【Albee's Dive Log】Kenting – Deep Dive Center. Incredible Deal! Earn Your PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (AOW) Certification with a Capsule Hotel Stay + Breakfast Included

I earned my CMAS Open Water Diver (OW) certification in the summer of 2016.

I've logged somewhere around eighty or ninety dives — I've honestly lost track of the exact number.

My summers have been completely devoted to diving, and winters are spent planning dive trips abroad.

But for overseas diving, a boat dive almost always requires an Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification.

Without one, travelling abroad to dive is really inconvenient.

So in the summer of 2018, I decided it was time to get my AOW! (fist pump)

I got my CMAS Open Water cert in Taipei, but for the advanced level I wanted to go with the PADI (certification agency) system — so I found "Deep Dive Center," which had great reviews.

Their course listings are very detailed >> http://www.deepdive.com.tw/

What sets them apart is that, in addition to recreational diving courses, they also offer TDI (certification agency) technical diving and ERDI public safety diving programmes…

The PADI (certification agency) Advanced course only takes two full days!

For a busy office worker, that's a much easier schedule to work around.

So I planned a two-day trip down to Kenting to earn my certification~~~

The Dive Shop:

Deep Dive Center

Address: No. 6, Lane 246, Longquan Rd., Hengchun Township, Pingtung County

Phone: 08-8881656

Email: deepdivetw@gmail.com

Web: www.deepdive.com.tw

If you're driving yourself, parking is super convenient!

The slope behind the building is packed with parking spaces!

There's a collection bin for dive towels — the whole flow of movement through the shop is really well thought out! (What a wonderfully attentive dive shop.)

The wet-dry separation design keeps sand and dirt at the entrance, so divers can dry off before stepping inside.

The walls are covered in underwater photography, along with a large self-made movie-poster-style print.

The most eye-catching piece of all is the vintage diving helmet hanging from the ceiling!!!!

(Where on earth did they find that antique?~~~)

Head-to-toe gear, all in one place —

Whatever you're missing or forgot to pack, you'll find it here!!

Accommodation:

Course enrolment includes a capsule pod stay and breakfast!

White with neon blue accents — it genuinely feels like you're inside a space shuttle! So futuristic!

It comes with a private wet-dry separation ensuite bathroom, TV, refrigerator, sofa, and wardrobe…

Diving Facilities:

Body wash, shampoo, and a thoughtful designated spot for your dive computer are all provided.

Every little detail shows how much this shop cares about its divers!

Separate tanks are provided for different pieces of dive gear.

The gear-rinsing area has a great layout and plenty of space~

It was honestly the first time I'd ever seen a compressor station this bright, spacious, and clean!

The instructor told me: he wants to create a clean environment — that way he can use everything with complete peace of mind.

Multiple scuba tank / cylinder sizes are available, and there's even a dedicated machine for filling enriched air nitrox (EANx)~~ (fellow insiders will know what that means!)

AOW Diving Course:

All indoor sessions over these two days were held right here!!

The AOW course consists of 5 dives in total, each covering a specific skill:

1. Advanced Buoyancy Control

The instructor prepares a small scuba tank / cylinder for dive buddies to pass back and forth.

As the weight changes hands, you need to adjust your buoyancy compensator (BCD) accordingly.

The catch: during the tank swap, you can't touch the bottom — you must maintain perfect neutral buoyancy (trim)!

2. Underwater Navigation

The assessment covers both triangular and square navigation patterns — make sure to master both techniques!

3. Night Diving

4. (Boat Dive) Deep Diving

5. Dive Computer or Other Specialty Dive

Since I was already comfortable using a dive computer,

the instructor gave me a thorough rundown of the more detailed operating rules to make sure I truly understood them.

Beyond the dive computer session, Instructor Shark also taught me how to deploy a Surface Marker Buoy (SMB).

An SMB uses eye-catching bright orange or fluorescent green to make divers visible to other people and vessels on the surface.

For a boat dive, for example, the captain can track divers by following the bubbles rising to the surface.

However, if a diver strays from the group or the captain isn't watching for bubbles, a diver's whereabouts may go unnoticed. When surfacing far from the boat, or in rough seas with high waves obscuring sightlines, there's a real risk of the vessel being unable to locate you — or worse, a passing boat failing to spot a surfacing diver and colliding with them.

<文取自 花潛客 >

You can actually see how colours shift and change at different depths underwater.

Instructor Yang taught us some really straightforward compass navigation techniques, along with several methods for estimating distance underwater~

Navigation was still a bit of a stumbling block in the end~~

But with two full days to practice, there's hope! (fist pump)

Over these two days and one night of PADI (certification agency) AOW training, I came away with so much!

After completing all the required assessments~~~~ finally, FINALLY~~~

I passed and graduated!!!!

I made it through~

But there are still so many skills and knowledge gaps that need constant practice and updating!

Diving should always be approached with a mindset of continuous learning.

In the water, it's not about how many certifications you hold or which prestigious dive sites you've visited.

What counts is how much your experience grows with every single dive — and how much you know beyond what's written in the textbooks.

Every dive is practice for the day when I'll visit some incredible place and swim alongside Hammerhead Sharks, manta rays, and Whale Sharks with calm confidence —

leaving no impact on others (no kicking up silt, no fin-slapping fellow divers, no touching the reef, no dragging on the bottom…),

and becoming someone truly worthy of witnessing such a world-class dive site.

That's my share of the experience getting my AOW certification at Deep Dive Center in Kenting~

I hope this helps anyone out there looking for the right dive shop!

Related links:

• Albee's Dive Travel Log

• Deep Dive Center

• What Is an AOW Certification? Explained in 3 Minutes