Underwater Naturalist Instructor

Every dive is more interesting when you can actually identify what you're looking at, and the Underwater Naturalist Instructor course is about giving your students that ability. As with our other specialty instructor programmes, this course is focused on the teaching side of the specialty - how to organise, promote and run the PADI Underwater Naturalist Diver course well, and how to communicate to divers just how much value proper species and habitat knowledge adds to their diving.

Rather than reteaching the marine life content itself, the course concentrates on instructional technique: structuring sessions, engaging students who might assume a naturalist course is just for hardcore biology enthusiasts, and helping them see identification and ecological awareness as a genuinely practical diving skill rather than an academic add-on.

You'll come away with teaching tips and hands-on experience passed on directly from your local PADI Course Director, giving you a head start before you run the course independently for the first time.

To join, you'll need to already hold PADI Assistant Instructor status, be an instructor candidate currently in training, or hold a PADI Divemaster rating - as with other specialties, there can be a few additional prerequisites depending on your background. Once certified, Underwater Naturalist Instructor counts toward Master Scuba Diver Trainer, which requires at least five specialty instructor certifications, making it a useful and popular addition to an instructor's specialty line-up.