Combined SCUBA and SSBA to 30m

Eight weeks, run back-to-back as one course at our Burra facility. The first four weeks are ADAS Part 1 (Occupational SCUBA to 30 m): commercial diving theory and AS/NZS standards, DCIEM tables and dive planning, equipment and gas management, working in nil visibility, searches, surveys, inspections and basic tools, and emergency procedures. The second four weeks are ADAS Part 2 (Occupational SSBA to 30 m), where you move onto surface supplied breathing apparatus and Kirby Morgan helmets: SSBA panel operation, two-way communications and standby duties, wet-welding, rigging and underwater tooling, confined space and contaminated water awareness, and construction, jetty and aquaculture work scenarios. You finish holding both certifications.

It's eight weeks instead of two separate four-week intakes you'd have to coordinate around, the curriculum is integrated (we bridge from scuba to surface supply mid-course), and it's the qualification employers actually hire from. Roughly 95% of our students do the combined course. It's also cheaper to undertake a combined course.

PADI / SSI tickets qualify you for recreational diving only — you can't legally work underwater on them in Australia. ADAS is the commercial standard recognised under AS/NZS 2299, covering DCIEM tables, nil-visibility work, surface comms, surface supplied breathing apparatus and emergency procedures that a recreational ticket never touches.

Surface Supplied Breathing Apparatus: gas delivered from the surface through an umbilical instead of from a back-mounted scuba cylinder. It's the standard for commercial diving worldwide because it gives unlimited duration, two-way comms and a topside team monitoring you the whole dive. The Part 2 half of the combined course is built around it.

Kirby Morgan helmets, the industry standard for commercial diving in Australia. In the Part 2 half of the course you'll learn to don, doff, communicate and bail out from them.

To 30 m, in real working conditions at our Burra quarry, including planned nil-visibility dives so you learn to work by feel. We don't simulate; the conditions are the conditions.

A recreational dive ticket (PADI Open Water or equivalent), a current commercial divers medical from a SPUMS-listed doctor, current First Aid + CPR + Oxygen Management, a USI number, and you must be 18 or older. You don't need these to enquire — we'll point you in the right direction for each once you're booked in.

Yes. You finish holding both ADAS Part 1 and Part 2, the qualification employers actually hire from for onshore commercial work in Australia. Australia is currently short on commercial divers; we have active links with contractors and help you prepare for the job hunt with CV and interview prep and guidance on who’s hiring.

The Combined SCUBA and SSBA to 30m (Part 1 & 2) course is $13,500, with no surprise add-ons for equipment hire or assessment. ADAS certification fees are separate and cover the cost of your ADAS certification — we collect these at the end of your course and pay them to ADAS on your behalf. Booking it as the combined course is also cheaper than buying Part 1 and Part 2 as two separate intakes, which is one reason roughly 95% of our students do it as a single 8-week run rather than splitting it.

All that is needed to enrol is a deposit. The remainder of the fees are paid during the course, as training is delivered. As a Registered Training Organisation we follow the ASQA rules on prepaid fees, which limit how much we can collect before a course starts and require the balance to be paid across the course rather than upfront. Because of this we can't offer extended payment plans, but the staged structure means you're never paying for training you haven't received yet.

The Combined SCUBA and SSBA to 30m (Part 1 & 2) course is the onshore commercial diving qualification: aquaculture, construction, inspection, civil. Part 3 (SSBA to 50 m) and Part 4 (closed-bell saturation) are the deeper offshore qualifications, and a separate career track most divers move into after several years onshore. IMCA, the offshore industry association, recognises both ADAS Part 3 and Part 4 for member-contractor work.

ADAS is mutually recognised through the IDRCF (International Diving Regulators & Certifiers Forum), which means it’s accepted across most of the world for onshore work: New Zealand, the UK and Europe, Canada, the South Pacific and most of South-East Asia. Our international students typically work in their home countries on graduation.