The sea moves. Move with it.
Learn how waves, tides and currents affect your dive. Plan around real conditions, handle moving water confidently and develop the skills needed for surf, boat and drift diving.
Conditions stop being mysterious when you know how to read them.
The sea is always moving. Waves roll onto beaches, tides rise and fall, and currents sweep across reefs and along shorelines.
Once you understand this movement, you can plan for it. The SSI Waves, Tides & Currents Specialty gives you the knowledge, practical skills and equipment awareness needed to dive more confidently in moving water.
- Read tides and assess conditions before diving
- Handle surf entries and exits more confidently
- Develop drift and current-diving techniques
- Plan entries, exits, gas limits and buddy procedures
Four ways this course changes your diving
Handle surf entries and exits
Learn safer techniques for entering and leaving the water through waves from sandy beaches or rocky shorelines.
Understand tides and currents
Learn how they form, how to read a tide table and how moving water can affect your planned dive.
Enjoy drift and boat dives
Develop techniques for descending, diving and surfacing safely from a boat when current is present.
Plan with confidence
Assess real conditions and create a dive plan covering depth, time, gas, communication, equipment and exit options.
Knowledge, skills and equipment
The course combines ocean theory with practical techniques and specialist surface-safety equipment.
Knowledge
- How waves form, how surf develops and how waves are measured
- What surge is and why visibility can decrease in surge
- High and low tide, slack water, ebb and flood currents
- How to understand and use a tide table
- How longshore and rip currents form
- How to identify currents and respond appropriately
Practical skills
- Surf entries and exits on sandy and rocky shorelines
- Moving effectively in a current
- Moving sideways to escape a current
- Boat and drift-diving techniques
- Buddy descents, ascents and safety stops
- Deploying an SMB using a reel
- Planning and conducting a moving-water dive
Equipment
- Surface Marker Buoys and reels
- Whistles and audible surface-signalling devices
- Surface signal horns
- Strobes and emergency lights
- Current or trail lines used from dive boats
- Equipment considerations for entries and exits
Know what to do if the water starts moving you.
Currents require calm decisions. The course teaches you how to recognise different types of current, avoid wasting energy and use appropriate signals and surface-safety procedures.
How the course works
Learn the principles, practise the techniques and then take greater responsibility for planning your second dive.
Academic session
Learn how waves, tides, surf, surge, longshore currents and rip currents form, and how they affect divers.
Optional pool session
Refine buoyancy, weighting and emergency skills, and practise SMB deployment in calm water before open-water training.
Dive one: instructor-led planning
Your instructor leads the preparation and shows how to assess conditions, select techniques and put the dive plan into action.
Dive two: you take the lead
Plan the goal, air limits, depth, time, communication, equipment, entry and exit, then conduct the exercises under supervision.
SSI certification
Complete the knowledge and performance requirements to earn the SSI Waves, Tides & Currents Specialty certification.
Why learn in Diani?
Diani is an excellent classroom for moving-water diving. The coastline combines tides, coral reefs, beach conditions and boat diving, giving you the chance to connect the theory with real conditions.
Ocean Tribe’s instructors dive here throughout the year. Training takes place in small groups with personal attention, and the plan is adapted to the actual conditions and student experience.
Who can take the course?
The specialty is open to certified divers aged 10 and over who hold SSI Open Water Diver or an equivalent recognised certification.
Moving water adds an extra task load, so being comfortable controlling depth and trim will help you get more from the training. Ocean Tribe’s SSI Perfect Buoyancy Specialty can be taught alongside this course.
Your SSI recognition pathway
Your completed specialty and logged dives can contribute towards higher SSI recreational recognition ratings.
SSI Specialty Diver
Earn two specialty certifications and log at least 12 dives.
SSI Advanced Open Water Diver
Earn four specialty certifications in total and log at least 24 dives.
SSI Master Diver
Earn five specialty certifications, complete Diver Stress & Rescue and log at least 50 dives.
Waves, Tides & Currents FAQs
What is the SSI Waves, Tides & Currents Specialty?
It is a specialty course that teaches you how to dive more safely in moving water. You learn how waves, tides and currents form, how to handle surf and how to plan dives around real conditions.
Who can take the course?
Divers aged 10 and over who hold an SSI Open Water Diver certification or an equivalent recognised qualification. Comfortable buoyancy control is recommended.
How much does the course cost?
The stated course price is $229. Contact Ocean Tribe to confirm current availability and exactly what is included before booking.
How long does the course take?
The course takes one day and includes an academic session, an optional pool session and two open-water training dives.
Do I have to complete the pool session?
No. The pool session is optional, but it provides an opportunity to refine buoyancy, weighting, emergency skills and SMB deployment before entering open water.
What will I do during the dives?
Your instructor leads the planning and preparation for the first dive. On the second dive you take more responsibility for the plan and exercises while your instructor supervises.
What should I do if I get caught in a current?
The exact response depends on the situation. You will learn to remain calm, avoid exhausting yourself by fighting a strong current, signal appropriately and move across a rip current rather than directly against it.
Will I learn to read a tide table?
Yes. The course covers high and low tide, slack water, ebb and flood currents, and how tide information can be used when planning a dive.
Do I need my own equipment?
Contact Ocean Tribe to confirm the current rental policy and what is included with your booking. You will also work with specialist equipment such as SMBs, reels and surface-signalling devices.
Does the course count towards other SSI ratings?
Yes. The completed specialty and logged dives can contribute towards SSI Specialty Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver and Master Diver recognition requirements.
What certification will I receive?
After meeting the knowledge and performance requirements, you receive the SSI Waves, Tides & Currents Specialty certification.
Stop fighting the ocean.
Learn to read moving water, plan around real conditions and make waves, tides and currents part of the adventure.
