How important is it to stick with your original agency for ADV OW?

[Blackcrusader]

thanks! The other thing that I noticed.... well, I could be wrong but my takeaway was that the Advanced OW cert alone, doesn't certify to max training depth limits (132ft)

ALSO, I found it interesting that some train to a standard limit of 100ft, others to 130ft, etc... why not just universally to the recreational limit of 132ft???

Padi OW is certified to the recreational depth limit of 40m. I am not talking about the limited training depth on a course with an instructor. Other agencies teach to the same ISO standard.

https://scubaboard.com/community/th...o-advanced-diving.650458/page-4#post-10364068

Thread 'Dive Accident Insurance Limitations'

Mar 1, 2025

In a recent thread, a poster related a story about having to correct someone's misinformation about dive accident insurance. That misinformation has been repeated often in ScubaBoard threads. The correction is well buried in a long thread, so I thought I would create a dedicated thread that makes it clear and which can easily be linked in future threads. This one specifically refers to DAN accident insurance, but I think it would be good if other companies had their policies clarified here as well.

The misinformed person had stated that dive accident insurance only covers you if you are...

• boulderjohn
• Replies: 80
• Forum: Basic Scuba

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[bradlw]

I reject the search for "easiest." Earn it!

i didn't mean that in terms of not earning it.
...although I never found any of my SCUBA training to be overly hard to earn....well the recreational stuff anyway....
what I meant was easy in terms of less drama, less expense, less time wasted, etc.

 

[DrakeTheDiver]

i didn't mean that in terms of not earning it.
...although I never found any of my SCUBA training to be overly hard to earn....well the recreational stuff anyway....
what I meant was easy in terms of less drama, less expense, less time wasted, etc.

I would say go with whatever course will allow you to fit into your schedule. I was working through the same dilema with most of the shops around here being SSI or SDI. I found that these courses would require you to do specialty certs prior to taking the actual course, or at least that is how the shop presented it, then they presented 4 specialties totaling over $1,000 before I would even be allowed to pay an additional $450 for the Advanced course that they considered equivalent to PADI AOW. I ended up going to Padi and am happy getting a class with them for a grand total of $400. I think the specialty courses are fun and maybe beneficial depending on experience and location, however for me, the goal is simply to get checked off because some charters around here require that AOW card to dive deeper sites. I have quite a few dives and am comfortable in my skills and working underwater, having been paid to do so for the last 4 years. So for me it was really just trying to not blow my whole scuba budget on classes, much prefer to do real dives over training dives. But if it is about sampling all the different flavors of diving, I suppose it’s whatever you want, PADI seems to offer a pretty good list to cover most of the important stuff and let you get your feet wet in those specialties.

 

[broncobowsher]

It only matters if...
You are chasing an instructor status or something along those lines with that exact agency.

I enjoy diving. Don't want to kill that enjoyment by trying to make a job out of it. My card collection is from multiple agencies. Last one I got I cared more about the insturctor. In the end, he asked which agency would I like the card issued from. I passed the class, he had multiple agencies, open choice. Same results no matter which way I went.

 

[matt9122]

Always shop the instructor, never the agency. For example, my technical certs are with TDI, IANTD, and PADI. If your instructor teaches for multiple agencies, I would just choose the less expensive one.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

When I was teaching, the Advanced Course I offered through SDI was a minimum of 6 dives.
1 Advanced Skills - Refine buoyancy and trim, DSMB use, stage bottle use, and communication, non-silting kick techniques
2 UW Navigation - Compass, natural, line and reel/spool, sharing the responsibilities with a buddy
3. Night/Low Vis - Our local conditions can go to zero vis quickly. Light selection and use, touch contact swimming and communication
4. Search and Recovery or Wreck (survey wreck) Lift bag use, line and reel use, team skills. Wreck - outside survey, locate hazards, entry and exits points, orientation and identification because no one with out actual wreck penetration training has any business in an overhead environment.
5 Deep - planning, stage/deco bottle use, narcosis identification using an actual dive skill. What I usually did was have students descend to between 80 and 100ft depending on location. Tie off a reel and swim as a buddy team for a distance with one watching depth and time. Stop, turn, and switch roles. Get to the tie off and begin ascent using simulated deco stops to control ascent. Somewhere right after starting I'd spit out my reg and give an out of air signal. Their reaction told me how narced they were. Usually stops were planned for every 10 ft starting at 50. At 20 we'd switch to the stage bottles using proper notox procedures and do the final two stop on those
6 Buddy skills and assist (rescue skills). Non-responsive diver from depth as a team, no guided no mask 100ft swim and then switch roles. No mask guided no mask ascent from 20 ft. Descend and switch roles. Then buddy team would do a rescue tow to entry while loosening the victims gear.

I came up with the dives based on the most common interests of my students who were often planning on diving the Great Lakes, cold quarries, or wrecks in various locations. I did not offer things like Fish ID or photography. Fish ID was not my passion. Better instructors for that. I had actual underwater photographers who were not instructors that I referred photo interested students to.
The order of dives was intentional because all dives built on the previous ones. And I had minimum course entry requirements of being able to do all skills neutral and horizontal with less than 2-3 feet change in buoyancy. We usually managed to get that down to less than a foot in the class.

There was also around 6 hours of classroom instruction on equipment, dive planning, gas management, and emergency procedures. We used my second book as a supplement to the SDI materials.
I welcomed single tank divers, those using doubles, and sidemount. The last two may seem strange, but I had DMs and a couple of instructors from other agencies take my advanced class to see what I was doing. As well as those who had taken AOW from someone else and didn't feel they got what they paid for.

 

[NothingClever]

Is it even realistic or possible these days to do the whole thing in a one-day or two-day weekend trip to a dive destination?

It sounds like you favor continuity of effort for your son and I applaud that. However, it also sounds (from the quote above) that you’re getting into a rush. I think these two are at conflict with each other. With whichever certifying organization you choose, I’d focus on the quality of the experience over the speed.

 

[bradlw]

When I was teaching, the Advanced Course I offered through SDI was a minimum of 6 dives.
1 Advanced Skills - Refine buoyancy and trim, DSMB use, stage bottle use, and communication, non-silting kick techniques
2 UW Navigation - Compass, natural, line and reel/spool, sharing the responsibilities with a buddy
3. Night/Low Vis - Our local conditions can go to zero vis quickly. Light selection and use, touch contact swimming and communication
4. Search and Recovery or Wreck (survey wreck) Lift bag use, line and reel use, team skills. Wreck - outside survey, locate hazards, entry and exits points, orientation and identification because no one with out actual wreck penetration training has any business in an overhead environment.
5 Deep - planning, stage/deco bottle use, narcosis identification using an actual dive skill. What I usually did was have students descend to between 80 and 100ft depending on location. Tie off a reel and swim as a buddy team for a distance with one watching depth and time. Stop, turn, and switch roles. Get to the tie off and begin ascent using simulated deco stops to control ascent. Somewhere right after starting I'd spit out my reg and give an out of air signal. Their reaction told me how narced they were. Usually stops were planned for every 10 ft starting at 50. At 20 we'd switch to the stage bottles using proper notox procedures and do the final two stop on those
6 Buddy skills and assist (rescue skills). Non-responsive diver from depth as a team, no guided no mask 100ft swim and then switch roles. No mask guided no mask ascent from 20 ft. Descend and switch roles. Then buddy team would do a rescue tow to entry while loosening the victims gear.

I came up with the dives based on the most common interests of my students who were often planning on diving the Great Lakes, cold quarries, or wrecks in various locations. I did not offer things like Fish ID or photography. Fish ID was not my passion. Better instructors for that. I had actual underwater photographers who were not instructors that I referred photo interested students to.
The order of dives was intentional because all dives built on the previous ones. And I had minimum course entry requirements of being able to do all skills neutral and horizontal with less than 2-3 feet change in buoyancy. We usually managed to get that down to less than a foot in the class.

There was also around 6 hours of classroom instruction on equipment, dive planning, gas management, and emergency procedures. We used my second book as a supplement to the SDI materials.
I welcomed single tank divers, those using doubles, and sidemount. The last two may seem strange, but I had DMs and a couple of instructors from other agencies take my advanced class to see what I was doing. As well as those who had taken AOW from someone else and didn't feel they got what they paid for.

wow, that seems like a solid advanced class...but in my experience anyway, it's leaning hard on the technical side of diving. Seems like maybe a function of the tech/rec thing (or whatever it was called) that came about after I had gotten away from diving years ago.
I certainly didn't do a lot of that stuff till I got going into my technical IANTD training!
I came up in teh day when even basic OW nitrox was offered only by technical agencies such as IANTD



I see an argument made that things such as reel usage and deco procedures might not ought to be taught to recreational level divers unless they're getting full-blown overhead environment training / deco diving. Too many folks would be tempted to extend into places they have no business going...

Anyway, in my experience way back in the day, I think the basic OW cert prepared a diver better for recreational limit deep dives....perhaps not on their very first dive out of class, but certainly after a few dives logged to solidify the basic skills and training. It even covered basic navigation, etc...

What I remember about advanced was that it didn't offer a whole lot more than the foundation I already had...but it got maybe a little more into navigation, stress/rescue stuff, etc... It certainly didn't cover deco or stage bottles, penetration lines, etc...