Scuba Diving. Two words that conjure up thoughts of mystery and adventure. Who has not been surprised at the vast variety of underwater life forms when watching a film of the underwater world? And who has not longed since childhood to witness this century old eco system first hand?

The World Organisation of Scuba Diving (WOSD) gives you the opportunity to do just that. With our modern courses, techniques and material, it is now possible for almost anybody to enjoy the beauty and wonders that the underwater world has to offer.

WOSD has developed a set of (dive) courses following guidelines from the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). Using these guidelines, the courses can be categorised as follows:

Primary Courses:
The (dive) courses in this category are entry-level courses and can be followed without any preliminary training. During these courses, the features and use of standard dive equipment is taught. The main objective is to learn the basic theory and skills required to dive in a safe and responsible manner in an underwater environment.

IAHD Courses:
This category contains all ‘International Association for Handicapped Divers’ (IAHD) courses. These (dive) courses are designed specifically for handicapped divers and their guides. The main objective of these courses is to teach the theory and skills that are required to train handicapped divers and to train divers and non-divers to safely and responsibly specialise in training and assisting handicapped divers. IAHD is an independently, autonomous operating subsidiary of WOSD.

DAN & Medical Specialties:
This category contains all “Divers Alert Network” (DAN) courses. These are “first aid” courses in which you can learn, for instance, how to perform first aid, how to administer pure oxygen or how to use an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). WOSD is a full partner of DAN. In addition, WOSD also have their own dive-medical courses, which focus of training participants how to prevent, solve and act in the event of an emergency situation. The main objective of the courses in this group is to learn the basic theory and skills that are required to help a wounded diver (or non-diver), in a safe and responsible manner and to learn more about dive safety.

Recreational Specialties:
This category contains all secondary (dive) courses in which a standard gas mixture (air) is used and during the dive, a direct ascent to the surface can be made at any time. The main objective of these courses is to learn the more advanced theory and skills that are required to safely and responsibly specialise in a specific type of recreational diving.

WOSD Technical Specialties:
This category contains all WOSD Technical (WOSD TEC) courses. These are (dive) courses in which a non-standard gas mixture is used and/or during the dive, a direct ascent to the surface can not be made. The main objective of these courses is to learn the more advanced theory and skills that are required to safely and responsibly specialise in a specific type of technical diving. WOSD Technical is an autonomous operating subsidiary of WOSD.

Instructor Courses:
This category contains all primary (diving) Instructor courses. The main objective of these courses is to learn the more advanced theory and skills that are required in order to run the primary diving courses in a safe and responsible manner.

Instructor Specialties:
This category contains all secondary (diving) Instructor courses. The main objective of these courses is to learn the more advanced theory and skills that are required in order to run the secondary diving courses, in a safe and responsible manner. This category is divided into four sub-categories:
• WOSD Recreational Instructor Specialties,
• WOSD Technical Instructor Specialties,
• DAN Instructor Specialties,
• IAHD Instructor Specialties.