These are the UTD Scuba Diving Recreational Courses

As you scroll down below you will find descriptions of all the UTD Scuba Diving Foundational and Recreational courses. Whether you are looking to learn to dive in your first UTD Open Water class or your are ready for nitrox training, an advanced class, a dry suit class, or a night diving mini, this is the place.

THE UTD RECREATIONAL PROGRAM

As part of your training you will experience an indepth online course. This content is not designed to teach you everything about your class, but as a supplement to your live class with your UTD instructor. Your online course includes academic material, skills videos, and short quizzes. Cost for the online course varies from $49 to $99 USD per course.

This is an integral part of your UTD dive training. Enjoy the process, and let us know if you have any questions.

Extreme Scuba Makeover

This is one of the entry points into UTD Scuba Diving training for both certified and non-certified divers. For the certified diver we work on precise buoyancy control through breathing and proper weighting so you are perfectly balanced in the water. For non-certified divers, this is the first part of your open water class. From your first breath underwater you will learn precision control, which is the basis of all comfort and safety in the water. Join us for UTD’s world famous ESM course and take your diving to a new level.
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Open Water and Recreational 1 Divers

This is the certification class for new divers. Open Water is our entry level certification class. Rec 1 adds nitrox as a breathing gas which gives you a little more bottom time.
PURCHASE THE UTD OPEN WATER COURSE MATERIALS
PURCHASE THE UTD REC-1 COURSE MATERIALS (OPEN WATER + NITROX)

Advanced Open Water Diver and Recreational 2

Your UTD Scuba Diving Advanced Diver course adds three modules to your diving arsenal – deeper depths to 100ft/30m, night diving, and underwater navigation. The Rec 2 class adds nitrox diving to that list.
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PURCHASE THE UTD REC-2 COURSE MATERIALS (ADVANCED + NITROX)

Essentials of Recreational Diving

Essentials of Rec is a skills class for certified divers. It brings you into the UTD diving system training you in all the techniques we use – proper buoyancy control through breathing, horizontal trim in the water, propulsion techniques that give you precise control horizontally, and much more.
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Nitrox Diver

The UTD Nitrox Diver class trains you to breathe nitrox 32 to depths of either 60ft/18m or 100ft/30 depending on your previous certification level. Although the academic portion of the class will be taught as a separate class, the dives can be combined with any other UTD Scuba Diving class.
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Oxygen Clean Up

The purpose of the Oxygen Clean Up course is to provide experienced recreational divers with the ability to switch to an O2 deco bottle at 20ft/6m to assist with off gassing from a recreational dive. This class is NOT a decompression class and is not designed to give divers access to run times longer than no-decompression limits, but rather to acquire the skills, knowledge, and experience to safely switch to an oxygen bottle at the end of a recreational dive.
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Dry Suit Diver

Stay warm! Dry suits offer two great advantages of wet suit diving. One is that you stay much, much warmer in cold and cool water. The other is that the suit will maintain it’s neutral buoyancy characteristics throughout the dive, so proper weighting becomes much easier.
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Surface Marker Buoy MINI

The SMB MINI is generally taught over one day and gives you the skills to manage your surface marker buoy. This includes deploying it from depth, ascending along the line, and generally become adept at using an SMB.
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Propulsion MINI

UTD Scuba Diving Propulsion MINI increases your skill level in all the various kicks we use in the water. This includes the frog kick, back kick, modified flutter kick, the helicopter turn, the shuffle, and the sideways kick.
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Side Mount MINI

The UTD Side Mount MINI introduces you to the world of side mount. Originally configured for cave exploration, side mount has found its way into daily recreational diving, giving you more freedom to walk and move on the surface without the weight of the tank on your back.
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Navigation MINI

Never get lost again! Learn the details of underwater navigation using your compass and natural features. This class is generally taught over one day and covers both the theory and the practical aspects of navigating your dives.
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Night Diver MINI

Diving at night offers a completely new world of things to see. Nocturnal critters, light reflecting off the surface and underwater objects make night diving one of the most beautiful experiences in the world of scuba.
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Scooter / Diver Propulsion Vehicle

If you have ever dreamed of riding a motorcycle underwater, this class is for you. Tie onto the scooter and pull the trigger and you will never go back to basic kicking. It’s a bit like having a very fast electric bicycle.
PURCHASE THE UTD SCOOTER/DPV COURSE MATERIALS

Rescue Diver

Rescue Diver could be one of the most important classes you ever take. Learn not only to rescue others, but to take care of yourself in the water. The Rescue certification brings diving safety to a whole new level.
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Essentials of Scientific Diving

This course is a combination of the UTD Essentials of Recreational Diving class with a two to three day addition of scientific diving techniques specific to the region in which you are taking the class. UTD scientific diving Instructors are generally dive safety officers at various facilities and will train you in a wide range of research diving protocols.
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UTD Dive Master / Scuba Coach

Your first step in leadership in UTD is the UTD Dive Master and Scuba Coach. You will become a guide, a mentor, a coach to certified divers, leading them to new levels of success in their diving career. UTD DM’s can work in the UTD coaching program and have certified divers as clients.
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Where do you start? How do you navigate the world of dive centers, instructors, training, and certification?

The first step is not why you want to dive – that’s personal. The first step is understanding the difference between training and certification.

UTD Scuba Diving is focused on training. We will help you earn certification, but first and foremost we will train you to be a powerful, safe, and aware scuba diver.

We start with the most basic skill that every diver needs – team awareness. Scuba diving is a team sport. Your team is your safety net – backup air, backup brain. Team awareness is the single most important aspect of UTD Scuba Diving training. You will always focus on your team for safety, efficiency, and for fun.

Next is buoyancy control. Buoyancy control is how you manage your position in the water, controlling your depth so you don’t crash into the ocean floor destroying marine life and churning up so much silt the rest of your team can’t see. Buoyancy control is also managing your ascent from depth so you don’t go rocketing to the surface potentially aggravating the effects of breathing compressed air at depth.

Buoyancy control is the key to safe and fun diving, and we teach it first. Every open water class starts in a pool where you learn to control your depth using your breath. Breathe in go up; breathe out go down. We start you without the encumbrance of any scuba equipment – just a regulator to breathe from attached to a tank on the surface.

Once you master that, we slowly make it more complicated, first adding a wet suit, which floats, or has ‘positive’ buoyancy, then adding some weight to offset that. Then we practice again using your breath to control your depth in the water.

The next steps are to slowly add equipment, and finally a scuba tank, so you are completely self contained yet still using your breathing to control your position in the water.

All of this is so you don’t crash into the bottom or go uncontrollably to the surface.

We also teach you to kick properly, forward and backward, so you can maintain precise control of your horizontal position in the water.

At this point you are a scuba diver, ready for a series of open water training and experience dives. Your instructor will take you into the water where you will explore this amazing environment and practice the skills you learned in the pool. All of our open water training dives have an exploration part and a training part – fun and safety.

Your last dive in your open water class is all about you. You and your team will take your instructor on an exploration dive. You will perform pre-dive checks, discuss the dive plan, water entry, navigation, ascent profiles, and your exit strategy. Your UTD instructor will help you when you need it, but you are the captain of your dive.

And at the end of it all, you arrive at the beginning of your scuba diving life, UTD certified and ready to explore the world underwater, to go safely where few can go, and to live the dream of diving around the world.

Learn to be an Amazing Diver

The UTD Scuba Diving foundational course package is your ticket to brilliant diving across the world. Train, dive, and live the world underwater.