floats, lines, reels
• Buoyancy-control, navigation and communication for drift diving
• Dive Site selection and overview of aquatic currents: causes and effects
• Buddy System Techniques for staying close together as a group or Buddy Team

You can use your usual dive equipment on the course, open circuit or a Rebreather (CCR). We will also introduce you to various surface marker buoys, floats, lines and reels.

Drift Diving Techniques

Remember it is typically difficult or impossible for scuba divers to swim against currents for anything more than a short time. This raises various potential concerns such as staying together as a group and maintaining contact with the boat. Missing the exit / pick up point is something you also need to be aware of. If you miss your exit point in a strong current you can easily get blown several miles off the reef. Sadly, every year we read about fatalities around the world. Sadly most of these divers appear not to have been trained as Drift Divers. These accidents are usually a result of divers diving in areas outside of their training and experience. And/or because they do not have the correct equipment needed for making drift dives.

Furthermore, on your drift dives you will learn more about "Coordinated Entries". This is one of the most crucial things with drift diving. Also managing ascents and descents properly becomes more important when drift diving. This can either be taking a line with surface buoy down or reeling the line back up again, without getting it tangled! Also you will need to practice staying together, judging where to be in the water and how to change directions along with many other fun drift diving activities.

What you learn on this PADI Drift Diving Course course will actually improve not only your scuba diving knowledge and skills. But it will also help you overall diving on dive sites you know already!