Take your PADI course at Atmosphere in the Philippines

Looking for a fun and reputable dive shop to take you underneath the waves? You’ll be in good hands at Atmosphere’s 5* PADI Career Development Centre (CDC) where we offer a wide range of PADI scuba diving courses for the absolute beginner, up to professional level programs and instructor training. With some of the world’s best diving on our doorstep, divers at any level are able to enjoy the incredible marine life here in the Philippines.

Our diverse instructor team can teach courses in 10 languages (English, Bisayan, German, Dutch, French, Swedish, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog and Russian), making the learning experience comfortable and clear. With maximum ratios of 4 students to any one instructor, our flexible training schedule can easily align with your holiday plans.

Our air conditioned classroom and large training pool are ideal learning spaces for mastering theory and skills before heading out to our house reef, just a few steps away.

We offer a comprehensive list of PADI programs for all levels.

Just starting your scuba adventure?

Experience diving for the first time with a Discover Scuba Dive, or jump straight in with your PADI Open Water Diver Course, enabling you to dive anywhere in the world. At Atmosphere, you can begin your class whenever you like and most of the courses are taught one-on-one. We have dive instructors ready to jump in the pool with you, whether it is a beginner’s course or a continuing education program.

If you want to limit your time in the classroom, complete the theory online before you join us here in the Philippines with PADI eLearning. Contact us via email and we can send you links to the courses you are interested in. All you have to do is pay the online theory course fee to PADI, choose Atmosphere as your dive centre, and make sure you have enough time to complete the course. Once at Atmosphere, we can focus on the fun – diving!

  • Do a PADI Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) experience – within three hours you will dive in the ocean to a depth of maximum 12 meters – no previous experience necessary! Minimum age is 10 and you must be healthy.
  • Begin your PADI Scuba Diver course. In only 2 days, you will have a scuba certification that allows you to dive to 12 meters with a PADI professional anywhere in the world in conditions similar to here. The perfect weekend dive course!
  • Do you have more time, or you want to build on your DSD or Scuba Diver experiences by continuing on to the full PADI Open Water Diver certification? In 3-4 days (or less if you did any of the above), you will be allowed to dive to 18 meters with a buddy.

Scuba diving for children

Children can now experience scuba diving from the age of 8 years old! Encourage them to drop beneath the surface with a Bubblemaker or Seal Team course. The Bubblemaker comprises a fun pool experience with lots of games and play, and if your child is keen, the pool session can lead to a shallow dive in the ocean where the maximum depth is 2 meters. The great thing is that there’s already a lot to see at 2 meters! The Seal Team consists of a number of Aqua Missions in the pool where children become familiar with the basic scuba skills. The Seal Team is perfect for holidays as it stretches over several days with s small portion of “class” per day.

Children can also gain their junior PADI Open Water certification from the age of 10, followed by the PADI Advanced Open water course at age 12. Diving together as a family is a great way to spend a holiday and many of the classes and subsequent dives can be done together.

How about some more advanced scuba diving?

The popular PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course (or Junior Advanced, available from 12yrs) is a fun way to experience different environments and types of diving as well as new equipment and skills. Over two days, you’ll do 5 very different dives with the safety of an accompanying instructor (and with a minimal amount of theory involved!). There is a long list of dives you can do, for example Night dives, Deep dives, Fish ID dives, and Drift dives. Team it up with a Nitrox course and you’re well on your way to making the most out of your time underwater.

Taking the adventure one step further is the PADI Rescue Course – a great way to challenge yourself and develop integral dive safety knowledge and skills to help both yourself and others to prevent and solve problems on the surface or underwater. The Emergency First Response (EFR) course is an integral part of any rescue course and with its elements of First Aid and Primary Care, it will provide you with skills useful also outside of diving.

Another popular next step is technical diving. We teach tech diving at Atmosphere, follwing the TDI programs from intro to tech and sidemount, up to Trimix. We also guide rebreather dives and have the facilities to host smaller technical diving groups. Technical Diving Philippines is easy accessible at Atmosphere!

Become a Scuba specialist

Divers are increasingly seeking out opportunities to delve into specialty areas. At Atmosphere, we are lucky to have a unique specialty available nowhere else! The PADI Critters specialty, written and created by our in-house marine biologist Kirsty Richards, celebrates the incredible diversity of critters found along Dauin’s coastline. Other popular specialties include the PADI Frogfish specialist course, or becoming Deep, Drift, Buoyancy or Night diver specialists – here are a few to tease you with:

  • Deep Diver
  • Night Diver
  • Peak Performance Buoyancy
  • Nitrox Diver
  • Naturalist
  • Underwater Photographer or Videographer
  • Sidemount Diver
  • Drift Diver
  • Fish ID
  • Underwater Navigation
  • Search & Recovery Diver
  • Oxygen provider
  • Critter Specialist
  • Frogfish Specialist

Underwater photography

Do you want to get more out of your camera underwater? We offer underwater photography workshops tailored to your needs and your camera setup. From a couple of hours to several days – it’s up to you! Need a refresh on the basics? A private dive one on one with a photo instructor? Or maybe an introduction to Photoshop? No problem, we can make it happen! We also teach the PADI Underwater Photography course, if you are keen to get a certificate to go with your new knowledge! GoPro camera rental is also available.

The coast of Dauin is an underwater paradise for macro photographers, whereas Apo island and many of our artificial reefs are perfect for wideangle. Our spacious camera room has room for over 20 photographers and has individual cubby holes for all camera setups. It is equipped with air guns, towels and power outlets for 110 and 220 volts. Our dive centre and large, traditional bangka boat has dedicated freshwater camera tanks.

Professional PADI courses: Divemaster & Instructor

If you are looking for a career in diving or just want to challenge yourself further, we offer the PADI Divemaster program. This intense and fun program can take between 2 weeks and 2 months, depending on the level of practical application that you are looking for. The dive theory can be done online before your arrival, and you’ll be able to focus on workshops, teaching, assisting on courses, and guiding dives.

As a 5* Career Development Centre we also teach PADI Instructor courses 7-8 times per year with Instructor Development Philippines. We have the advantage to have teamed up with Liquid Dumaguete which means that instructor candidates will experience two different locations during their course and a multitude of PADI Course Directors and Staff Instructors. More information about PADI IDC’s with Atmosphere here.