SSI Navigation Speciality Course in Andaman — Find Your Way Underwater
Navigation Speciality teaches you how to find your way underwater without relying on the surface for reference. I believe in polishing three core skills — using a compass, reading natural marks on the reef, and counting fin kicks to judge distance. It plays a crucial role while exploring a new reef with your buddy or extending your reach to a site you dive often.
Advanced Open Water touches on navigation too, as one of its five specialty dives, but only briefly — this course makes you specialised with repetitive navigation practice at judging distance and making accurate decisions on natural navigation.
What You'll Learn
Navigation underwater comes down to three connected skills, and this course builds real confidence in all three. The first is compass navigation — learning to take an accurate heading, follow it underwater, and reverse it to find your way back. It sounds simple on land, but holding a straight line while managing buoyancy, current, and visibility takes real practice.
The second is natural navigation — reading the reef itself. Most coral reefs are oval, round, or a long stretch along a bar. Following the edge of the reef gives you a strong sense of which direction you've come from, without ever looking at a compass.
The third is distance and time estimation. Since there's no way to measure distance directly underwater, you'll learn to count fin kicks and track dive time to judge how far you've travelled — a skill that becomes second nature with practice.
One thing I see often: students get so excited by the marine life that they lose track of navigation completely. I teach a simple habit for this — stop, breathe, relax, and run a quick memory check before you start navigating again. That pause alone fixes most of the confusion divers run into underwater.
By the end of the course, you'll be able to combine all three skills into a single navigation pattern during a real dive — planning a route, following it, and returning to your start point without surfacing to check.
Eligibility & Prerequisites
It takes you to be 10 years or above, and a certified Open Water diver to begin the Navigation Speciality course. If you haven't been diving in over six months or more, I recommend getting a full refresher done before we start this specialty, because it requires decent buoyancy control to concentrate on the compass while navigating. For diving fitness and medical requirements, please read our Category A/B guidelines and check our medical questionnaire form before you book the course.
What to Expect on the Day
Navigation Speciality runs as a single-day course, so you'll cover both theory and two open water dives in one session. We start with paperwork and a classroom briefing after breakfast, covering compass use in detail, natural navigation cues, and how to estimate distance using fin kicks and dive time. I walk through real examples from the dive sites we'll be using, so the theory connects directly to what you'll see and practice underwater.
After reaching the beach, we run a few navigation trials — navigating a straight line and a square — using the compass while counting your steps. At Nemo Reef, we find a shallow sandy patch where you first use the compass to swim a straight line, then a square, while counting your fin kicks. We come up to the surface for a quick debrief, then repeat the same task underwater.
As the dive continues, I have you check for natural marks on the reef, so you can find your way back to the entry point on your own using natural navigation.
The second dive takes you to The Wall (depth 18–30 metres), where you'll combine everything — compass, natural navigation, and distance estimation — into a full navigation pattern, planning a route and finding your way back to the start point. I guide you through the planning, then keep a close watch on you underwater, only stepping in to correct your course if you go off track. Each dive runs around 45 minutes, with a one-hour surface interval in between to debrief and answer your questions before the final dive.
Price, Dive Sites & Inclusions
The Navigation Speciality costs Rs. 14,000, with dives at Nemo Reef and The Wall, ranging 16–30 metres depending on the site. Nemo Reef is a shore dive, while The Wall is reached by boat. You'll dive at an instructor ratio of 1:2, so you get close, personal attention throughout.
Included:
- Personal instructor (1:2)
- 2 open water dives (45 min each)
- Boat transport for The Wall dive
- All rental equipment
- Certification fees
- Online study material
Not included:
- Accommodation and meals
- Personal items like sunscreen or a swimsuit
Ready to Explore More?
Navigation is one of five specialties you can explore further, along with wreck diving, deep diving, boat diving, and perfect buoyancy — each teaching a different set of underwater skills. Take a look at our full range of speciality courses to find what interests you next. Prefer to get a taste of how Navigation feels first? Our Advanced Open Water course includes a preview of Navigation alongside four other specialties in one certification.
FAQs
No, you don't need any special equipment for the Navigation Speciality. A basic underwater compass is provided as part of the course, along with all other rental gear. If you already own a compass, you're welcome to use it during training.
Not quite — Advanced Open Water only gives you a brief introduction to navigation as one of five specialty previews. This course goes much deeper, with focused practice on compass headings, natural navigation, and distance estimation across two full dives.
Underwater navigation is easier to learn than most divers expect, though it does take practice. Most students find compass work intuitive within the first dive, while natural navigation and distance estimation improve with repetition and experience.
Compass navigation uses a physical instrument to hold and follow a heading underwater. Natural navigation relies on reading the reef itself — its shape, sand patterns, and depth changes — to judge direction without any equipment at all.
The Navigation Speciality runs as a single day, combining a classroom briefing with two open water dives. You'll be certified by the end of the day, with plenty of time for questions and practice in between dives.
I personally recommend planning your visit between January and the end of April for this course. That's when the sea is calmest and visibility is at its best, which makes learning to read natural navigation cues on the reef much easier.
Ready to Find Your Way Underwater?
Join the SSI Navigation Speciality on Havelock Island and gain the skills and confidence to navigate any dive site, anywhere in the world.