moving up

[slingshot187]

Hello all;

So I'm really new to this and I just completed the school work and confined water dives for open water(live in Wisconsin and have to wait for the ice to melt to do open water dives). In the mean time I'm taking the Padi EFR coarse and trying to plan for my AOW. Now my final goal is to become a Rescue diver instructor(I have Emt /Firefighter cert). I guess what I'm looking for is advice on what classes to take and type of specialty I should be in.

I had a big class and the instructor needed to help the others that weren't getting it. So I ask all of you. I know it is pretty early to think like this but i found in the marines its better to have a goal to look at than winging it.

If there is any dive clubs near beaver dam wi that read this I would love to join. I'll be honest the first breath i took freaked me out but after that it was so fun and peaceful. Thanks all and keep your gear wet.

 

[krawlings]

Welcome to SCUBA BOARD and to the world of DIVING

 

[261311]

What classes to get your AOW? The entire path? It depends if you want to do things for personal fun, or just career based as well. If you're looking at primarily career based so you can go back at a later date and complete things you want to do you'll probably be interest in courses such as

Deep Diver, SAR Diver, Ice diver (as you mentioned above ice thawing, if you're doing rescue instruction this will probably help greatly), Dry suit, Boat Diver, Drift Diver (if you have interest in some coastal work), Enriched Air Diver.

Not entirely sure, but PADI may encourage you to knock back a good portion/ extended list of specialty courses if you wish to actually teach scuba rather than use. Not strictly speaking from experience

 

[slingshot187]

thanks zack i guess i'm looking to get the most out of my aow. If there is a specialty that will help me in the long run I would like to get it before I start rescue dive.

 

[fisheater]

Check out the resources in your area.

http://www.ship-wreck.com/shipwreck/directory/wisdive.html


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[slingshot187]

thanks fisheater. Big help!

 

[TomZ]

PADI AOW requires "Adventure Dives" which are just a portion of each Specialty. The Adventure dives can be applied to the requirements for the actual Specialty. You can just get the full specialty (and forgo the Adventure dives, which is what I did). Quality instruction is all about the instructor. Find out who in your area offers the highest quality instruction. Take the courses in the conditions you'll dive in or worse. There's no sense in doing a Navigation Cert in 100' viz (IMO). When you do the Deep cert, make sure you actually go deep (to me +100'). When I did Rescue, my "partner" was a Dive Master Candidate who is a 300 lb powerlifter. He tossed me around like a rag doll, lol.

For PADI AOW, Deep and Nav Adventure dives are required.
Nitrox is good, as well as Drysuit (if you are in a cold water area, or area where you use one).
Lots of divers are into digital U/W photography.
Peak Performance Buoyancy is something you can learn on your own by trial and error, or with some mentoring. If a quality class is available, your learning curve will benefit.
Certs for Boat and Drift dives don't seem as valuable as the others mentioned, at least to me. Take one Caribbean trip and you'll do plenty of boat and drift dives.
I love night diving, but again the Night Diver cert may not be as valuable as others.

 

[slingshot187]

Thanks tomz. Hope I dont get a 300 pound guy for my rescue dive. Had plenty of them in the corp!

 

[jewelofnile69]

Hey Slingshot. Welcome to Scubaboard. I'm from WI as welll...down in the Madison area. I guess I'll ask you this first....do you know if you even truly like diving yet to decide whether you even want to get your AOW and then Rescue? I personally would suggest getting more than a few dives under your belt before even thinking about AOW and Rescue. I found that I got a lot more out of AOW and Rescue after having dove for a few years first. I'm not trying to discourage you from going this route, but just curious to know for sure if you know for sure why you want to do this? I'd say refer to the thread titled something like "Why do all new divers want to become an instructor?" My husband and I only decided on Rescue because the two of us do mostly all shore diving. And I wouldn't worry about the size of the person in rescue, when I was in the Army I always seemed to have to do fireman or buddy carries with the biggest guy. During Rescue, my husband was my rescuee and he's 6'8 and 240lbs....that's quite bigger than me.

 

[tphelps]

Hello all;

So I'm really new to this and I just completed the school work and confined water dives for open water(live in Wisconsin and have to wait for the ice to melt to do open water dives). In the mean time I'm taking the Padi EFR coarse and trying to plan for my AOW. Now my final goal is to become a Rescue diver instructor(I have Emt /Firefighter cert). I guess what I'm looking for is advice on what classes to take and type of specialty I should be in.

I had a big class and the instructor needed to help the others that weren't getting it. So I ask all of you. I know it is pretty early to think like this but i found in the marines its better to have a goal to look at than winging it.

If there is any dive clubs near beaver dam wi that read this I would love to join. I'll be honest the first breath i took freaked me out but after that it was so fun and peaceful. Thanks all and keep your gear wet.

Welcome fellow diver! If you would like to certify Rescue Divers then for PADI you need to be a minimum of an Open Water Scuba Instructor. The OWSI can also certify Open Water, Adventure Divers, AOW (like you are doing now), Rescue, and Divemaster (with 3 other specialties- Peak Performance Buoyancy, Project Aware and Project Aware coral reef). I am happy to hear that you are interested in teaching, I just wanted to give you a heads up what that means. First off, you will need to complete your Divemaster which can take at least 1 month. Next is the Instructor Development Course which also is about a month and you need a minimum of 100 dives to be an instructor. In your IDC is where you will get experience and practice giving knowledge review presentations as well as confined/open water lessons. At the end, you will have to pass the dreaded Instructor Examination (IE) which is 2 days of exams. Like your DM, they will test you on your knowledge of equipment, physiology, physics (buoyancy), standards, etc.

Another important factor to consider is money. Each of these professional courses cost me about $1,000 but then again it also depends on where you take it. It is a lot of hard work but well worth the journey. Let me know if you have any questions about Pro training. Happy safe diving!