Open Water Diver

Three days, two locations, one certification. The Open Water course at Dive Company is built around time in the water rather than time sitting through theory — e-learning is done at home before arrival so day one puts you straight into the subtropical pool at De Kempervennen for more than 2 hours underwater. The pool is warm, has multiple basins, and sits under tropical plants with an underwater section that includes sharks and live coral. It's a more unusual environment than your average municipal pool session.

The outdoor dives happen in the private lake directly adjacent to the dive centre. The school runs a large Scuba Training Platform at multiple depths to keep skills practice clean and the water clear. Big Mama, the resident 2.5-metre catfish, may or may not make an appearance during your open water dives — she's well known to every diver who has trained here, and she's calm around bubbles.

The maximum certified depth after completing the course is 18 metres, valid for life with annual diving recommended. The full three-day programme includes 5 pool sessions and 4 open water dives, which Dive Company says puts more time underwater than any comparable Open Water course in the Netherlands.

From this certification you can continue directly into Specialties — Peak Performance Buoyancy, Navigation, Search and Recovery, and Deep Diving are listed as natural progressions. The Divemaster and Instructor pathway is also available at De Kempervennen, so the full PADI ladder is accessible from the same location where you learned your first skills.