Open Water Diver
Could Scuba Diving Be Your Next Great Adventure?
Get Certified
Becoming an SSI Open Water Diver is more than earning a certification—it’s your first step toward a lifetime of adventure. With SSI’s worldwide recognition, you’ll have the confidence to explore tropical reefs, colorful marine life, dramatic wrecks, and a whole new world beneath the surface.
At High Plains Scuba Center, we believe great divers are made through encouragement, personal attention, and the right amount of practice. Our SSI Open Water Diver program is designed to help you become comfortable, capable, and safe in the water—because confidence underwater begins with quality training above it.
Our flexible home-study format makes learning convenient and enjoyable, and online training may also be available. Just ask one of our staff members for the details.
Your certification journey includes two important phases:
- Classroom and Pool Training: Learn the knowledge, skills, and equipment you’ll use as a diver in a supportive, hands-on environment.
- Open Water Sessions: Put those skills into practice with your instructor and discover the confidence that comes from becoming a real-world diver.
We don’t believe in rushing you through a checklist. We take the time to help you learn at a pace that builds genuine comfort, strong skills, and the kind of confidence that makes every dive more enjoyable.
The underwater world is waiting. Your adventure starts here. The current course page similarly emphasizes a safe, comfortable, and confident progression through class, pool, and open-water training.
PHASE I: LEARN, PRACTICE, BELIEVE :
CLASS WORK & POOL INSTRUCTION
This is where your scuba journey begins—and where confidence is built one skill at a time.
During Phase I, your instructor will review the knowledge you completed online, answer your questions in the classroom, and then guide you through the essential scuba skills in our pool. You will learn not only what to do, but why it works—so you can feel prepared, comfortable, and in control when it is time to dive in open water.
We keep our classes intentionally small, with no more than six students per instructor and a maximum of twelve students per class. When a class has more than six students, one group works with an instructor in the classroom while the other practices in the pool with a second instructor. That means more personal guidance, more meaningful practice, and more opportunity to succeed.
You will also complete a 300-yard snorkel swim and float or tread water for 10 minutes. These are achievable goals for most novice swimmers, and our instructors are here to coach and encourage you along the way.
At High Plains Scuba Center, we do not believe confidence comes from rushing through a two-day checklist. Safe, comfortable divers are developed through patient instruction, repetition, and enough time for your mind and body to become at home in a new underwater environment. Our goal is simple: help every student become a safe, capable, and confident diver. The current course page describes Phase I as classroom learning and pool training before students move to open-water certification.
Choose Your Schedule
Weekend Class — Three Meetings
Friday, 6:00–9:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 AM–4:00 PM. This accelerated format is a great choice for students age 15 and older who are comfortable in the water and want to complete their classroom and pool training in one focused weekend.
Sunday Evening Class — Four Meetings
Four Sundays, 4:00–8:00 PM. This schedule provides additional pool time and a more relaxed pace, giving students age 12 and older extra opportunity to develop their water skills before continuing to open-water certification.
Monday/Wednesday Evening Class — Four Meetings
Four sessions, 5:30–9:30 PM. Designed for students age 12 and older, this option also offers more time in the pool to practice, improve, and build the confidence that makes diving enjoyable.
Private Classes — Training Built Around You
Private instruction is available for students whose schedules do not fit our regular classes, those who prefer more personalized attention, and younger divers ages 10 and 11 who benefit from an individualized learning experience.
PHASE II: MAKE IT REAL :
OPEN WATER CERTIFICATION
This is the moment when everything you have learned comes together. During Phase II, you will take the skills you practiced in the classroom and pool and use them in the open water—where you begin to think, move, and feel like a real diver.
Your instructor will review and evaluate your scuba skills during four open-water dives and one snorkeling session, completed over two days. This is a standard requirement across scuba training agencies, and it gives you the time and repetition needed to turn learned skills into real confidence. Your open-water certification must be completed within six months of finishing your classroom and pool training.
At High Plains Scuba Center, you have several great ways to complete your open-water dives. Choose the setting that fits your schedule, comfort level, and sense of adventure.
Choose Your Adventure
Horsetooth Reservoir — Local Summer Certification
During the summer, qualified students and special-case students who demonstrate excellent water skills, maturity, and readiness may have the opportunity to complete their certification close to home at Carter and/or Horsetooth Reservoir. Sessions usually take place Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The water can be chilly and visibility can be limited—but that is also an excellent opportunity to build calm, capable, real-world diving skills. We provide thicker wetsuits as part of your certification package to help keep you warm.
Homestead Crater — Warm-Water Certification
Year-round, you can complete your open-water dives at Homestead Crater, a naturally heated 94-degree spring near Heber City, Utah. This option includes a scenic seven-hour drive and an overnight stay in Heber City; your hotel is included with certification, while transportation and meals are not. In return, you get clear, warm water, a unique dive setting, and time to enjoy the experience alongside fellow students and our instructor team.
Bonaire — Certification in a Diver’s Paradise – INSTRUCTOR LEAD TRAVEL
Join High Plains Scuba Center in Bonaire in May 2027 and complete your open-water certification where warm Caribbean water, colorful reefs, and abundant marine life turn training into an unforgettable adventure. Your instructor can complete the required open-water dives during the early part of the trip, so you can spend the rest of your vacation doing what new divers dream about—exploring Bonaire’s world-renowned underwater scenery.
Bonaire is an ideal place to build confidence: warm, generally calm water, excellent visibility, easy shore-diving access, and plenty of opportunities to practice the skills that make diving feel natural. You will train with your HPSC instructor, enjoy the camaraderie of the group, and leave with both a certification and stories you will be excited to share.
Important: Your classroom and pool training must be completed early enough for all final open-water certification requirements to be finished within six months of your last Phase I session. Plan ahead, reserve your space, and give yourself the gift of beginning your diving life in one of the Caribbean’s great dive destinations. The current course page states that open-water certification must be completed within six months of completing classroom and pool training.
Learn more about the May 2027 Bonaire trip:
Private Open-Water Sessions — Personalized Support
Divers ages 10 through 14 complete their Open Water Sessions privately, ensuring the individual attention, pace, and support younger divers need to be successful.
You have done the preparation. Now it is time to take the next step, trust your training, and discover what waits beneath the surface
REGISTER TODAY FOR YOUR SCUBA ADVENTURE
Want to know more first?
Try Scuba
Have you always wanted to swim with the fishes but you weren’t sure if it was for you? Try Scuba is your chance to experience scuba and to see what the underwater world is really like. Come give scuba diving a try! Kids 8 and older are welcome.
Already certified? Expand your skills.
Specialty Training
The fun doesn’t need to stop here! With just a little more training, you can go even further – imagine diving in underwater shipwrecks, with sharks, or becoming an underwater photographer! Check out all of the exciting Specialty Courses you can get involved in.