Advanced Open Water

[Diver0001]

I'm with Bob on this.

I hate the deep dive until someone is really ready for it. Someone has to be confident in the shallows before they'll be confident in the deep. I've also seen the deep dive get severely off the tracks a couple of times (not my students but I HAVE been the rescuer). If there is one reason why my hair started turning grey before I was 50, it was the deep dive (and having 2 teenagers )!

I don't mind diving deep. My usual dive with my regular buddies is deep and long (and normally well over the NDLs) but diving to depth with someone with 1000 dives at that depth and maybe 2000-3000 life time dives is a lot different "stress" scenario than making a dive to the same depth with someone has 14 dives.

Personally, if I could re-write standards, I wouldn't be telling divers to go to 30+ metres with less than 50 dives....

R..

 

[kwat34]

My thought is what are you trying to accomplish and where are you doing most of your diving?

You mentioned confidence but did not say where you are diving. Are you diving in PA and NJ areas - boat or shore diving? Or are you a vacation diver?

If you are a vacation diver - taking AOW in Mexico will help you in warm clear waters. If you are a North East diver - I would recommend taking it in NJ or PA (or relative area) so you get instruction and used to diving around your local area with local conditions.

I had a blast taking AOW in Key West - but I wanted to "check the box" - I am confident in my skills in the NJ areas and just wanted the card to present to the boats. You mentioned "confidence" so I am assuming you are not confident in the PA/NJ diving conditions - I believe if you take AOW locally it will give you an immeasurable level of confidence. But diving in Mexico and coming back to the visibility conditions in PA or NJ does not equate to confidence... Conversely - AOW diving in PA or NJ will make diving in Mexico a breeze.

I have not dove yet here at home mostly because of the colder waters and lower viz. So I guess I am a vacation diver, but I would like to start diving the areas around here soon. The reason I am doing the certification on vacation is that I am getting a good deal since I am buying a package. I might then do a course at home that is more specific for my area.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I might then do a course at home that is more specific for my area.

Have fun and if you want to take AOW in Mexico - go for it. But remember for confidence up here - a course in the local waters might do the trick.

 

[diverjen]

We took AOW at about 100 dives. Mostly because we want to do the Rescue Diver Class and also because some of the places we were wanting to dive next require the AOW certification. It was definitely fun and we really enjoyed our instructor. We did Wreck, Drift, and Search & Recovery, in addition to the required Deep and Navigation. The Navigation and Search and Recovery were my favorite, since I felt like I was actually doing something/ learning something. The Deep, Wreck, and Drift Dives, were more like this what we are going to do, we are doing it, ascend, discuss what we did type dives. I think the Deep Specialty would be worthwhile if you were wanting to dive deep, in seems like that is a little more involved. I am not really drawn to deep diving, but if I was I would totally take it. I would definitely be interested in doing the Underwater Nav and Search & Recovery specialty just for something fun to do here in Colorado in the summer at Chatfield.

I am glad I did it and it wasn't exorbitantly expensive, but I don't really feel that it immensely increased my diving skills or confidence, maybe if I had done it earlier that would be different. Altho I did re-learn how to tie knots! I did do a PPB dive when I did my OW and that was very helpful.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Yes and Yes. You will, in a proper class, learn more skills as well an improve other skills. AOW should improve your buoyancy, body control, navigation skills, and intoduce you to doing tasks underwater, like stringing a line, or deploying an smb from depth or both. I like to "task load" my students, have them do things where buoyancy and trim need to be almost automatic, so they can focus on the task. Take the course. It will make you a better diver.
DivemasterDennis

 

[cbm32]

The definitive answer to your question is probably, maybe, it depends.

Are you going to be wanting to do some dives of dive trips that require an AOW card?

How many dives do you already have?

How confident are you already?

Have you done a lot of diving with experienced, accomplished divers and been able to pick their brains and emulate their good qualities while picking up on and limiting your adoption of any bad qualities they exhibit?

Have you taken the time to do a lot of reading on good practice vs bad practice and then put those things into practice enough to discover which parts of what you read are valid and which parts are just so much hot air?

Are you sure you are enough of a logical/critical thinker to accurately do the things mentioned above?

I did my AOW on Coz with a very accomplished instructor, and I think he did an excellent job.

That said, I dont think I learned all that much I didnt already know and I dont think I was a better diver afterwards than I did before hand. But, by the time I did my AOW I already had something like 300 dives in several different locations with some pretty good divers in some pretty varied conditions. I had also done a LOT of self education by doing some critical reading here in scubaboard and other places.

Still, in the end it was worth it to me because the way things are you need that card to dive some places I wanted to dive and some sites I wanted to dive. If the industry/sport was such that I didnt need that little card to prove I knew what I knew and could do what I could do (probably better than a ton of people that already had that little card) it would not have been worth it at all.

 

[TMHeimer]

If you take it right after OW it depends on how "good" you are. Plusses are you experience the deep dive (not to 63' like mine...), you learn more stuff, get the card some charters require to go deep, and you get 5 dives-- probably at least two of which you'd pay $100 (+ tip) for anyway if done on your own.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I'm in pa and teach an advanced class that is a little different than most. I've posted the short version here before. I can do so later as I'm with a student taking his ow written exam now and time is limited. I have an outline I can send to anyone who provides an email address. I wrote the entire course myself. It falls within the standards of the agency I issue the card to. It also goes way beyond them.

 

[TSandM]

All classes evolve from the fit between the instructor's intentions and the student's expectations. In resort courses, the students are often not interested in something intense or difficult, and the instructors are used to that. If you really want a course with "meat" to it, you will really need to make that clear, and hope you've drawn an instructor who is both willing to and capable of teaching in that fashion.

AOW is (at least in the PADI system) five dives. How much you can learn, and how much confidence you can develop in that short time is really dependent on where your starting point is, and what kind of student you are. At the very least, you get five dives with an experienced buddy or supervisor, and some information on a variety of ideas which might not have been covered, or might have been covered very superficially, in your OW class. In the best AOW class, the instructor will identify your particular issues as a diver, and incorporate something to address them into every one of those five dives.

 

[jonhall]

Hi,
Is AOW actually worth taking? Aside from the skills will it make you more confident in the water?
Thanks

The definitive answer to your question is probably, maybe, it depends.
Are you going to be wanting to do some dives of dive trips that require an AOW card?
How many dives do you already have?
How confident are you already?
Have you done a lot of diving with experienced, accomplished divers and been able to pick their brains and emulate their good qualities while picking up on and limiting your adoption of any bad qualities they exhibit?
Have you taken the time to do a lot of reading on good practice vs bad practice and then put those things into practice enough to discover which parts of what you read are valid and which parts are just so much hot air?
Are you sure you are enough of a logical/critical thinker to accurately do the things mentioned above?

Asked the same question in a thread about 2 months ago and got a ton of responses. But my question was posed as "is it worth it for a diver like me?" (vacation diver, warm water) I agree with the questions above to ask yourself.

I am very comfortable around water, so confidence was not a factor when I began diving. I don't think doing 5 dives, each involving a different skill, will develop confidence, but that you may learn something new. I think only practicing/doing will give you confidence.

One of my biggest issues with taking AOW too soon after OW is the deep dive.

I guess just because of where I traveled, I did 8 deep dives (below 60 ft) with 2 of them being 100 ft. in my first 25 dives and was very comfortable. If you're not confident, then will one dive at depth fix that or would the experts here on SB say take the deep dive specialty course (more dives) because that would be better for you?

I was in the dive shop I did my OW course (1998) at the other day and told one of the instructors I was thinking of getting the AOW. He said to be honest, he, knowing from our chats that I go mostly to the Caribbean, would recommend I get the certification on vacation as I would enjoy it more because of the conditions. He had just done a deep water dive with a student in a quarry where the water was 42 degrees at 60 ft. He said although the quarry dive would make me a better diver, that unless I was planning on doing further quarry dives, do it where you like to dive.

I have decided to get the AOW on my next trip in the fall to the Caribbean for one reason. It's for the possibility of a dive shop requiring it although I feel like I've never been shut out of any dives (that supposedly would be considered specialty dives) where I've traveled.