Scuba diver checking compass near deep reef

RAID Advanced Open Water Requirements in Sabah: 5 Required Dives

/ Borneo Dream | Kota Kinabalu /

Generally, you need an entry-level open water certification, five guided open-water dives including deep and navigation, and the resulting card commonly qualifies you to dive to the typical recreational depth limit. You will need to be at least a minimum age set by the agency, commonly in the early to mid-teens, and a signed medical form is standard practice. Beyond that, the finer print varies more than most divers expect.

TL;DR:

  • Most courses accept entry-level certification without requiring extra logged dives, though technical agencies like GUE demand more experience and current life support training.
  • The standard deep dive qualification allows diving up to 30 meters or 100 feet, but deeper depths require an additional deep diver certification.
  • The typical five dives include mandatory deep and navigation dives, with electives such as night, wreck, or buoyancy dives that can count toward specialty certifications.
  • Course duration generally spans 10 to 15 hours across two to three days, with technical programmes possibly extending to more days and dives.
  • Beginners should rehearse core skills and ensure medical paperwork is complete before the course, while owning personal gear like SMBs and spools enhances readiness.
Borneo Dream Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd
Build Your Advanced Diving Skills
Borneo Dream is a RAID Dive Centre offering scuba diving courses and expert guidance for exploring Sabah’s underwater landscapes.

Explore Borneo diving

Table of Contents

What the Advanced Open Water course actually teaches

The Advanced Open Water course exists to widen your diving world, not just add a card to your logbook. Where your entry-level training taught you to survive underwater, this course teaches you to actually use the environment: navigating without a guide, planning a deeper profile, reading currents, and managing gas on dives that ask more of you than a shallow reef circuit ever could.

That distinction matters in practice. Most agencies map their standards loosely to ISO 24801-2, the international benchmark for what an “autonomous diver” should be able to do without direct supervision. It is why an advanced card from one training organisation is broadly recognised by dive operators worldwide, even when the syllabus behind it differs.

What you actually walk away with:

  • Broader dive access — many operators and boat charters require an advanced certification before booking sites with current, depth, or wreck penetration.
  • A navigation skillset you can rely on when a guide is not holding your hand.
  • Credit toward specialty certifications — deep and navigation dives completed here often count toward standalone speciality courses later.
  • A foundation for technical or professional pathways, if that is where your diving eventually heads.

Here is where it gets interesting for anyone comparing agencies: a holiday-format course run through a RAID or similarly structured resort programme is built for rapid, supervised skill-building over a long weekend. A technical-leaning organisation such as GUE takes a different philosophy entirely, prioritising logged experience and procedural discipline over speed. Neither approach is wrong. They are simply built for different divers.

Advanced open water requirements: certification, age, and medicals

The baseline advanced open water requirements are shorter than most new divers expect. You need an entry-level open water certification (RAID Open Water 20 Diver or an equivalent qualification from another agency), you generally do not need extra logged dives to enrol in a holiday-format course, and you will complete a medical declaration before your first briefing.

Most resort-based advanced courses accept entry-level certified divers straight away. It is the stricter, technical-oriented agencies that add logged-dive minimums and first-aid currency to the entry criteria.

The requirements to qualify for a place on the course typically include:

  • A recognised entry-level open water certificate, no minimum number of post-certification dives required for most mainstream formats.
  • A signed medical questionnaire, with physician sign-off requested if you tick a risk box such as asthma, cardiac history, or recent surgery.
  • Proof of age, since junior variants exist below the standard adult minimum.
  • Basic swimming fitness. No timed test, generally, but the instructor will expect comfortable, unhurried movement in open water.

Where courses diverge sharply is on the technical end. NAUI structures its advanced continuing-education pathway around six dives, three of them mandatory, and leaves instructors to actively vet whether a candidate is ready before signing off, sometimes inserting a screening dive first. GUE goes further still, asking for logged experience, current basic life support (BLS) training within the last 24 months, and a minimum age requirement, with the full programme sometimes running more dives depending on the pathway chosen.

Minimum age for advanced diving typically corresponds to agency minimums, often including junior certifications with shallower depth limits. If you are booking as a family or with teenagers, confirm the junior variant’s depth restrictions before you commit.

Administratively, expect to sign liability waivers, hand over your existing certification card for verification, and in some cases complete a short check-out dive if your instructor has not dived with you before. None of this is designed to be a hurdle. It is simply how a course that takes you deeper and further from the surface confirms you are ready for it.

Required dives and the skills instructors actually test

Most mainstream advanced programmes follow the same skeleton: five open-water dives, two of them mandatory, three chosen from a menu of electives. It is a structure PADI’s course materials describe clearly, and it has become close to an industry default, even among agencies like RAID that build their own curriculum around it.

The two required dives are non-negotiable everywhere:

  1. Deep dive. Typically to the course’s maximum depth, where you will practise recognising and managing nitrogen narcosis symptoms, monitoring gas consumption at depth, and executing a controlled ascent.
  2. Navigation dive. Compass headings, kick-cycle counting, natural navigation using terrain and light, and completing a square or triangle pattern back to your start point without surfacing to check your bearings.

The remaining three are elective “adventure” dives, and this is where the course becomes genuinely useful for planning your future diving. Common choices include:

  1. Night dive — torch discipline, buddy signalling in low visibility, and reading the reef’s nocturnal shift in behaviour.
  2. Wreck dive — orientation around a structure, line and reel basics, and awareness of entanglement hazards.
  3. Peak performance buoyancy — fine-tuning weighting and trim, often the single most transformative dive on the course for air consumption.

Many of these electives double as a taste test for full specialty certifications later, so choosing a night dive here, for instance, often credits toward a standalone Night Diver speciality down the line.

On the required dives specifically, instructors are watching for concrete, assessable behaviours: whether you check your gas at sensible intervals rather than only when the gauge alarms you, whether you can deploy a surface marker buoy (SMB) without uncontrolled ascent, whether your compass headings hold up under a light current, and whether your buoyancy stays controlled at depth rather than sawtoothing up and down.

Pro Tip: Practise your SMB deployment in a pool or shallow bay before your course. Nothing eats course time faster than an instructor having to stop a dive to sort out a tangled spool at 18 metres.

Stricter programmes layer on more. GUE’s standards put heavier weight on team-based problem-solving, guideline handling, and gas-planning discipline that goes well beyond what a holiday-format course will test, reflecting a training philosophy built for divers heading toward technical progression rather than reef holidays.

Required dives and the skills instructors actually test — overview diagram

Depth limits and what your certification actually allows

Most recreational advanced certifications qualify you to dive to 30 m / 100 ft, a limit set by training standards that PADI and comparable agencies follow and applied consistently across the mainstream training world. Your card will state this depth explicitly, and reputable dive centres will check it before letting you book a deep site.

That figure is a ceiling, not a target, and it comes with conditions attached:

  • The 30 m / 100 ft limit assumes no-decompression diving. You are not trained or equipped for planned decompression stops at this level.
  • If you want to go beyond it, to the 40 m / 130 ft range some technical or deep-specialty courses permit, you need an additional deep diver qualification on top of your advanced card.
  • Local regulations and individual dive operator policy can restrict this further regardless of what your certification allows. A marine park with strict depth caps will hold you to its rules over your card’s printed limit.
  • Gas choice matters here too. A standard air fill behaves differently at 30 metres than a nitrox blend does, and centres often set their own depth ceilings for nitrox divers based on oxygen exposure limits.

Card wording differs by agency as well, and it is worth reading yours rather than assuming. Some cards state the depth as a training limit; others frame it as a recommended maximum. Either way, the number that actually governs your dive on the day is whatever the local operator or dive centre sets, so always ask before assuming your card gives you a free pass to the deepest point on the site map.

How long does an advanced open water course take?

Course length varies more than certification content does, largely because agencies build different formats for different travellers. SSI’s documented delivery model combines eLearning, short briefings, and open-water dives into roughly 10 to 15 hours of guided training, a structure that has become close to the industry norm.

In practice, this breaks down into a few common shapes:

  • Compact holiday format: two to three days, with eLearning or theory completed before arrival and all five dives done across consecutive days. This suits travellers with a fixed window before flying home.
  • Spread-out format: dives split across multiple visits over one to two weeks, useful if you are combining the course with other activities or if weather interrupts the schedule.
  • Extended technical-leaning format: agencies like GUE structure their advanced pathway over more days and, depending on the route chosen, up to 11 dives, reflecting the deeper skill assessment built into the curriculum.

Local conditions genuinely dictate the schedule more than the syllabus does. Monsoon swell, poor visibility, or a boat mechanical issue can push a two-day course into three without anyone doing anything wrong. If your instructor is not confident in your buoyancy or navigation on the check-out dive, expect a short additional session before the deep or navigation dive proceeds, rather than a rushed sign-off.

What kit do you need for advanced diving?

Deeper dives and specialty electives put more demand on your equipment than entry-level diving does, and it is worth thinking about kit before you book rather than the morning of your first session.

Personal items worth owning outright:

  • Mask, snorkel, fins, and boots — fit matters more at depth, where a leaking mask or an ill-fitting fin strap becomes a genuine distraction rather than a minor irritation.
  • An exposure suit suited to the water temperature you will actually be diving in, since a borrowed rental suit rarely fits as well as your own.

Items most divers still rent or borrow at this stage:

  • BCD, regulator, cylinder, and weights — reasonable to hire through the centre unless you are diving frequently enough to justify the outlay.
  • Torch for night diving, unless you already own one suited to the conditions.

Specialty electives bring their own kit list. A navigation dive typically needs a compass, which most centres provide. An SMB and spool are increasingly expected as personal kit rather than a rental item, since divers who own one tend to practise with it more and deploy it more confidently. Drysuit training, where relevant to your location, adds its own equipment configuration and a dedicated skills session.

If your course includes nitrox, ask your centre about their fill-testing policy and any depth restrictions attached to the blend you are using.

Pro Tip: Buy your own SMB and spool before the course rather than renting one on the day. Muscle memory with your own gear, not borrowed kit, is what makes deployment fast when it actually matters.

How to prepare before your advanced course

Preparation for advanced training is less about cramming theory and more about rehearsing the physical skills you will be marked on, plus sorting the paperwork that can otherwise stall your first day.

  1. Rehearse core skills in shallow water first. Mask clearing, a neutrally buoyant hover, and basic compass headings are worth ten minutes in a pool before you attempt them at depth under evaluation.
  2. Log a handful of dives beforehand if you can. It is not always required, but divers who arrive with recent open-water time settle into deeper profiles faster than those coming straight off a long gap.
  3. Sort medical paperwork early. If you have a condition that needs physician sign-off, or if your chosen course requires current basic life support training, arrange it weeks ahead, not the night before you fly.
  4. Pack for the conditions, not the brochure photo. A hood or extra thermal layer, reef-safe sunscreen, and a dry bag for your electronics matter more than most travellers expect on a multi-day dive trip.
  5. Arrive rested and hydrated. Long-haul travel followed by an immediate deep dive is a poor combination; build in at least one buffer day if your itinerary allows it.

If you are travelling specifically to complete your training, it is worth reading through some practical tips for planning a diving holiday before you book flights, since timing your arrival around the course schedule rather than around it saves a surprising amount of stress.

Is Advanced Open Water certification worth it?

For most divers who have finished their entry-level course and want to see more of what is underwater, yes. The certification opens dive sites that operators otherwise restrict to advanced-qualified divers, sharpens buoyancy and navigation to a level entry-level training rarely reaches, and gives you elective dives that double as a preview of full specialty courses.

It suits you particularly well if:

  • You are travelling somewhere with deeper or current-affected sites that entry-level divers cannot book.
  • You want a structured way to try night diving, wreck diving, or buoyancy refinement without committing to a standalone specialty course first.
  • You are building toward rescue diver or a technical pathway later and want the navigation and deep experience as a foundation.

It is less essential if your priority is simply logging more shallow reef dives, in which case additional supervised dives on your existing certification, or a rescue diver course focused on buddy skills, might serve you better before you add depth to the mix. Weigh the two or three days it takes against how much new diving it unlocks for the rest of your trip, and for most travellers planning a Borneo dive holiday, that trade comes out firmly in the course’s favour.

Why divers choose Borneo Dream for advanced training

Borneo Dream Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd has been running dive holidays and training in Sabah since 2007, and operates as a RAID Dive Centre rather than working to PADI standards. RAID’s advanced pathway follows the same core shape covered throughout this article: an entry-level RAID Open Water 20 Diver certificate as your starting point, guided open-water dives that include deep and navigation training, and a depth qualification that opens up sites around Sabah’s reefs that entry-level divers cannot access alone.

What that means for you as a diver already holding an entry-level card:

  • Your existing certification, RAID or an equivalent from another agency, is generally accepted straight into the advanced pathway.
  • Training is delivered by instructors working to RAID’s structured, internationally recognised standards rather than an informal, in-house syllabus.
  • Course scheduling is built around Sabah’s dive seasons and conditions, so briefings and dive days are planned to give you the best visibility and calmest water realistically available.
  • Safety sits at the centre of how sessions are run, from medical screening through to how deep and navigation dives are supervised.

If you are ready to take the entry-level certification you already hold and turn it into something that opens up deeper sites, wrecks, and night diving, the RAID Open Water course details are the place to start planning your dates.

Borneo Dream Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd: your next step after entry-level

If you have read this far, you already know the honest answer to “is advanced worth it”: for most divers wanting to see more of what is underwater, it is. Borneo Dream Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd is the practical way to act on that without piecing together instructors, dive sites, and logistics yourself.

Borneo Dream Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd

Where a generic dive shop hands you a course booklet and a booking slot, Borneo Dream Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd builds your advanced training around Sabah itself, its reefs, its seasonal conditions, and its wrecks, rather than a one-size schedule. As a RAID Dive Centre, training follows RAID’s structured standards rather than an ad hoc in-house approach, and every course sits inside a wider holiday itinerary if you want one, from snorkelling trips to jungle and wildlife excursions around Kota Kinabalu. You are booking a trip where the diving, the travel, and the safety oversight are handled by a coordinated team experienced in the region.

If you are holding an entry-level certificate and ready to add deep and navigation dives to your logbook, check available dates for the RAID Open Water course in Kota Kinabalu and get your training booked before your travel window fills up.

Sources

FAQ

Is it worth getting Advanced Open Water certified?

For most divers who want access to deeper sites, wrecks, and night diving, yes. The main trade-off is two to three days and a course fee against a genuine expansion of where you can dive on future trips.

What are the requirements to become an Advanced Open Water Diver?

You need an entry-level open water certification, a signed medical questionnaire, and in most mainstream formats no additional logged dives. Stricter, technical-leaning agencies such as GUE add requirements like 15 logged non-training dives and current basic life support training.

What depth can you go to with Advanced Open Water certification?

Most recreational advanced certifications qualify you to dive to 30 m / 100 ft under no-decompression limits. Going deeper, to around 40 m / 130 ft, generally requires an additional deep diver qualification.

How long does it take to complete Advanced Open Water training?

Typical courses run 10 to 15 hours of combined eLearning, briefings, and open-water dives, often completed over two to three days. Technical-leaning programmes can extend this across more days and up to 11 dives depending on the pathway.

Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top