Here are a few of the ways you can have fun and learn new skills:

If your kids are water babies why not give them a real treat? Let them experience the thrill of breathing underwater. Let them take the plunge to experience another world--the underwater world.

If you've always wanted to try scuba diving, or you're not sure whether to commit to a full diving course, this half-day class and dive will teach you the basics of scuba diving. First, a lesson at poolside to explain how everything works and an important short class on safety procedures.

Thinking of getting certified for an upcoming vacation, but don’t have the time to put into a regular diver course? Now there’s a quick and easy program designed especially for you! This is your chance to slap on some fins, strap on a mask and experience an intense adventure in a short amount of time. The PADI Scuba Diver program is a pre-entry level certification that is perfect for vacationers or people who only plan to dive a couple times a year.

As a subprogram of the PADI Open Water Diver Program, the PADI Scuba Diver rating allows you to get certified quickly and easily by minimizing time constraints. With the PADI Scuba Diver certification you can dive under the direct supervision of aPADI Divemaster, Assistant Instructor, Instructor or higher professional on your next vacation or dive trip. This program is a wonderful opportunity to explore the underwater world with the comfort and safety of having an experienced guide with you at all times. The knowledge and skills you learn in this program are just the beginning of an exciting array of courses and programs that await. With a PADI Scuba Diver certification card, you will be able to obtain air fills, scuba equipment and other services for diving under supervision. After completing the program, you’ll want to continue your dive education and the PADI Open Water Diver Certification to explore more dive opportunities. 

This course consists of the first three classroom and pool lessons of the Open Water course, followed by 2 Open Water dives. At a later date, all you have to do to upgrade is the remaining pool and classroom lessons and two more Open Water dives. 

On completion you will receive a certification card, but you will be restricted to diving with a Divemaster, Assistant Instructor or Instructor.

What You Learn

The PADI Open Water Diver course consists of three main phases:

• Knowledge Development (classroom study with DVD to understand basic principles of scuba diving)
• 5 Confined Water Dives (in pool) to learn basic scuba skills
• 4 Open Water Dives (ocean) to review your skills and explore!

You may try diving through a Discover Scuba Diving experience first (cost $75), and the skills you learn will be credited toward the full PADI Open Water Diver course certification. Underworld Scuba – Scuba Shack will also credit $50 of the $75 you’ve paid toward the full PADI Open Water Certification.

Prerequisites:
 

To enroll in the PADI Open Diver course or Junior Open Water Diver course, you must:

• Be 10 years or older
   
• Be in good physical condition (on the PADI OWC application, you must be able to answer “NO” to all health-related questions).

The Fun Part

The fun part about this course is . . . well, just about all of it because learning to dive is incredible. You breathe under water for the first time (something you’ll never forget) and learn what you need to know to become a certified diver.

During the course, you’ll make at least five pool dives and four dives at local dive sites under the supervision of your PADI Instructor. 

The course takes about 3 days; days do not have to be consecutive. If you have time left in Manzanillo, use it to make some more dives, and with 9 total under your belt, you can start on PADI’s continuing education program by doing your Advanced Open Water or any of 10 specialty dives offered by Underworld Scuba – Scuba Shack.

The Scuba Gear You Use

In the PADI Open Water Diver course, you learn to use basic scuba gear including a regulator, Bouyancy Compensator Device, wet suit, and standard accessories. The equipment you wear is new, high quality Sherwood, and other well known scuba gear manufacturers. 

An entry-level diver course. After completion of this course, you will be able to dive anywhere in the world by showing either your PADI certification card. Includes:

• When student reaches 15 yrs of age, certification upgraded to Open Water Diver at no extra charge, other than paying for a new card.
• On completion, may only dive with another certified diver.

The total cost for 1 person is $350 U.S. For two or more, cost is $300 U.S./person.

What You Learn

Exploration, Excitement, Experiences.  They’re what the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course is all about. And no, you don’t have to be “advanced” to take it – it’s designed so you can go straight into it after the PADI Open Water Diver course.  The Advanced Open Water Diver course helps you increase your confidence and build your scuba skills so you can become more comfortable in the water.  This is a great way to get more dives under your belt while continuing to learn under the supervision of your PADI instructor. This course builds on what you’ve learned and develops new capabilities by introducing you to new activities and new ways to have fun scuba diving.

This time, no heavy duty classroom work--just a few quizzes in the back of your dive manual and 5 Open Water adventure dives. These must include:

The Fun Part

Your Choice. One reason you’ll love the Advanced Open Water Diver course is that you and your instructor choose from 15 types of Adventure Dives to complete your course. You can try your hand at digital underwater photography, wreck diving, Fish I.D., Search and Recovery, Underwater Naturalist, boat diving, multi-level diving, night diving, diving with underwater scooters, peak performance buoyancy and much more.

• Get credit! Each Adventure Dive in the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course may credit toward the first dive of the corresponding PADI Specialty Diver course.

Prerequisites:

To take this course, you must be:

• A PADI Open Water Diver  (or qualifying certification from another training organization)
• 15 years old (12 for Junior Advanced Open Water Diver)

What You Learn

The knowledge and skills you get in the Advanced Open Water Course vary with your interest and the adventures you have, but include:

• Practical aspects of deep diving
• Physiological effects of deeper scuba diving.
• More ways to use your underwater compass
• How to navigate using kick-cycles, visual landmarks and time

The Scuba Gear You Use. Included with this course is all the basic scuba equipment, including your underwater compass. Depending on which three adventure dives you pick, you may also try out digital underwater photography equipment, DPVs (underwater scooters), a dive light, or other specialty gear. Cost is $60 USD/dive. Up to 3 dives can be done per day, depending on the dives. Days do not have to be consecutive, nor do all dives have to be completed by this dive center. Underworld Scuba – Scuba Shack is pleased to work with your vacation schedule. $300 USD/person, or $60/advanced dive.

Whether your just received your junior open water or have logged quite a few dives, PADI's Adventures in Diving program gives you the confidence, skills and experience to take your diving to new levels of excitement! $300 USD/person, or $60/advanced dive.

Chances are, you won't ever need to use the range of skills presented in this course. However, should the need arise to provide emergency medical attention, you'll have the knowledge to respond quickly with confidence.

“Challenging” and “rewarding” best describe the PADI Rescue Diver course. Building upon what you’ve already learned, this course expands on what you already know about how to prevent problems, and how to manage them if they occur.

The Fun Part

The fun part about this course is rising to challenges and mastering them. Most divers find this course both demanding and rewarding, and at the end, say it’s the best course they’ve ever taken.

Get College Credit

You may be able to earn college credit for the PADI Rescue Diver Course.

What You Learn

• Self rescue
• Recognizing and managing stress in other divers
• Emergency management and equipment
• Rescuing panicked divers
• Rescuing unresponsive divers
• How to find a missing diver
• How to bring an unconscious diver to the surface and give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while towing the diver back to shore
• How to get an unconscious diver out of the water

There are 12 exercises in all, and by the end, you will probably be exhausted, but you will be a better diver for it.

Perhaps the most important course of all. Some of the things you’ll learn will be how to assist and rescue divers from the surface and under the water.

Looking for the first step in working with scuba as a career? Your adventure into the professional levels of recreational scuba diving begins with the PADI Divemaster program. Working closely with a PADI Instructor, in this program you expand your dive knowledge and hone your skills to the professional level. PADI Divemaster training develops your leadership abilities, qualifying you to supervise dive activities and assist instructors with student divers. PADI Divemaster is the prerequisite certification for both the PADI Assistant Instructor and PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor certifications.

Get College Credit

You may be able to earn college credit for the PADI Divemaster course.

What You Learn

During the PADI Divemaster program, you learn dive leadership skills through both classroom and independent study. You complete water skills and stamina exercises, as well as training exercises that stretch your ability to organize and solve problems as well as help others improve their scuba. You put this knowledge into action through a structured internship or series of practical training exercises.

What You Can Teach

After becoming certified as a PADI Divemaster you will be authorized to:

• Supervise both training and non-training-related activities by planning, organizing and directing dives
• Assist a PADI Instructor during the training sessions for any PADI Diver course
• Conduct the PADI Skin Diver course and PADI Discover Snorkeling program
• Conduct the PADI Discover Local Diving experience
• Conduct the PADI Scuba Review program
• If qualified as a Discover Scuba Diving Leader, independently conduct the PADI Discover Scuba Diving program.
• Earn the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Specialty Instructor rating to be able to teach the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer specialty.
• Independently guide Open Water Diver course students on the tour portion of Open Water Diver course Training Dives 2, 3 and 4 at a ratio of two student divers per certified divemaster.
• Accompany Open Water Diver students under the indirect supervision of a PADI Instructor during:
  • surface swims to and from the entry/exit point and during navigational exercises
  • when the instructor conducts a skill, such as an ascent or descent, a Divemaster can remain with other student divers (with an individual student or buddy team)
• Accompany student divers during Adventure Dives or Specialty training dives under the indirect supervision of a PADI Instructor.
• Conduct the PADI Seal Team Skin Diver Specialist AquaMission
• Conduct subsequent dives under an instructor’s indirect supervision for Discover Scuba Diving participants after participants have satisfactorily completed the first dive with a PADI Instructor.
• Teach Emergency First Response courses after successfully completing an Emergency First Response Instructor course.

A certain amount of physical fitness is required. So, come prepared.

Sharpen Your Skills with the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating

You have the passion. You want to join the best of the best in recreational scuba diving. You want to live the dive lifestyle and explore the underwater world and go places and see things you have never experienced.

More than a pipe dream?

Absolutely! Do it by becoming a PADI Master Scuba Diver – a rating that puts you in a class of distinction – writing your ticket to endless adventure and opportunities through the experience and scuba training that sets you apart.

The Fun Part

With the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating, you have reached the highest non professional level in the PADI System of diver education. It means that you have acquired significant training and experience in a variety of dive environments.

Prerequisites:

• 12 years old 
• PADI Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification from another training organization)
• PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification from another training organization)
• PADI Rescue Diver or Junior Rescue Diver (or qualifying certification from another training organization)
• Minimum of five PADI Specialty Diver courses 
• Minimum of 50 logged dives

This is the highest non-professional rating offered by PADI.

If you are already a PADI Rescue diver or have an equivalent rating with another agency and don’t want to become a dive professional, then this course is the one for you.

Choose five complete Specialty courses. These could include: Wreck, Photography, Search and Recovery, Night, Boat and many more.

After completing this course, no one will doubt your experience and ability.

In this course, you’ll dive to 130ft/40mts. With so many shipwrecks lying in these depths it makes sense to learn the dangers and safety practices of deep diving. 

Learn more about nitrogen narcosis and air management. Practice using a reel and delayed surface marker buoy, two very important pieces of equipment when you’re diving deep. 

Learn how to set up and use a spare air tank for emergency decompression purposes.

Actually penetrate a wreck under the supervision of your PADI Instructor. The San Luciano," in Santiago Bay, is a 300-foot-long cargo steamship that sunk in the hurricane of '59. It is 83 years old, and holds a bounty of fish and coral animals.

A course for everyone. How many times have you been lost under the water and blamed your compass? Hands-on practice at compass and natural navigation. Certainly one of the most useful courses you’ll do.

So, you thought that when the sun goes down the little fishes go to bed. Well, you’re wrong!

After dark is when the sea comes alive. Everything comes out to eat, or be eaten (for the unlucky ones). See Octopus, Lobster, Morays and much more. Experience the magnificent bioluminescents. (Like Tinkerbell, these tiny organisms glow in the dark.) For even more fun, explore a shipwreck after dark.

The scrolled filefish (left) is one of the species that sleeps, allowing you to get very close. Other fish who can't stay awake to greet divers include trigger fish, giant parrotfish, and various species of puffers.

Digital Underwater Photographer:

Underwater photography is one of the most popular diving specialties, and the rise of digital underwater photography has made it easier and more fun than ever. This is why there are actually two PADI underwater photography courses. The PADI Digital Underwater Photographer course gets you going quickly with today modern digital equipment, whether you use a point-and-shoot snap camera or a sophisticated D-SLR like the pros. The PADI Underwater Photographer course is a more traditional photography course designed for conventional film equipment.

With Underworld Scuba - Scuba Shack, if you don't have a camera of your own, use ours! Our Olympus Stylus 1030 SW digital camera takes great photos, as evidenced by all of the photos on this web site!

Visit the PADI Web Site for a complete list of specialty courses.