Curso Open Water Diver

The PADI Open Water Diver at Dive Soul runs across four days and is structured as a hybrid: the theory portion is completed online before any in-person session begins. That separation is deliberate — by the time students arrive at the pool in Barra da Tijuca, the knowledge review is already done and the day belongs entirely to gear and skills. There's no splitting attention between reading and diving; the pool session starts with equipment and stays there for a minimum of five hours.

The pool in Barra da Tijuca is covered and heated. Flávio Mayrink's approach during the pool day is to stay until the skills are clean rather than move on when the clock says to. Students report in their reviews that exercises were repeated as many times as needed — regulator recovery, mask clearing, buoyancy control — until the motion became natural rather than deliberate. The safety net is always there: the pool allows standing at any point, which takes one variable off the table while learning to manage the rest.

Days three and four are sea days at Ilha dos Papagaios, off the coast of Cabo Frio. Day three covers dives one and two, with roughly six hours on site. Day four covers dives three and four; the final dive is where students demonstrate autonomous diving capability under instructor supervision. Passing that dive closes the training requirement, and the PADI Open Water Diver certification is issued within 24 hours. Ilha dos Papagaios is the school's standard open water venue — the site is familiar ground for Flávio and the team.

Each student gets their own dive computer for the sea sessions, not a shared instrument. Reading your own NDLs and depth from dive one builds the instrument habit from the start — it's not something bolted on later when you start diving independently. Anti-fog masks are also included. All other equipment is provided by Dive Soul throughout the course, so there's no gear purchase needed to get in the water. The goal described by the school is for the equipment to feel like a natural extension rather than a collection of things being managed.

Minimum age is 10. Once certified, Open Water Diver graduates from Dive Soul receive priority access to the school's organized trips — including weekend outings to Angra dos Reis, where the group dives during the day and stays for meals and activities in the evening. The certification is internationally recognized and allows diving up to 18 metres with other certified divers anywhere in the world.