The SSI ladder, course by course

SSI is Scuba Schools International, one of the two large agencies alongside PADI. Its certifications are recognised everywhere, and the core courses are built to ISO standards — which is why an SSI Open Water course and a PADI one really are the same level on paper. The first thing worth understanding is that there are two different kinds of thing on SSI's website, and they are easy to confuse. There are courses, which you take and pay for. And there are recognition levels, which you do not take at all — they are awarded automatically and for free once you have accumulated enough courses and enough logged dives. Half the confusion between SSI and PADI comes from this. Open Water Diver — the first certification. Minimum age 10, with depth limits by age: 10–11 to 12 metres, 12–14 to 18 metres accompanied by a certified adult, and from 15 it is the full certification to 18 metres. The course is six academic sessions, six pool or confined-water sessions, and four open water dives. The first two dives are limited to 12 metres and the rest to 18. Total bottom time across the four dives must be at least 80 minutes. There is a basic watermanship test as well: a 200-metre swim without aids or 300 metres with mask, snorkel and fins, and a ten-minute float. Advanced Open Water Diver — and here the name changed hands. On 13 October 2025 SSI renamed the Advanced Adventurer course to Advanced Open Water Diver, precisely to stop the confusion against PADI. It is a five-dive course, each dive being the first dive of a different specialty. Two are compulsory — Deep Diving and Navigation — and the other three are chosen. Divers aged 12–14 are limited to 21 metres on the deep dive. And on the same day the old name moved somewhere else. The recognition level previously called Advanced Open Water Diver — four full specialty courses and 24 logged dives — is now called Advanced Specialty Diver. So if you have seen that name used in two entirely different senses, that is why. The specialty courses. These are short, standalone courses, and everything above them is built out of them: Deep Diving — from age 15, after Open Water. Five academic sessions and three dives. It opens the range between 18 and 40 metres, and it is also the course where planning gas consumption and using a dive computer properly stop being optional. Wreck Diving — to 30 metres, with no penetration. This is the part most people miss: the ordinary Wreck course is diving around a ship, not inside it. Going inside needs Advanced Wreck Diving, which is a different course. Enriched Air Nitrox — diving on an oxygen-enriched mix, at two levels: up to 32% and up to 40%. It is theory only and can be taken at almost any age after Open Water. Navigation and Night & Limited Visibility — underwater navigation and night diving. They look like peripheral specialties, until you find they are compulsory on the way to going professional. React Right — first aid. Not a diving course at all: CPR, first aid, defibrillator and oxygen administration. Eight to twelve hours. The certification is valid for two years only, and it is the one thing in this whole ladder that expires. Anyone planning to continue to the professional level should take it close to the time rather than three years ahead. Diver Stress & Rescue — the course that changes your diving. Minimum age 12, requiring Open Water and a React Right valid within the last two years. At least three pool sessions and at least three open water dives. You learn to spot stress in another diver before it becomes an incident, and to handle emergencies — including recovering an unconscious diver, which is practised down to nine metres. This is the course everyone who has done it describes as the first one where you stop thinking only about yourself in the water. The recognition levels, which cost nothing. Specialty Diver after a few specialties. Advanced Specialty Diver after four specialties and 24 dives. Master Diver — 50 dives, four specialties and Stress & Rescue — which is the highest rating in recreational diving, before you cross to the professional side. One last thing, and it is a practical one. Every number here is the floor set by the standard, not what a dive centre will ask of you. Centres add on top: the standard opens the Wreck course from age 10, and plenty of centres will want 15 and 12 logged dives for it. That is entirely legitimate, and worth asking about in advance rather than discovering on arrival. Sources. Every number and requirement on this page comes from SSI's official training standards (training.divessi.com) and the course pages on divessi.com, checked in September 2026. Standards move — the Advanced course changed its name less than a year before this was written — so check with your centre before you book.