Open Water or Advanced: what you can dive in San Andrés and Providencia

What each certification lets you do

With PADI, Open Water trains you to dive to 18 metres, or to the maximum depth you reached on the course if that was shallower. Advanced Open Water extends the limit to 30 metres. These are the two lines marked on the depth profile of our dive sites.

To take Advanced you only need Open Water or an equivalent entry-level certification from another agency, and you can start straight afterwards. It’s five dives, two of them compulsory: a deep dive and a navigation dive. To go beyond 30 m there’s the deep diver specialty, which with PADI takes you to 40 m.

An important point: your card sets a maximum, not a target. PADI stresses that limits are personal and can change from day to day depending on how recently you last dived, your experience and the conditions.

With Open Water: the gentlest sites

These sites stay within 18 m and their pages list them as suitable for beginners or for Open Water:

• La Pirámide (San Andrés): a shallow reef at about 4 m.
• West View (San Andrés): 3 to 12 m depending on the spot, with the statue of Poseidon.
• Nirvana (San Andrés): about 14 to 15 m; one of the sites most often recommended after your Open Water.
• Tete’s Place (Providencia): about 9 m and big schools of fish.
• Manta’s City (Providencia): patches of reef and sand at about 12 m, where rays rest.
• Bajo de San Felipe (Providencia): a coral garden of 11 to 12 m at most.

It depends on the section: sites for Open Water divers with experience

At other sites the level depends on which part you dive and how confident you are. With Open Water, a few dives under your belt and good buoyancy, the guide can plan them without taking you beyond your limit:

• Bajo Bonito (San Andrés): reef and sand at about 15 to 20 m. It’s considered intermediate, but with Open Water and good buoyancy it’s very enjoyable.
• Trampa Tortuga (San Andrés): 14 to 19 m, known for its visibility. Not the best choice for your first dive after the course.
• Reggae Nest (San Andrés): down to about 20 m, with possible current.
• Felipe’s Place (Providencia): the platform and the tunnel, down to about 12 m, suit Open Water; the statue, at 24 m, calls for Advanced.
• Chromis (Providencia): the shallow coral plateau is fine for Open Water; the wall is for advanced divers.
• El Planchón (Providencia): a wreck on the reef that sources place anywhere from under 15 m to 24 m. The guide decides the level.

With Advanced: walls, wrecks and depth

The deepest sites go beyond 18 m and are recommended with Advanced Open Water or equivalent, good buoyancy control and, in some cases, experience at depth. Blue Wall, The Spiral and Turtle Rock have sections below 30 m: with Advanced, the guide sets a maximum within your limit, and the deep specialty gives you more room.

• Blue Wall (San Andrés): the island’s most famous dive, a wall on the east side that starts at about 6 m and drops into the blue. There can be swell.
• Blue Diamond (San Andrés): a sunken cargo ship, now a reef, between 12 and 28 m depending on the spot.
• Confusion (Providencia): a buoy at about 18 m and a ledge over the blue at 24 to 27 m.
• The Spiral (Providencia): a tunnel that spirals down from about 24 to 35 m.
• Turtle Rock (Providencia): an isolated rock starting at around 23 m, next to a wall that keeps dropping.

Is it worth doing Advanced before your trip?

If you want to dive Blue Wall, Confusion or The Spiral, yes: they call for Advanced. The course also includes a deep dive and a navigation dive, two things you’ll appreciate on walls and wrecks.

If you’ve only just qualified, the shallow reefs on both islands already offer plenty. On Siete Azules trips, each day’s sites are chosen according to the sea, the current and the group’s level, so the plan adapts to what you can dive safely.