AOW questions

[Aloha Joe]

I figured I'd do AOW as it's the next step in the PADI progression. Around here (SoCal) one needs deeper water certification to go on the 'advanced' dive boats. I just came online to find out which is the right book, and my search brought me to people questing the need or logic for AOW, as opposed to individual adventure dives or some kind of custom package. So...

1) What's the right book for AOW - Adventures in Diving, or Advanced Open Water manual? It seems obvious but the packets I see sold online seem to have the Adventures in Diving book

2) What is the most common alternative to AOW, if there is such a thing? Deep water, buoyancy control, search/rescue, navigation, and wreck diving are all things I'm interested in expanding on. I don't know much about enriched air but I assume that will need to fit into the equation at some point.

 

[boulderjohn]

The books you see are really the same thing, but PADI changed its AOW course last year. If you buy a used book online, it will probably be for the old course. If you contract with an instructor for the course, the price will usually include the book. It might save you a few bucks to buy a used one online, but it won't save you a dime if it is outdated.

 

[tursiops]

There is no "AOW Manual." You want the Adventures in Diving.

ADDED: this statement is wrong. See post #31.

On ScubaBoard, you will be advised to just take the specialties you are interested in, rather than the first dive of 5 specialties, which is what AOW is. There is no disadvantage to taking AOW, of course, if you are actually interested in those 5 specialties; it is just a way to do the first dive of each one, for usually a pretty good price. So the key is to not waste any of those five dives. You MUST take Deep and Navigation; both are useful, no real argument. Your own interests should drive what the remaining three are, but many dive shops will tell you what they are and tell you to suck it up. Luckily, there are lots of dive shops to choose from. Some popular choices are Peak Performance Buoyancy (good for weighting, trim, and fin kicks), Night (if you've never done that), Search and Recovery (some useful skills, and fun to do), and Wreck (the first dive is not so interesting but the full specialty is). Don't waste a dive on Nitrox; take the class, but just do it in parallel with the other dives (there is no dive associated with it). If you are a eco-person, you might find Underwater Naturalist and/or Fish ID fun and interesting, if they are taught by someone who knows something about the subject (most instructors do not).

 

[Diver0001]

I figured I'd do AOW as it's the next step in the PADI progression. Around here (SoCal) one needs deeper water certification to go on the 'advanced' dive boats. I just came online to find out which is the right book, and my search brought me to people questing the need or logic for AOW, as opposed to individual adventure dives or some kind of custom package. So...

1) What's the right book for AOW - Adventures in Diving, or Advanced Open Water manual? It seems obvious but the packets I see sold online seem to have the Adventures in Diving book

2) What is the most common alternative to AOW, if there is such a thing? Deep water, buoyancy control, search/rescue, navigation, and wreck diving are all things I'm interested in expanding on. I don't know much about enriched air but I assume that will need to fit into the equation at some point.

AOW consists of doing 5 adventure dives, one of which must be deep and one of which must be navigation. To make it 5 you combine it with 3 adventure dives of your own choosing. PPB (buoyancy control) is a common recommendation. Since you are diving in open ocean, "drift" might be a good option for you and since you are in to wreck diving then you could take that.

There is a lot of push-and-shove about people's (generally negative) opinion of the utility of the advanced certification. I'm a PADI instructor and I'm not overly enthusiastic about the way AOW is generally approached. I'd much prefer to see students take two specialties (deep and navigation) and combine it with three other adventure dives. That way the core part of the course gets the attention it needs. That obviously makes the course more valuable but also more expensive and it's hard for students to see the value in that until after the fact, which is what leads to a lot of the moaning about it.

So if you asked me personally how I think it should be approached in order to get the most value out of the available offerings, I would recommend taking a deep specialty and a navigation specialty first and then the other adventure dives whenever you feel like it. It doesn't need to all be done at the same time in order to get your AOW. Whenever you qualify you can apply for the card.

R..

 

[TASCPA]

If you're looking for the individual books or manuals/DVD's you may want to consider doing it online. Did all of the book work online via PADI eLearning. Believe it was $165. Here are the topics:

Review of OW
Peak Performance Buoyancy
Deep Diving
Night Diving
Wreck Diving
Underwater Navigation
Boat Diving
Underwater Naturalist
AOW Exam

Made it really easy to get it all done on one trip. All I had to do is get the dives I wanted done. You're in SoCal so either getting an instructor to work with on all of it or even just the diving part should be "easy" compared to CO.

 

[tursiops]

AOW consists of doing 5 adventure dives, one of which must be deep and one of which must be navigation. To make it 5 you combine it with 3 adventure dives of your own choosing. PPB (buoyancy control) is a common recommendation. Since you are diving in open ocean, "drift" might be a good option for you and since you are in to wreck diving then you could take that.

There is a lot of push-and-shove about people's (generally negative) opinion of the utility of the advanced certification. I'm a PADI instructor and I'm not overly enthusiastic about the way AOW is generally approached. I'd much prefer to see students take two specialties (deep and navigation) and combine it with three other adventure dives. That way the core part of the course gets the attention it needs. That obviously makes the course more valuable but also more expensive and it's hard for students to see the value in that until after the fact, which is what leads to a lot of the moaning about it.

So if you asked me personally how I think it should be approached in order to get the most value out of the available offerings, I would recommend taking a deep specialty and a navigation specialty first and then the other adventure dives whenever you feel like it. It doesn't need to all be done at the same time in order to get your AOW. Whenever you qualify you can apply for the card.

R..

Well, Yes, except you can't do the Deep specialty unless you are an Adventure Diver, i.e. have done three Adventure dives (the first of each specialty), and have the Adventure Diver certification, or have the AOW certification. So the only practical way to do what you suggest is AOW, then three more deep dives to finish the Deep specialty, and two more navigation dives to finish the Underwater Navigator specialty.

 

[Scubatude]

AOW consists of doing 5 adventure dives, one of which must be deep and one of which must be navigation. To make it 5 you combine it with 3 adventure dives of your own choosing. PPB (buoyancy control) is a common recommendation. Since you are diving in open ocean, "drift" might be a good option for you and since you are in to wreck diving then you could take that.

There is a lot of push-and-shove about people's (generally negative) opinion of the utility of the advanced certification. I'm a PADI instructor and I'm not overly enthusiastic about the way AOW is generally approached. I'd much prefer to see students take two specialties (deep and navigation) and combine it with three other adventure dives. That way the core part of the course gets the attention it needs. That obviously makes the course more valuable but also more expensive and it's hard for students to see the value in that until after the fact, which is what leads to a lot of the moaning about it.

So if you asked me personally how I think it should be approached in order to get the most value out of the available offerings, I would recommend taking a deep specialty and a navigation specialty first and then the other adventure dives whenever you feel like it. It doesn't need to all be done at the same time in order to get your AOW. Whenever you qualify you can apply for the card.

R..

I "mostly" agree with this. I completely agree that DEEP and Navigation specialties (when properly taught) are invaluable, and IMHO should be required. However, completing the AOW first, allows the students more time with an instructor, more time in the water working on refined buoyancy and trim, some experience with both deep and nav before paying for the specialty, and time determining if their AOW instructor is up to the task of teaching a proper Deep and Navigation specialty. It also knocks off the first dive of each specialty for the student if done first. It is win/win, and gives the students the most experience and value.

This is just my opinion, respectfully submitted.

 

[Diver0001]

Well, Yes, except you can't do the Deep specialty unless you are an Adventure Diver, i.e. have done three Adventure dives (the first of each specialty), and have the Adventure Diver certification, or have the AOW certification. So the only practical way to do what you suggest is AOW, then three more deep dives to finish the Deep specialty, and two more navigation dives to finish the Underwater Navigator specialty.

Yeah, I should have explained that better.

UW navigator can be done straight out of OW. For adventure diver you need 3 adventure dives, so in order to take the deep specialty as I was suggesting you need to do one other adventure dive somewhere a long the the way.

Since the first navigation dive and the first deep dive count as an adventure dives you don't need to make 5 extra dives as (I believe if I read it correctly) is being suggested by tursiops. You only need to make one extra dive. A night dive is a nice way to get into that since in a lot of places you'll be in the dark during your deep dives. For a deep specialty we always do a PPB dive ahead of time as a check out to make sure the diver is sorted in terms of buoyancy control. That's the most common option instructors offer around here.

Either way the point is moot. Hardly anyone takes navigation specialties, even though it's one of the few specialties that can REALLY make a difference to how confident you are without a guide to follow around and few take the deep specialty around here because it's cold, dark and muddy at those depths. When I took AOW taking deep and navigation specialties was the only option he offered. If you didn't like it you needed to go somewhere else for training. 30-odd years on and I still think it's a good idea.

R..

 

[scubadada]

I didn't know that operators in SoCal required AOW for some of their dives. It shouldn't surprise me, I've been out of the area for some time and only periodically dive in San Diego. It's not a big deal to satisfy the AOW requirement, do what others have suggested, deep and navigation and 3 other worthwhile electives. I did PPB, DPV. and wreck. I had a good instructor and ended up finishing PPB and DPV. I have rented a DPV on a few occasions and the cert was useful. You should choose the specialties that are most useful to you for you current diving profile. It might be a good way to do you first night dive if you haven't already done some, I followed a different route and did them independently.

 

[boulderjohn]

I didn't know that operators in SoCal required AOW for some of their dives.

How could you have missed this?