Ops requiring AOW certs?

[Doby45]

"Advanced Open Water Diver," it has been pointed out that it should be read literally: someone who has advanced in some prescribed manner beyond Open Water Diver Diver. The name of the cert is not "Advanced Diver."

Funny, looking at my SDI card it says "Advanced Scuba Diver"

 

[Lorenzoid]

Funny, looking at my SDI card it says "Advanced Scuba Diver"

I'm guessing that SDI calls its basic OW cert "Scuba Diver"?

 

[Doby45]

SDI OPEN WATER SCUBA DIVER is what is on my card for Open Water

 

[Lorenzoid]

SDI OPEN WATER SCUBA DIVER is what is on my card for Open Water

Er, maybe they don't print "ADVANCED SDI OPEN WATER SCUBA DIVER" on the card because it's too long. Anyway, if the SDI course is anything like the PADI course, "ADVANCED SCUBA DIVER" does seem like it has the potential to mislead.

 

[BDSC]

My card just says, "A Diving God".

 

[Storker]

As long as my card(s) say(s) "diver", I'm fine.

 

[scubadada]

My card just says, "A Diving God".

Is that equivalent to AOW?

 

[BDSC]

Is that equivalent to AOW?

It's the course right after that.

 

[boulderjohn]

I acknowledge I am biased on this issue, but I would question the logic and rationality of a dive op that would be so regimented as to take an AOW diver with as few as nine open water dives, but would refuse to take an an OW diver who is current, active with several hundred of hours and more than a decade of dive experience, and has a computer dive log covering the past 7 years.

Think it through and you will see why an AOW card is preferred over evaluating a dive log.

Let's say the dive shop's policy requires that divers have AOW for certain dives. You show them the AOW card, do the dive, and die. Your family sues, claiming the dive was beyond your ability. The shop says that the dive requires AOW, and you had AOW. Case closed.

Let's say instead the clerk at the dive shop looked at your log book and decided you had enough experience to do the dive. You do the dive and die. Your family sues, claiming the dive was beyond your ability. The shop says that in the clerk's judgment, you had enough experience. The plaintiff's attorney immediately begins to attack the clerk's judgment. It gets very ugly very fast.

One system requires no judgment on the part of the dive shop that can later be challenged; the other system demands judgment which can later be challenged.

A lot of people share your sentiments. As to the name of the cert, "Advanced Open Water Diver," it has been pointed out that it should be read literally: someone who has advanced in some prescribed manner beyond Open Water Diver Diver. The name of the cert is not "Advanced Diver."

I should have a sticky thread explaining this--I must have written it 30 times in the past couple of years.

In the mid 1960s, there were only a few agencies, and they offered two certifications--Diver and Instructor. In California, there was a huge dropout problem--people were getting certified, doing a few dives, and then quitting. The Los Angeles County certification program was concerned about this, and decided that the best way to encourage people to keep diving was to create a new certification level that would focus on giving divers experience in different kinds of diving, as well as a little more training. The focus of the course was the different dive experiences--they hoped something would pique the divers' interests. When it came to naming this course, the only course beyond the introductory scuba diving course, they decided to call it "Advanced."

NAUI, which was created out of the Los Angeles program, followed suit for the same reason, and before long the other agencies did the same.

 

[scubadada]

Think it through and you will see why an AOW card is preferred over evaluating a dive log.

Let's say the dive shop's policy requires that divers have AOW for certain dives. You show them the AOW card, do the dive, and die. Your family sues, claiming the dive was beyond your ability. The shop says that the dive requires AOW, and you had AOW. Case closed.

Let's say instead the clerk at the dive shop looked at your log book and decided you had enough experience to do the dive. You do the dive and die. Your family sues, claiming the dive was beyond your ability. The shop says that in the clerk's judgment, you had enough experience. The plaintiff's attorney immediately begins to attack the clerk's judgment. It gets very ugly very fast.

One system requires no judgment on the part of the dive shop that can later be challenged; the other system demands judgment which can later be challenged.

I should have a sticky thread explaining this--I must have written it 30 times in the past couple of years.

In the mid 1960s, there were only a few agencies, and they offered two certifications--Diver and Instructor. In California, there was a huge dropout problem--people were getting certified, doing a few dives, and then quitting. The Los Angeles County certification program was concerned about this, and decided that the best way to encourage people to keep diving was to create a new certification level that would focus on giving divers experience in different kinds of diving, as well as a little more training. The focus of the course was the different dive experiences--they hoped something would pique the divers' interests. When it came to naming this course, the only course beyond the introductory scuba diving course, they decided to call it "Advanced."

NAUI, which was created out of the Los Angeles program, followed suit for the same reason, and before long the other agencies did the same.

The LA County program in Basic Scuba had little resemblance to PADI OW. I took both, 1970 and 1997. The basic program included many aspects of AOW and Rescue as well as training for California beach entries. It also taught to be an independent diver, something I did for beach dives in LA, Orange, and San Diego counties as well as ferry trips to Catalina. LA County no longer offers basic scuba, but they do offer a very rigorous advanced program. I eventually took PADI AOW and Rescue, more a decade ago, to make sure my dives were not limited by training. I've never had a question about my ability to do a rec dive.