PADI Specialty Courses in Boracay | New Wave Divers

By Mehdi, PADI Instructor at New Wave Divers

Already certified and wondering which PADI specialty course in Boracay is actually worth your time? The short answer: three specialties make the most of what this island does better than almost anywhere — Enriched Air (Nitrox) for longer dives, Deep Diver for the famous walls, and Wreck Diver for two completely different wrecks. This guide walks through each one, the extra specialties we run on request, and how they stack toward Master Scuba Diver — so you can plan a trip that genuinely levels up your diving instead of just repeating it.

What is a PADI specialty course?

A PADI specialty is a short, focused course that teaches one kind of diving in depth — breathing nitrox, going deeper, exploring wrecks, dialling in your buoyancy, diving at night. Each one adds a real skill set and a certification card, and most take only a dive or two of training on top of some online theory you finish before you arrive. Specialties sit above your core certifications: once you hold Advanced Open Water, they are the natural way to keep growing as a diver. They are also the building blocks of the Master Scuba Diver rating — more on that below.

Want a taste before committing to a full specialty? The Advanced Open Water course is built around “adventure dives” — each one is the first dive of a different specialty — so you can sample deep, wreck, navigation and more in a single program, then come back for the full course on whichever hooked you.

Enriched Air (Nitrox): the most popular specialty for a reason

If you only take one specialty, make it this one. Enriched air — nitrox, or EANx — simply holds less nitrogen than the normal air in your tank. Less nitrogen means your body absorbs it more slowly, which translates to longer no-decompression limits, longer dives and shorter surface intervals. On a multi-dive day in Boracay that can mean squeezing in an extra dive, or just more time hanging over the reef with the turtles. It is the most popular PADI specialty in the world, and for most certified divers it is the single best upgrade they can make.

The Enriched Air (Nitrox) course is quick: you can certify in as little as half a day to a day, with two practice dives, or go dry-only (theory, no dives) if you are short on time. The minimum age is 12, your only prerequisite is an Open Water certification, and once you are certified you can breathe nitrox on every dive for the rest of your diving life. We dive the standard EANx 32 and 36 blends and show you how to analyse your own tank before each dive.

Deep Diver: Boracay's four greatest sites in one course

Below 18 metres the rules change — colours fade, no-stop times shrink and your gas disappears faster — and the PADI Deep Diver specialty teaches you to plan deep dives, manage your gas and recognise nitrogen narcosis so you can explore to a maximum of 40 metres / 130 feet with confidence. What makes it special here is the itinerary: across four dives you visit four of Boracay's most iconic sites — the Tribird plane and Camia II ship wrecks, the Punta Bunga drop-off and the world-famous Yapak wall. Most divers tick these off over years; the Deep Diver course does all four in one program.

It runs over 2–3 days, the minimum age is 15, and you'll need your Advanced Open Water certification first. If you only ever dive one deep wall in the Philippines, Yapak — with its clouds of trevally and reef sharks on the current — is a very good candidate.

Wreck Diver: go inside two very different wrecks

Most dive centres take you around a wreck. On the PADI Wreck Diver course we take you inside. Boracay is one of the few destinations in the world with two completely different wrecks close enough to train on in a single course — the Tribird plane and the Camia II ship. Across four wreck dives you'll survey and map each wreck, practise special finning techniques so you don't stir up the silt, and learn to use penetration lines and reels to venture safely inside, with your instructor leading the way.

The course takes 2–4 days to a maximum depth of 30 metres, the minimum age is 15, and the prerequisite is Advanced Open Water. If you want to read about the wrecks themselves first, our guide to the Tribird wreck is a good start, and the full list of Boracay dive sites shows where each one sits.

More specialties, run on request

Wreck, Deep and Nitrox are the three we run most often, but they are far from the only PADI specialties available. We also run Night Diver, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Search & Recovery, Drift Diver and Underwater Photography — and others — on demand. These are scheduled around your trip rather than offered on a fixed timetable, so the best thing to do is tell us what you're interested in and we'll set it up. Peak Performance Buoyancy in particular is one we quietly recommend to almost everyone: better buoyancy means less air used, less contact with the reef and far better photos.

Which specialty should you take first?

A simple way to choose: if you want more out of every future dive, start with Enriched Air (Nitrox) — it benefits you everywhere, forever, and needs only an Open Water card. If you're chasing Boracay's big-ticket sites, Deep Diver is the one that takes you to the walls and wrecks in a single sweep. If wrecks are what excite you — the history, the swim-throughs, the marine life that colonises a sunken hull — go straight for Wreck Diver. And if your buoyancy or air consumption is holding you back, Peak Performance Buoyancy fixes more than divers expect. There's no wrong order; each one makes you a safer, more capable diver.

Specialties and the path to Master Scuba Diver

Specialties aren't just standalone adventures — they're how you reach the highest recreational rating in diving. Combine your Advanced Open Water certification, the Rescue Diver course and five specialty certifications (plus the required logged dives) and you become a Master Scuba Diver, a level fewer than two percent of divers ever reach. If that's the goal, our Advanced + Specialty package earns your Advanced certification and a full specialty of your choice in one trip, which is an efficient way to start stacking cards while you're here.

Prerequisites, what's included and prices

Every specialty here is taught in small groups by PADI 5★ instructors, with gear, a dive computer and any specialty equipment (torches for the wreck dives, tank analysers for nitrox) included. You complete the online theory before you arrive, so your time in Boracay is spent in the water. Prerequisites in short: Enriched Air needs Open Water and age 12+; Deep and Wreck need Advanced Open Water and age 15+. Prices vary by course and whether you bundle, and online bookings with a cash balance earn a discount — check each course page (Nitrox, Deep Diver, Wreck Diver) for the current rate, or browse them all on the specialties page.