Drift Diver

Stop swimming. Start flying.

Fighting a current wastes air, tires you out, and turns a dive into hard work rather than the reason you got into diving in the first place. Drift diving flips that entirely. Instead of fighting the water, you let it carry you, gliding over a reef or an underwater landscape at whatever pace the current sets, using less air and a lot less effort than a standard anchored dive.

The PADI Drift Diver course teaches you to do this properly, because a current-driven dive isn't the same as an anchored one and treating it that way is how divers get separated from their group or their boat. All scuba equipment is included for the duration of the course, so there's nothing to source or hire beforehand, including the specialised gear, floats, lines, and reels, that drift diving actually requires.

This is one of the more purely enjoyable specialty courses out there. Divers who've done it tend to describe it the same way: less exertion, more time looking around, and a genuinely different feeling of moving through the water.

Where Drift Diver Takes You

Once certified, you'll be equipped to dive currents confidently and safely, including staying with your buddy or group, communicating with a live boat that follows you on the surface rather than anchoring, and using safety equipment like a delayed surface marker buoy properly.

It opens up dive sites and conditions that aren't accessible, or aren't sensible, without this training, many of the world's best drift sites simply can't be dived from an anchored boat. Drift Diver is also 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.

Ready to let the current do the work? Book your Drift Diver course below, or get in touch with our team if you've got questions about upcoming drift-friendly trips.