What to do after your Open Water? Next steps

You have just earned your PADI Open Water Diver certification. Congratulations. You are now a certified diver, allowed to dive to 18 metres with a buddy anywhere in the world. But now what? The Open Water is just the beginning, and the choices ahead of you are more exciting than you might think. Here is an honest look at every path available to you, from the logical next certification to dive travel, specialties and eventually the road to becoming a dive professional.

Should you get the Advanced Open Water immediately?

The short answer is: if you can, yes. The Advanced Open Water is the single best investment you can make after your OW, and doing it soon after means the skills from your Open Water are still fresh. Many divers complete both certifications during the same trip, and there is no minimum number of dives required between them.

The Advanced course takes 2 to 3 days, involves 5 adventure dives (Deep Dive and Navigation are mandatory, you choose the other 3), and there is no written exam. It extends your depth limit to 30 metres and introduces you to specialties like night diving, wrecks, buoyancy and underwater photography. For a detailed comparison, read our Open Water vs Advanced article.

The practical benefit is enormous: the world's best dive sites are often between 18 and 30 metres. Wrecks, walls, caves and the most spectacular marine encounters happen at depths that an Open Water diver cannot reach. Getting your Advanced unlocks a huge portion of the diving world.

That said, there is no rush. If you prefer to do some fun dives first, build your confidence and come back for the Advanced later, that is perfectly valid too.

What are fun dives and why should you do them?

Fun dives (also called recreational dives or guided dives) are exactly what they sound like: dives purely for enjoyment, without any training objective. You show up with your certification card, a dive centre provides equipment and a guide, and you explore a dive site.

Fun dives are essential for building experience, confidence and dive count. Your Open Water gives you 4 logged dives. To become truly comfortable underwater, you need more. Somewhere around 20 to 30 dives, most divers notice a significant shift: buoyancy becomes more natural, air consumption improves, and you start actually looking at marine life instead of focusing on your equipment and technique.

Fun dives are available at dive centres worldwide. Prices typically range from 30 to 80 euros per dive including equipment, depending on the destination. Double-dive packages (two dives in one morning) are common and more cost-effective. Some of the best destinations for fun dives accessible from Belgium include Tenerife, Malaga and Greece.

Which PADI specialties are worth doing first?

PADI offers over 30 specialty courses. You do not need all of them, but some are genuinely worth doing early in your diving career because they make everything else better. Here are my top recommendations for newly certified divers:

• Peak Performance Buoyancy (PPB): this is the single most impactful specialty for any diver. It refines your weighting, breathing and trim. If you only do one specialty, make it this one. Read our buoyancy tips guide for more.
• Enriched Air (Nitrox): diving with oxygen-enriched air (32-36% O2 instead of 21%) allows longer bottom times and shorter surface intervals. The course is mostly theory with one or two dives and is one of the most useful certifications for active divers.
• Night Diver: night diving transforms familiar sites into entirely new worlds. Octopuses hunt, corals open, bioluminescence glows. It is usually a 3-dive course and a favourite among divers of all levels. See our night diving guide.
• Deep Diver: extends your depth limit to 40 metres after 4 deep dives. Requires Advanced OW as a prerequisite.
• Wreck Diver: if you are fascinated by shipwrecks, this specialty teaches safe exploration techniques including navigation, line laying and eventually penetration.

Completing 5 specialties plus your Advanced and Rescue Diver earns you the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating, the highest non-professional achievement in the PADI system.

How do you plan your first dive trip?

A dive trip is where everything comes together. Instead of diving as an add-on to a beach holiday, you plan a trip where diving is the main event. This means choosing your destination based on marine life, conditions and season rather than hotel ratings.

For your first dive trip as a newly certified OW diver, look for destinations with:

• Warm water (22 degrees or above) so you are comfortable and can focus on enjoying the dives.
• Good visibility (15 metres or more) so you can actually see what you came for.
• Interesting marine life at shallow depths (under 18m, your depth limit).
• A reputable dive centre that caters to newer divers.

Our best diving destinations from Brussels guide compares Tenerife, Malaga and Greece, all of which are excellent for newly certified divers.

At Dive With Lau, we offer all-inclusive dive packages that take care of accommodation, daily dives and equipment. For a new OW diver, this kind of supported trip is ideal because you can focus entirely on diving without worrying about logistics.

Should you buy your own equipment?

Not immediately, but eventually, yes. As a newly certified diver, renting equipment from dive centres is the most practical and cost-effective approach. You do not yet know what you like, your diving style is still forming, and buying too early often means buying the wrong things.

The first piece of personal gear most divers invest in is a mask. A well-fitting mask that does not leak is worth its weight in gold, and since every face is different, finding "your" mask makes a real difference. Good diving masks cost between 40 and 100 euros.

After that, a dive computer is the most valuable investment. It tracks your depth, time, no-decompression limits and surface interval calculations in real time, replacing the old-fashioned dive tables. Entry-level wrist computers start around 200 euros. Having your own means you can log your dives digitally and build a proper dive history.

Wetsuits, BCDs and regulators come later, usually once you have 30 to 50 dives and know what style of diving you prefer. For a detailed cost breakdown, see our complete diving cost guide.

What is the path from Open Water to Divemaster?

For some divers, the recreational path is the destination: dive for fun, travel to beautiful places, see amazing things. For others, the question "could I do this for a living?" starts forming after their first few dives. Here is the full path from OW to professional:

• Open Water Diver: 18m depth, 4 dives, 3-4 days.
• Advanced Open Water Diver: 30m depth, 5 adventure dives, 2-3 days.
• Rescue Diver: emergency response skills, 3-4 days. Requires EFR (Emergency First Response) certification.
• Divemaster: first professional level, 2-4 weeks. Requires Rescue + 40 logged dives (60 for certification). See our Why become a Divemaster guide.

It is entirely possible to go from zero to Divemaster in 6 months if you are motivated and dive regularly. Most people take 1 to 3 years, fitting certifications around holidays and weekends. There is no wrong timeline.

How do you stay sharp between dives?

One of the biggest risks for new divers is losing momentum. You get certified, go home, and months pass without diving. When you finally get back in the water, everything feels rusty: your buoyancy is off, your air consumption is poor, and your confidence has faded.

Here are practical ways to stay connected to diving between trips:

• Dive in Belgium: quarries like Vodelee and lakes are available year-round. Cold water diving in a dry suit is a different experience but excellent for maintaining skills. See our Belgium diving guide.
• Watch your dive videos and photos: reviewing footage from your dives reinforces what you learned and keeps the motivation alive.
• Read and study: PADI eLearning for the Advanced can be started anytime. Specialist knowledge in marine biology, photography or equipment keeps you engaged.
• PADI ReActivate: if more than 12 months have passed since your last dive, the ReActivate programme is a refresher that reviews essential skills in a pool before your next open water dive.

The bottom line

Your Open Water is not the end of anything. It is the beginning. The ocean is enormous, the experiences are endless, and every dive teaches you something new. Whether you go straight for the Advanced, start travelling to dive destinations, explore specialties or set your sights on the Divemaster, the important thing is to keep diving.

Not sure which direction to take? Talk to Lau. We will help you figure out the best next step based on your goals, your schedule and your budget.