SSI Advanced Adventurer course in Plakias, Crete

You have your Open Water card, you have done a handful of dives, and you want more: deeper water, more confidence, and sites you could not do before. The SSI Advanced Adventurer course is built for that moment. It is often called Advanced Open Water, and it is the course that turns a newly certified diver into a more capable one. We run it in Plakias, on the south coast of Crete, over two to three days, with adventure dives such as deep, navigation and boat diving on a coast that has walls, caves and gorges to practise on.

What the Advanced Adventurer course is

The course is a series of adventure dives. Each one is a first taste of an SSI specialty, done with an instructor, in real conditions. You learn a skill, use it on the dive, and come up knowing whether that is a direction you want to take further.

With the Advanced Adventurer certification you can plan and dive deeper sites, down to thirty metres, and you will have had guided experience of the situations that make divers nervous the first time they meet them alone: depth, finding your way back, getting on and off a boat.

The adventure dives

The course is made up of five adventure dives. We choose them with you, based on what you want from your diving and what the sea is offering that week. These are the ones that suit this coast best.

Deep

The dive most people take the course for. We plan and dive a deeper profile along the walls, looking at how depth affects your air, your body and your thinking, and how to manage all three calmly.

Navigation

Finding your way underwater with a compass and with natural features: the shape of the reef, the slope of the seabed, the direction of the light. It is the skill that makes every future dive more relaxed, because you know where the exit is.

Boat

How a boat dive works from start to finish: kitting up on board, entries, descending without a line to the bottom, and getting back on board safely. On a small boat with at most six guests, there is room to learn it properly.

Perfect Buoyancy

Weighting, trim and breathing, so you hover instead of kicking to stay level. Better buoyancy means less air used, less reef touched and a much more enjoyable dive.

Other options

Depending on conditions and your interests, other adventure dives are possible, such as marine life identification or computer diving. Ask us what makes sense for you.

Where we dive the course

Plakias has the right variety for this course, because all three of our sites have more than one depth and more than one character.

• Schinaria. Excellent visibility, rugged rock formations, a large cave, natural channels and deeper wall sections. Good for deep and navigation dives, with octopus and moray eels along the way.
• The old harbour of Damnoni. Starts as a gentle slope, then drops into steep declines, caves and underwater gorges. It lets us start shallow and go deeper on the same dive.
• Peristerovolakas. A long shallow reef near Souda that slopes into deeper blue, reached from the shore or by boat.

Guests staying in Lefkogia and near Preveli have Schinaria and Damnoni almost on their doorstep, which makes this a natural course to take from there.

Who teaches it

Giannis, who has over ten years of diving experience and is the name guests mention most in our reviews. He teaches in Greek, English and German. He is also honest about conditions. One guest wrote that he took the time to explain the weather and advised against the Advanced course in unsettled conditions. We would rather move a deep dive to a better day than run it in the wrong sea.

Is it the right course for you?

• You need an Open Water certification first, from SSI, PADI or another recognised agency. A PADI Open Water card continues with us without repeating anything.
• It helps to have a few dives since your Open Water. If it has been a while, tell us, and we can start with a refresher dive in shallow water.
• You do not need to be an expert. The course is where you gain experience, not where you prove it.

If you have not yet certified, the SSI Open Water Diver course is the start, and the Open Water and Advanced package takes you from beginner to advanced in six to eight days, for less than the two courses separately.

How the days work

1. Before you arrive. Theory in the SSI app, as with Open Water. Each adventure dive has a short section to read.
2. Day one. Meet at the centre, check your equipment and your skills, then the first adventure dives.
3. Day two. More adventure dives, often including the deep dive when the conditions are right.
4. Day three, if needed. Remaining dives, and time for one simply for pleasure.

All equipment is included.

Coming from nearby

Our centre is in Plakias. Guests on the hill in Sellia and Myrthios are closest; guests in Agia Galini often plan the course over a few mornings, so the afternoons are free. Tell us where you are staying and we will plan the meeting times around the drive to Plakias.

After Advanced Adventurer

Many divers stop here, happily, with the skills to enjoy most recreational diving. Others go on to SSI Diver Stress and Rescue, the course many divers say changed how they dive, and from there to the SSI Divemaster programme. You can see the whole range on our SSI courses page.