11 dives- Dive Insurance
- Transfers
- All Dive equipment
- Double or twin share
- All meals
PADI
take your dive skills to the next level
The PADI Advanced Open Water Course is the first step beyond basic certification and is designed to develop your confidence underwater by expanding your existing skills. Conducted on the Pro Dive Cairns three-day, two-night liveaboard dive trip, there is no more spectacular classroom than The Great Barrier Reef itself, with its abundance of marine life and excellent diving conditions year round.
The prerequisite for this course is a PADI Open Water certificate or equivalent from another training agency. There are no formal classroom sessions involved, but students will need to read through the PADI Advanced Open Water manual and answer the relevant knowledge review questions for each training dive. Our course is designed to have minimal intrusion on the enjoyment of your liveaboard experience with ample time set aside to complete the knowledge reviews throughout the trip.
Our PADI Advanced Open Water course offers 11 dives with access to a selection of 19 outer reef dive sites on four magnificent reefs: Flynn,Thetford, Milln and Pellowe Reef. Diving at different times throughout the day, you will be able to encounter an amazing diversity of marine life including giant clams, sea turtles, stingrays, reef sharks, an incredible variety of tropical fish, spectacular coral formations with consistent underwater visibility. Night diving will introduce a whole new dimension of nocturnal life.
The Advanced certification requires the completion of three core dives: deep dive, underwater navigation, peak performance buoyancy and night dive. You must also complete two elective dives, which can include nitrox, underwater naturalist, peak performance buoyancy, boat. Other elective options may be available which you can discuss with your instructor.
Between dives, relax in comfort onboard one of our three premium Scubapro dive vessels. These purpose-built, liveaboard dive vessels feature air-conditioned twin bunk bed or double bed cabins, spacious decks and catered meals. With small passenger numbers, we are able to offer a high quality, personal experience with dedicated attention from our professional staff.
Departing Cairns every day except Tuesday, our three-day, two-night liveaboard trips offer a truly memorable and exciting way to fully immerse yourself and experience our magnificent world heritage Great Barrier Reef environment.
Important Health and Safety Information:
Before commencing your PADI Advanced Open Water course, you are required to complete the self-assessment Continuing Education Student Diver Medical Declaration. A positive response to any question indicates there is a pre-existing condition which may affect your safety while diving and you must consult a medical practitioner, preferably with experience in diving medicine, to obtain a dive medical certificate that states you are medically fit to dive.
To obtain a copy of the Continuing Education Student Diver Medical Declaration, please click here. The medical must be completed within 12 months of starting your dive course.
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Why Choose Pro Dive Cairns?
Why Choose Pro Dive Cairns?- Purpose built, PADI Five Star Dive and Career Development Centre
- All dive crew are fully qualified PADI instructors. You will be diving with a passionate team of experienced professionals, ensuring the quality of your experience and your safety
- Our boats carry a maximum of 32 passengers and six crew, providing you with a more personal experience
- We provide a true liveaboard experience with our boats departing from and returning to Cairns for every three-day, two-night trip, with no boat to boat passenger transfers
- Access to 19 high-quality dive sites ensuring a diverse range of reef environments and dives
- Pro Dive Cairns is a high standard operator with Advanced Ecotourism Certification, committed to the long-term conservation of The Great Barrier Reef
- Pro Dive Cairns has one of the highest safety standards in the world. With safety the number one priority, there is no safer place to dive in the world
Additional Courses or Optional Extras:
Advanced & Enriched air PACKAGE (NITROX)
Combine the Enriched Air (Nitrox) course with the PADI Advanced Course to get the most out of your three days on The Great Barrier Reef.
ENRICHED AIR PACKAGE (nITROX)
Only available for divers with enriched air (Nitrox) certification. 11 dives with enriched air (Nitrox) provided.
$135Per person
Optional Upgrade
Tour Itinerary
We recommend that you visit our retail shop located on the corner of Grafton and Shields streets the night before your trip to arrange the diving/snorkelling equipment, ensure the necessary paperwork is in order and to ensure your certification details are correct. The shop is open Monday - Sunday: 12.00am - 6.00pm.
Please note, the below itinerary is a guide only, and the order of sites and dives may change. The skipper will always adapt the plan to the prevailing weather, tides and currents.
05:45Complimentary hotel transfer
Available from Cairns City and Northern Beaches accommodation.
06:20Check-in at Pro Dive Cairns retail shop
Corner of Grafton and Shields streets, open map.
07:00Depart Cairns
A light breakfast is served onboard.
11:00Dive 1
Your first dive is before lunch. A dive guide will be offered for those divers who have not dived in a while. This is an opportunity for you to acclimatise to the diving conditions, fine-tune your skills or even to refresh your skills if it has been some time since your last dive.
12:30Lunch
14:30Dive 2: Peak Performance Buoyancy
If you choose peak performance buoyancy as one of your elective dives, we will use this dive to help you fine-tune your buoyancy, weight adjustments and equipment trim in preparation for the remaining dives. Otherwise, head off and discover more underwater delights. Once you have completed your dive, the vessel moves on to the next site.
16:30
Dive 3: Navigation Dive
During this dive you will complete exercises using both a compass and natural references to help improve your underwater navigation skills.
18:00Dinner
19:45Dive 4: Night Dive
An introduction to night diving on The Great Barrier Reef. Your instructor will help you prepare and plan for future night dives that you may do without the supervision of an instructor. Your instructor will accompany you on this training dive for your comfort and safety. During the dive, you will complete a simple navigation exercise before a guided tour, where you could find sleeping turtles, parrotfish and a variety of other marine life only encountered at night.
0730
07:00
Dive 5: Deep Dive
During this dive, we will give you the experience to safely conduct dives beyond your 18 metre depth limit. Under the close supervision of your dive instructor, you will conduct a deep dive where you will be shown the effects of increased pressure and colour absorption at depth.
09:00
Breakfast
1100
11:15
Dive 6: Underwater Naturalist
If you’re interested in learning more about The Great Barrier Reef and its ecosystem this dive is an absolute must! Learn how to identify the main families of fish from damselfish to triggerfish. You will also be taught how to identify the different corals. If this dive interests you make sure you don’t miss the Reef Teach marine biology presentation the night before your trip departs.
12:45
Lunch
15:15
Dive 7: Underwater Photography
If you want to take home some lasting memories this elective dive is ideal. On your Underwater Photography dive you will be taught pre and post underwater camera
care and how to get the best results from your underwater camera. After preparing your underwater camera your dive will simply involve trying to capture the beauty of The Great Barrier Reef. Digital underwater cameras are available to hire onboard or at our retail shop at an extra cost.
1500
17:45
Dinner
19:30
Dive 8: Night dive
After a briefing from the dive supervisor it's now time to put your training into practice
06:30 Dive 9:
Morning of pleasure diving and the opportunity to finish any additional training dives you may not have completed yet.
07:30
Breakfast
09:00
Dive 10
11:00
Dive 11
12:00
Lunch
16:00
Complimentary return transfer
Return transfer to your accommodation
19:30Farewell dinner (optional, additional cost)
Join fellow passengers and crew at a local restaurant for a farewell dinner
Additional Information
UNDERWATER NATURALIST
If you are interested in learning more about The Great Barrier Reef and its ecosystem this dive is an absolute must. Learn how to identify the main families of fish from damselfish to triggerfish. You will also learn to recognise the different corals. If this dive interests you make sure you do not miss the Reef Teach marine biology presentation the night before your trip departs.
BOAT DIVING
Many divers learn to dive, and make dozens of dives before ever setting foot on a dive boat; others learn from a particular type of vessel but have no experience attempting it from other platforms. This module will familiarise you with the techniques required to dive from different types of dive vessels.
- Clothing and swimwear
- Warm clothes for the evening
- 2 x towels (ocean/shower)
- Dive medical if required
(ask us if you are not sure) - Sun hat
- Marine safe sunscreen & toiletries
- Certification card (certified divers)
- Seasickness medication
- Shoes are not necessary
- Alcoholic beverages if you would like a drink in the evening
- Sleeping bags
- Pillows
- Extra luggage (luggage can be stored securely at our retail shop)
Your safety and comfort is our number one priority. Please let our experienced instructors know if you are worried, stressed or not feeling well at any point.
Before commencing your dive course, you are required to complete the self-assessment Continuing Education Student Diver Medical Declaration. A positive response to any question indicates there is a pre-existing condition which may affect your safety while diving and you must consult a medical practitioner, preferably with experience in diving medicine, to obtain a dive medical certificate that states you are medically fit to dive.
The medical must be completed within 12 months of starting your dive course.
We recommend that you do not fly within 24 hours of diving. The earliest you should fly is 12 pm (midday) on the day after your trip concludes.
You can cancel your dive course for any reason at any time up to 48 hours before commencement and receive a full refund of all money paid to Pro Dive Cairns. There is no refund for any reason after this time. If you plan to book through a travel agent, please ask if they have any cancellation fees. We recommend that all customers have travel insurance.
The number of dives may vary subject to weather and/or other unforeseen circumstances.
A Government Environmental Management Charge, Port Departure Tax and administration fee are included in your total fare. The breakdown of cost is provided in the rates table.
Tripadvisor Reviews
Sarpsborg, Norway
We hadn't done a liveaboard trip for a few years, so were really excited for our adveture with Pro Dive Cairns to dive the GBR just before leaving Australia to return to our home country. We were not disappointed! The boat (Scubapro III) was well laid out with enough space and facilities for the 24 divers plus instructors/dive masters & crew. The food was tasty and plentiful, prepared by the young, cheerful cook Casper and there was always something warm to eat after each dive. As for the dives themselves, it was very wet on the surface (we were there during the heavy rains in May) so on the first day the light was a bit gloomy at depth, but it was still a delight to to dive Milln Reef and see how much marine life there was. The sun came out on Day 2 when we were diving Flynn Reef which was perfect so we could see the beautiful coral gardens. One thing that surprised us was that we were told, as certified divers, we were pretty much on our own to navigate the dive sites as there weren't enough dive masters to lead us. As we've recently been used to being lead on dives it was slightly unnerving, however in the end it was actually great as it forced us to refresh our navigation skills and the dive sites were carefully selected for easier diving so no worries at all! We always managed to navigate back to the boat :-)) The entire crew did a great job, and were very strict with security protocols, to ensure that everyone was onboard after each dive site. We felt secure and well looked after at all times. We highly recommend diving with Pro Dive Cairns!
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Honestly went out on a week of rough weather, big winds and swell. It was definitely not for the faint of heart for this particular week of weather. But the crew were just awesome and made such an impact on having the great experience we did. Tim the cook was brilliant, we had so much fresh and tasty food everyday. Matthew, Pedro, Martin and Michael had amazing expertise and made our diving experiences incredible. And the skipper Jordan and first mate Caro did an incredible job keeping us safe and in the best positions given the crazy weather. Not to mention taking us to gorgeous dive and snorkel spots. Whilst we didn't see many minke whales it was an experience we will never forget and we cannot wait to come back! Thankyou again to the amazing team 😊
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Sydney, Australia
Our family of 6 (all recently certified divers, with me having 24 years between dives 😳!) + 78yo grandmother just completed the 3 day/2 night Liveaboard. Though a rough ride (extremely choppy seas and huge swells), the staff were amazing and so compassionate and caring of all our needs. From the shop front - Isobel, who was super friendly and patient eventually finding us on the ISC site, to the cool Rafa - our skipper, Kevin - super knowledgeable (and funny) in his capacity as the dive coordinator, and caring of my 78yo mother who attempted to snorkel, but didn’t due to the huge swells. The crew were a well oiled machine, all knew what they had to do and executed each task with impressive efficiency. The facilities were excellent and the food was great (thanks Davida). Safety was always the #1 priority and I felt extremely confident letting my 15yo son buddy dive with one of his siblings. We saw reef sharks, turtles, nudibranchs, flute fish, giant clams, amongst schools of fish and beautiful coral. Ticking this experience off our bucket list, we feel blessed that we were able to see the GBR whilst we still could. Thank you ProDive Cairns 👍🏼😊!
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Pro Dive Cairns Diving Trip Advisor
