Altitude Diver

If you learned to dive in Johannesburg, you've already been altitude diving. You just didn't have the paperwork for it.

Here's something most divers never think about: any dive above 300 metres of elevation changes the physics of the dive itself. Reduced surface pressure means standard dive tables and default computer settings quietly stop being accurate. Johannesburg sits at roughly 1,700 metres above sea level, which means every training dive you've done at Bass Lake or Miracle Waters has technically been an altitude dive, whether you knew it or not.

The PADI Altitude Diver course is where that gets formalised. All scuba equipment is included for the duration of the course, so there's nothing to source or hire beforehand, you arrive ready to dive. You'll learn why altitude changes nitrogen absorption, how to adjust your dive computer or tables to account for it, and how to plan and execute a dive properly at elevation instead of relying on sea-level assumptions that don't apply here.

For Johannesburg-based divers particularly, this isn't an exotic specialty for mountain lakes on the other side of the world. It's a correction to a gap that likely exists in your training already.

Where Altitude Diver Takes You

Once certified, you'll be equipped to plan and dive safely at elevation anywhere in the world, from high-altitude lakes to the inland sites you already dive locally. It removes the guesswork from a part of diving that's easy to overlook until it matters.

Altitude Diver is one of the specialty certifications that counts toward PADI Master Scuba Diver, and the first of your two dives can often be credited as an Adventure Dive toward PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, so nothing here goes to waste if you haven't done that certification yet.

Ready to dive with the maths actually accounted for? Book your Altitude Diver course below, or get in touch with our team if you've got questions about how this applies to your usual dive sites.