As most of our dive students are not on strict travel iteneraries, Marine Conservation Philippines can afford to run scuba courses a bit differently. While the PADI Open Water Course, strictly speaking, can be completed in as little as three days, we usually choose to spread it out and interspace it with several experience dives. We feel this gives the student valuable in-water experience and a good chance to actually get a feel for diving and allows the buoyancy control to become more subconscious and automatic. We know from experience the added buoyancy training is invaluable – especially for conservation and survey work under water, so we enjoy the luxury of using the extra time and believes it adds value to the course and makes everyone better divers.