SDI: Advanced Adventure vs Advanced Scuba

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Advanced Adventurer Diver is nothing. It is a gimmick to allow shops to make money by letting people "try out " the specialties. The adventurer card is nothing and would not be accepted at "advanced cert only" dives. By actually completing 4 specialties +24 dives and getting your Advanced cert you are automatically an "advanced adventurer diver".

You are absolutely wrong. The AAD card is EXACTLY equivalent to the AOW card.
 
You are absolutely wrong. The AAD card is EXACTLY equivalent to the AOW card.

Acknowledging, that it is technically the same requirements as a PADI advanced certification, it is NOT an SDI advanced certification. If he showed a boat captain, that required advanced certification, his SDI Adventurer card with only 12 dives, it is a coin flip whether he would except it; I tend to think they wouldn't. If anything this just goes to highlight what a joke PADI is with regard to their "advanced certification".
 
Acknowledging, that it is technically the same requirements as a PADI advanced certification, it is NOT an SDI advanced certification. If he showed a boat captain, that required advanced certification, his SDI Adventurer card with only 12 dives, it is a coin flip whether he would except it; I tend to think they wouldn't. If anything this just goes to highlight what a joke PADI is with regard to their "advanced certification".

So you're saying that if I showed a boat captain a PADI AOW card, it would also be a coin flip whether he would accept it?

Being that PADI seems to be the most common cert agency - at least for tourist divers - I would have thought that a tourist dive that said it requires "Advanced" certification would be specifically talking about PADI AOW (or equivalent).


CptTightPants, based on what you said here, if a boat captain had a dive that required advanced certification, and they were talking to a PADI diver, what cert are you saying that the boat captain would be looking for? Are you saying they'd be expecting a PADI diver to have PADI Master Diver cert?

---------- Post added November 5th, 2014 at 08:39 AM ----------

1) ASDDP says: "Complete four SDI Specialty Diver courses or equivalent; only 1 course without dives, may be credited towards the SDI Advanced Diver development program, with the exception of SDI Computer Nitrox"

The exception part of that sentence is very confusing. Computer Nitrox is a course without dives. So, does the exception clause mean that it counts as a specialty and I could still take one more specialty course without a dive as credit towards ASDDP? Or does it mean that Nitrox doesn't count for any of the specialties required for ASDDP at all? So, even with Nitrox, I still need 4 additional specialty courses - one of which could be a course without dives?

2) If I take the Advanced Adventure Diver course, does that count as a specialty towards ASDDP?

I'm still looking for answers to these 2, if anyone knows.
 
So you're saying that if I showed a boat captain a PADI AOW card, it would also be a coin flip whether he would accept it?

Being that PADI seems to be the most common cert agency - at least for tourist divers - I would have thought that a tourist dive that said it requires "Advanced" certification would be specifically talking about PADI AOW (or equivalent).


CptTightPants, based on what you said here, if a boat captain had a dive that required advanced certification, and they were talking to a PADI diver, what cert are you saying that the boat captain would be looking for? Are you saying they'd be expecting a PADI diver to have PADI Master Diver cert?

PADI advanced card is what it is and nearly all boat captains will take it (although I know of several that require 25-50 dives depending on the site and/or someone on the boat to vouch for you). It is the SDI adventurer card that does not equal advanced certification. If you are worried about an "advanced only dive", you would need the 24 dives and 4 specialties that your agency, SDI, requires.
 
PADI advanced card is what it is and nearly all boat captains will take it (although I know of several that require 25-50 dives depending on the site and/or someone on the boat to vouch for you). It is the SDI adventurer card that does not equal advanced certification. If you are worried about an "advanced only dive", you would need the 24 dives and 4 specialties that your agency, SDI, requires.

And this is what I don't understand. Someone else posted earlier that PADI Advanced Open Water and SDI Advanced Adventure Diver are directly equivalent. And they said that SDI Advanced Scuba Diver Development Program is the direct equivalent of PADI Master Diver.

So, is that wrong?

Or are you saying that boat captains generally don't realize that SDI AAD is the same as PADI AOW?
 
Acknowledging, that it is technically the same requirements as a PADI advanced certification, it is NOT an SDI advanced certification.

Do you realize that SDI changed the name of their AOW cert and that AAD does = PADI AOW?

You seem to be mincing words here with the meaning of "advanced certification". SDI is purely a "recreational" agency and no cert from them could be considered advanced in the pure sense. That is why they have their sister agency TDI, which handles all technical training.
 
And this is what I don't understand. Someone else posted earlier that PADI Advanced Open Water and SDI Advanced Adventure Diver are directly equivalent. And they said that SDI Advanced Scuba Diver Development Program is the direct equivalent of PADI Master Diver.

So, is that wrong?



Or are you saying that boat captains generally don't realize that SDI AAD is the same as PADI AOW?

Equivalent in terms of what you have to complete to get them, but not equivalent in terms of value. Think of it like driver's licenses from two different states. One state may have very lax requirements about getting a full driver's license and give them out after passing a very simple test (say 3 point turn only). The other state has much higher requirements (3 point turn, parallel park in between two cars, etc).

If you only did the first state's driving requirements in the harder state, you would not get a license because you did not properly execute all that was necessary.

Say you get the easier state's drivers license and drive into the harder state, it doesn't matter you don't have the skills to drive in their state, you have XYZ state license which allows you to drive anywhere in the country. From PADI's perspective you have an "advanced cert", from SDI 's perspective (Also from some boat captains, which I mentioned above, and myself) you are not advanced until you have 4 specialties and 24 dives.
 
I should have just gone and looked up the PADI info myself.

PADI AOW (Advanced Open Water) IS exactly the same as SDI Advanced Adventure Diver.

Professional Association of Diving Instructors

It's 5 dives, 1 each in 5 different specialties. 2 of them are required to be Deep and Underwater Nav.

PADI is (like SDI) extra confusing in that they also have a course called "Adventure Diver", but at least PADI doesn't use the word Advanced. PADI Adventure Diver is a subset of Advanced Open Water, where you only do 3 adventure dives, instead of the 5 for AOW.

So:

SDIequalsPADIBasic requirements
Open Water DiverOpen Water Diver4 OW dives
n/aAdventure Diver3 dives, each in a different specialty
Advanced Adventure DiverAdvanced Open Water5 dives, each in a different specialty - Deep and Underwater Navigation are required to be 2 of the specialties
Advanced Scuba Divern/a25 logged dives - 4 specialty certifications, only 1 may be a non-diving specialty. Computer Nitrox cert does not count as 1 of the specialty certs (??).
Master Scuba DiverMaster Scuba Diver50 logged dives - 4 (SDI) or 5 (PADI or maybe 4??) specialty certifications plus Rescue Diver specialty cert.
 
Stuart,

You have now entered the realm of competing agencies and differing standards as certification agencies create a never endless cycle of cards and specialties to sell classes and entice divers to constantly "go for the card"e

Bottom line is you will not be advanced for SDI until you have 24 logged dives and 4 specialties. Do some diving, get your specialties, and don't do any "advanced only" dives until you have reached SDI's advanced certification.
 
Do you realize that SDI changed the name of their AOW cert and that AAD does = PADI AOW?

You seem to be mincing words here with the meaning of "advanced certification". SDI is purely a "recreational" agency and no cert from them could be considered advanced in the pure sense. That is why they have their sister agency TDI, which handles all technical training.

Good to know that history.

Personally, I'm not concerned with "the pure sense". I just want to know, if I'm going on a trip to some vacation destination, and I'm booking a dive with a dive operator that says a particular dive requires "advanced certification", what should I be expecting them to be looking for?

Will they want PADI AOW? CptTightPants seems to be saying that dive ops wanting "advanced certification" will want more than just PADI AOW.

If PADI AOW is acceptable, will they equally recognize SDI AAD?

If neither of those is good enough, then will SDI Advanced Scuba Diver be enough? If so, what would they be asking a PADI diver for? Individual specialty certs and at least 25 dives in their logbook?

Or when they say "advanced certification" are they really going to be looking for Master Scuba Diver?

From my perspective at the bottom of the training ladder, it looks to me like Master Scuba Diver is sort of the Black Belt of scuba diving. I.e. the point where you are considered to have finally achieved basic mastery of all the fundamentals. From there, you are then pursuing your more advanced dan (funny!) of scuba diving training.

---------- Post added November 5th, 2014 at 09:35 AM ----------

Stuart,

You have now entered the realm of competing agencies and differing standards as certification agencies create a never endless cycle of cards and specialties to sell classes and entice divers to constantly "go for the card"e

Bottom line is you will not be advanced for SDI until you have 24 logged dives and 4 specialties. Do some diving, get your specialties, and don't do any "advanced only" dives until you have reached SDI's advanced certification.

Okay.... but my SDI OW cert will be considered the same as a PADI OW cert, right? So, what if I switch to PADI now, for future training? Are you saying that if I get the PADI AOW (which only requires 5 more dives) I would then be okay to do "advanced only" dives?


But not if I stay with SDI and get the Advanced Adventure Diver (which would also be 5 more dives)?

Or, to ask it a different way, if I switch to PADI courses now, what certification are you saying that I would need in order to go on "advanced only" dives?
 
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