11 dives- Dive Insurance
- Transfers
- All Dive equipment
- Double or twin share
- All meals
PADI
Advanced certification with Nitrox
Combining the PADI Advanced & Enriched Air (Nitrox) courses is a convenient way to get the most out of your Advanced certification liveaboard trip. The Advanced Course will sharpen your skills and expand your diving knowledge, and the Nitrox Certification allows for the use of enriched air instead of compressed air. Using nitrox extends your allowable bottom time and reduces your nitrogen load over multiple dives - making it ideal for liveaboard trips. Conducted on board Pro Dive Cairns' three-day, two-night, liveaboard dive trip; there's no more spectacular classroom than The Great Barrier Reef, with its abundant marine life, diverse dive sites and year-round excellent diving conditions.
The theory component of the certification begins pre-trip. Within 24hrs of your booking, you will be provided with details on how to log into the online PADI eLearning portal and begin your course. Here you will read and watch the prerequisite content, along with a final knowledge review. Completing the theory component prior to the trip allows for the maximum number of nitrox dives possible.
This course combination consists of theory and includes 11 dives, of which five are training dives. Theory can be easily completed onboard as there are no formal classroom or pool training sessions involved with either course. The required theory involves reading the PADI Enriched Air (Nitrox) and Advanced Open Water manuals and completing the relevant knowledge reviews before the training dives. 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. The pre-requisite for this course is a PADI Open Water certificate or equivalent from another training agency.
Pro Dive Cairns has 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.
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 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.
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
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
Depart Cairns for 3 days and 2 nights of fantastic diving/snorkelling on The Great Barrier Reef. A light breakfast is served onboard.
Time to work on knowledge reviews for the Advanced/Nitrox courses
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.
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
After breakfast, watch the Nitrox introduction video
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
After lunch, complete knowledge reviews and final exam for Nitrox course. Commence diving on nitrox from this point.
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. If you do not have your own camera, you can hire one 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
06:30Dive 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
- 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 advanced open water/nixtrox 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.
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.
The liveaboard portion of this course is fully refundable up until 48 hours before departure. The E-learning portion is non-refundable.
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.
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
Melbourne, Australia
We’ve just been dropped off from a 3-day liveaboard trip and could not be happier. The crew was beautiful — incredibly aware and buttoned up, but also friendly and fun. Safety was clearly always paramount. Food was delicious, beautiful, and plentiful, with lots of salads to complement the mains. We slept so well. The dives were as gorgeous and lush as we’d hoped, and appropriate for our newly certified sim, as well as experienced divers. The vibe on the boat comes from the top, and it’s a great one. Thank you Leighton, Matthieu, Roberto, Flo, Joseph, and off course, the bacon master, Marius!
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With Pro Dive we did the open water PADI course in a small group led by Flo. She got us through all the pool exercises providing her support and teaching. She was so calm, and confident in us :)) , that we all felt safe and grew in confidence throughout. Flo is friendly, knowledgeable and professional. During a 3-days boat trip there were many people on a boat, but overall it did not feel overcrowded. THe whole Pro DIve team worked every day leading pre-dive instructions, preparing equipment, cooking food, cleaning up, moving the boat between reefs, and looking after all of us! What energetic, professional people! Thank you guys and keep up the good work! I have only good memories from the experience! Special thanks to our instructor Floriane , chef Marinos for prepared tasty meals that were alwyas waiting us after dives,and skipper Leighton for keeping us comfotable in tough conditions! Happy Bubbles and Best Fishes
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One of the most amazing experiences of my life, loved it! BUT was so far out of my comfort zone I don't know how I completed the Open Water Diver Accreditation (not real keen on 'certification'! But, again, the Pro Dive team were so professional, supportive & knowledgable that I felt safe & secure even though I was feeling like 'I can't do this!' The only issue I have is I thnk Pro Dive do get their 'pound of flesh' from the young employees they have - they are enthusiastic young people who are often international travellers wanting to do what they love & are ? maybe taken advantage of because of their situation - I hope that doesn't happen so much in Oz anymore. Also the Aussies who are the backbone of the company may need to be appreciated more as you (Pro Dive) have some amazing employees! Particularly Sean (? Sp) who is a legend & held my hand on my first night dive.
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Pro Dive Cairns Diving Trip Advisor
