NAUI Scuba Diver / Junior Scuba Diver
Begin your underwater explorations by enrolling in a NAUI Scuba Diver class. This is our entry-level certification course where you will learn the fundamental knowledge and skills to safety dive in open water.
Earning your NAUI Scuba Diver Certification card is an accomplishment for which you will rightfully feel proud and you will be ready to begin a lifetime of underwater adventures and discovering.
During your NAUI Scuba Diver class, you will learn about modern dive equipment, diving sciences, responsible diving practices and the environment. Diving skills will be taught and practiced first in the comfort and convenience of a confined water environment and finally during your open water training dives with your NAUI Instructor.
Experienced Scuba Diver
Divers at least 15 years of age with a minimum of 25 open water scuba dives but who do not have formal certification (such as military, commercial, or scientific divers), and who wish to gain a NAUI diver certification may complete a NAUI Experienced Scuba Diver course designed just for them. This course reviews all the knowledge and skills taught in the NAUI Scuba Diver course, based on the experience and needs of the student. Graduates receive NAUI Scuba Diver certification with all privileges thereof as a NAUI certified diver.
Get Started
Getting started is easy! Individuals ages 10+ and in good physical condition may enroll in a NAUI Scuba Diver course. To enroll, find a NAUI Training Center or instructor near you by visiting the NAUI Dive Center and Professional Locator. Signing up for a class is easy, while wetsuits and fun await!
What’s Next?
Continue your training by enrolling in a NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver, NAUI Enriched Air Nitrox Diver, NAUI Rescue Scuba Diver or NAUI First Aid course.
Enroll in a NAUI Underwater Environment course to learn about the physical and biological aspects of the diving environment with an 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.
At some point in your diving career, you or your buddy will either lose or find something underwater and the knowledge and skills you gain in the NAUI Search and Recovery Diver course will help you when you do. 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.
If spearfishing or collecting underwater specimens interests you, the NAUI Underwater Hunter and Collector course may be just right for you. You’ll learn about skin diving techniques, hazards and cautions, safety concerns, spearfishing and collection equipment, and specific techniques on how to hunt and collect responsibly, while minimizing the diving risks of such activities.
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. During your training, you will learn 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!
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.
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.
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. 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.