Advanced Open Water

The SSI Advanced Adventurer at Mantamaria introduces certified divers to a wider range of dive types around Santa Maria. The island's geology produces a variety of underwater environments within a short boat ride — lava formations, caves, sandy flats, walls, and seamounts — which gives the advanced course real practical range.

Sites available for the deeper and navigation dives include Banco João Lopes on the north coast, where the top sits at 14 metres and the surrounding seabed drops to 40 metres, and the deeper sections of Ambrósio, which bottoms out at 46 metres. Both involve reading currents and managing depth — exactly the kind of conditions the advanced programme is designed to build confidence in.

The SSI Advanced Adventurer is a direct stepping stone toward Dive Guide and eventually Assistant Instructor, both of which are in the centre's curriculum. Divers completing this course in Santa Maria leave with logged dives in Atlantic open-water conditions, including pelagic encounters that are hard to replicate in most European training locations.