Recos for Coz with 13 y/o diver?

[Rob9876]

Also, as an alternative to a private DM, you may consider going ahead and getting his AOW while you are there if they'll allow you to tag along with them. That gets him 5 dives with a DM also, and may be a cost effective alternative to just paying for dives and a private DM -- plus he'd have the AOW cert (seems more and more dive ops in the U.S. are requiring AOW for many dives). After the 5 AOW dives you can decide whether you want a private DM for the rest of your trip or not. I'll add a plug for Tres Pelicanos (small fast boats, and great dive op overall) and their DM Jose is really patient and calming with inexperienced divers (and great at finding cool little critters too).

There've been several posts about Advanced Open Water (AOW) so I'm just replying to my post above where I suggested perhaps just having the OP's son do AOW since then they'd get 5 more dives with an instructor and also get the AOW cert perhaps for a similar price. As has been discussed on many forum threads here, the "Advanced" part of AOW is really unfortunate and people should not get hung up on that, as : (1) AOW does not make one an advanced diver, and it probably should be really called Open Water Part 2 or similar; and (2) yes, it's certainly possible for divers with "only" an OW cert to be advanced divers -- experience certainly advances skills for most.

So, if you think of AOW as merely Open Water Part 2, then it still can be handy for a new diver to get 5 more dives with an instructor and practice the 2 required dives (for PADI, that's Underwater Navigation and Deep [which is anything over 60 feet]) and 3 elective dives -- most new divers probably would benefit from Peak Performance Buoyancy, perhaps Night Diving [really easy and fun in Cozumel] and whatever else is of interest (Fish ID, Underwater Photography, Wreck, etc.). Again, there's nothing really "advanced" about it, these are just either things that are rushed a bit in many OW classes or nice little add-ons under instructor supervision.

The fact that more and more dive operations (especially U.S.) are starting to require AOW certs for many dives that are not especially difficult dives makes AOW a handy cert to have in the U.S. But again, I think the main reason these are requiring AOW is that so many OW classes these days are a bit lax, so having AOW at least shows you've had a bit more than the bare minimum instruction.

And I know there are many older divers here, and some stellar instructors here, who had/have very comprehensive OW classes, but from what I've seen most OW divers (and many AOW divers) could benefit from more dives with an instructor as soon as possible. So, my initial recommendation for the OP still stands: if you're going to pay for a Dive Pro to dive with your son anyhow, I'd consider getting his AOW cert rather than just doing a private Dive Master -- just think of AOW as Open Water Part 2.

 

[ggunn]

As has been discussed on many forum threads here, the "Advanced" part of AOW is really unfortunate and people should not get hung up on that, as : (1) AOW does not make one an advanced diver, and it probably should be really called Open Water Part 2 or similar...

And that's my only quibble with AOW - the "advanced" part of the term.

 

[Shawn C]

The fact that more and more dive operations (especially U.S.) are starting to require AOW certs for many dives that are not especially difficult

Sounds like a complete money grab. Force people to take the AOW course and profit.

 

[Rob9876]

Sounds like a complete money grab. Force people to take the AOW course and profit.

Perhaps that plays some part, but I'd guess a large part of it is U.S legal system Cover Your Assets as some of these dives, while not really difficult, are in less forgiving locations than Cozumel or other Caribbean locations.

For example:

• SE Florida, where many dives are a bit "square" (somewhat deep the whole dive) where a little more attention is warranted for NDL and gas consumption;
• NW Florida Gulf dives that tend to have sporty seas and lower viz -- and certainly some deep bucket list dives like the Oriskanny;
• Maryland and points farther north on the Atlantic coast -- sporty seas, less viz, a long way from help, etc.

Again, I'm certainly not saying that experienced OW divers couldn't do those dives, but I'd imagine requiring AOW provides a bit of legal CYA and perhaps keeps some once-a-year-Caribbean divers from getting in bad situations.

 

[sharky60]

the guys at Blue Angel are very good with young people.

 

[wateraddiction]

I'm in Chicago too. It was a last minute trip so what I found may not be representative of the usual fares. It is annoying that you can't currently fly non-stop to Coz from Chicago. That was another reason I was willing to live with the bag drag, as total travel time was similar given the non-stop to Cancun versus the layover and second flight to Coz.

I've done two dive trips to Thailand. The real issue isn't the airfare, it's that you basically need two weeks free to make it worthwhile because you lose 4 days to travel and a couple more to jet lag.

I can definitely take 2 weeks off with my family but when I checked airfare to get to Misool Indonesia, it was pricing out at close to $2000/pp (ORD-Jakarta-Sorong + 5 hr boat ride). That's $8000 for just flights. (The resort I was looking at is not only $4000/pp but it also has a 3 yr waiting list.....). If you have recommendations on how to do a family dive trip to SE Asia that doesn't cost 15-20k, I'd love to hear your ideas. Our trips to Coz price out at around $6400 (flights, resort, food, diving for 4) and Bonaire is half that price since we can usually use miles.

 

[lowwall]

I can definitely take 2 weeks off with my family but when I checked airfare to get to Misool Indonesia, it was pricing out at close to $2000/pp (ORD-Jakarta-Sorong + 5 hr boat ride). That's $8000 for just flights. (The resort I was looking at is not only $4000/pp but it also has a 3 yr waiting list.....). If you have recommendations on how to do a family dive trip to SE Asia that doesn't cost 15-20k, I'd love to hear your ideas. Our trips to Coz price out at around $6400 (flights, resort, food, diving for 4) and Bonaire is half that price since we can usually use miles.

ORD to Phuket is around $1k/pp for the November to May dive season except for Christmas. You have to change planes somewhere, but Phuket is served by major airlines and then it's a one hour van or taxi ride to the beach towns where the dive operators are located. I like Kata Beach.