About our Open Water Dives:   OW certification dives are a required part of every scuba class. The certification process includes 4 scuba dives that have to be split up into 2 days. A lot of shops go out for the whole weekend to Tenkiller or elsewhere for their dives. We usually prefer to make a couple of half-day outings to one of our local (less than a 90 minute drive) lakes, usually Lake Elmer Thomas or sometimes Lake Murray. We pick the one with the better conditions.

Students preparing to dive at Lake Elmer Thomas

We train and do certification dives year-round, not just when it's comfortable and convenient for us. When the water gets cold around here, we can put students into heavier wetsuits or drysuits, or make a few weekend long road trips to someplace else with warmer water than we have here during the winter, like Santa Rosa, NM or south into Texas. We also give you the option of making your dives during one of our frequent trips to tropical destinations like Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Curacao, or another caribbean hotspot. You can also do what's called a 'referral' certification if you already have a vacation planned. You take documentation that shows you've completed the knowledge development and confined water portions of the course to a resort instructor who takes you on your open water dives and issues the certification.

The Blue Hole at Santa Rosa, New Mexico