AOW & Nitrox course - What to expect?

[caruso]

Only a waste if the student think it’s a waste.

Nah. Students don't have a clue. If they did, and they had half a brain, they'd use the 5 AOW specialty dives to further their diving skills which is what the vast majority of AOW students do nowadays, after PADI (and all the other dive organizations as far as I know) realized that dives are not necessary or useful for the Nitrox certification.

 

[Marie13]

Only a waste if the student think it’s a waste. If they find value in me walking through it “wet” after having learned it “dry,” that Is entirely their choice.

Are you saying that if a student came to do their AOW course already nitrox certified that you wouldn’t help them much if they had nitrox-related questions? That’s the way it sounds.

 

[tursiops]

Unfortunately, in most cases, c-cards are purchased rather than earned.

This could be viewed as an insult to an awful lot of instructors.

 

[JackD342]

Are you saying that if a student came to do their AOW course already nitrox certified that you wouldn’t help them much if they had nitrox-related questions? That’s the way it sounds.

Nope! Just saying I don’t impose my opinion of what is or isn’t a waste onto the student’s choices.

 

[caruso]

Nope! Just saying I don’t impose my opinion of what is or isn’t a waste onto the student’s choices.

What IS your opinion regarding making Nitrox one of the 5 AOW specialties?

 

[JackD342]

Being careful of using the word “making”...
Better to do a different dive, but some students are looking for the “minimum effort” to get the AOW done, and that is a valid option, if they choose to go that way.
And frankly, when doing AOW at the quarry, a student may find others of the limited options less atractive.

 

[Disco King]

Maybe you can train with Luke Inman (lukeinman.com) before you get on the boat? While I haven't met him in person nor seen him teach, I've heard very good things about his dive op from some equally retentive instructors like me.

An AOW course can be really valuable if the instructor requires you to master the skills instead of checking off that you completed them. When I taught in the PADI system, I chose the adventure dives (PPB, DSMB, and night). The PPB adventure dive was a gatekeeper. My student who is now getting a GUE technical fundies pass took about 5 tries before being allowed to continue on. If your buoyancy and trim are not of sufficient quality, the navigation, especially during the night dive, are going to be a mess.

And don't beat yourself up about a bad OW course. You don't know what you don't know. You and I could possible argue back and forth on who had the worse class! Oh the violations......

Thank you, wetb4igetinthewater! I will look into Luke Inman and GUE! PPB sounds great. What is DSMB? We can start to argue about who's was worse For my Open water, the instructor gave a written exam on the boat. Wind blow the paper and the instructor announced 'PASS'

 

[Marie13]

There’s a reason I call AOW a “sampler platter.” Very glad I did not do it myself (I did SDI Advanced with 4 specialties and min 25 dives needed to get Advanced rating). I’ve heard of people using Fish ID as one of their AOW dives?!

 

[jonhall]

So I wanted to ensure I get quality of education on my continuing education

IMO, getting a "quality of education" in a PADI AOW course shouldn't be your expectation. AOW is only meant to give you an experience in a skill (you may or may not already be familiar with) that will allow you to have more fun with diving. As mentioned in another reply, taking a specialty course may be more beneficial/educational.

Makes sense! The shop in MX I contacted proposed 1 Nitrox dive as one of the specialty dive options so I did not know it is just theory. Thanks!

I was one of those people who simply wanted to take the course to get my c-card just in case the future takes me to a dive op that won't let me deep dive, wreck dive, etc... without the certification. Knew I would take the course while on a trip to the Caribbean because of the water conditions although I admit taking it at home from my LDS and in a quarry would have made me a better diver (but being a vacation diver, quarries aren't what I dive in.)

Probably smart to do eLearning (as long as you know the dive op you'll do the dives with) as I did the bookwork nights while on our trip. When at the dive op, one of the instructors simply went through the questions at the end of the specialty section in the book. At the end, I took a 25 question test. Another guy missed too many questions, which the instructor reviewed with him. He then retook the test, still missed to many questions, and reviewed again. The instructor then gave the test again but left the previously corrected one on the table which the guy could have used to make sure he didn't miss any! I got a deal on the nitrox course on a trip about a year later at a resort on Grand Cayman which was through eLearning. Again did most of the online work at night and took the final test in the dive op office. Used an analyzer and worked with my computer, but had come down with a bug so didn't get to do a dive although that was included in the cost of the course.

Don't know if that shop in MX was including the Nitrox dive in the cost of the AOW course, but I would guess there would be an extra fee as there are different materials for the nitrox course. If not, I would have jumped on that deal and dropped one of the other dives I did for my AOW, like the boat diver or fish identification.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Thank you, wetb4igetinthewater! I will look into Luke Inman and GUE! PPB sounds great. What is DSMB? We can start to argue about who's was worse

DSMB is the Delayed Surface Marker Buoy. It is a new standard specialty. There is no student manual for it, so I wrote one for my students (the VP of products, Ted Moreta, wasn't interested in it unfortunately).

So for the PPB, I'd have my students frog kick as part of traveling over a sensitive bottom (silty), and they had to do so smoothly, and everyone has needed practice sessions before moving onto the next one, navigation. I felt quite strongly that in order for a student to be task loaded with navigation, they had to be able to fin smoothly and have good buoyancy and trim, otherwise students have a tendency to rise as they go fin. For the night, students had a lot of difficulty with navigating a triangle, as they needed to keep their depth constant, as if they followed the bottom, they'd wind up nowhere near the starting point. Deep has weak requirement, so I didn't do anything special there. DSMB, they had to deploy from midwater without much change in depth, and when ascending, they had to stop, and keep the line tight when working through the performance requirements. All that, for a relatively new diver, that's just not happening in 5 dives.

I'd have a good conversation with the dive op you choose about your expectations and their standards for training. I guess you want to be challenged and work hard for improving your diving skills. Sounds like to me that GUE fundies/UTD essentials/ISE basics are better options, but logistics may prevent that.

For my Open water, the instructor gave a written exam on the boat. Wind blow the paper and the instructor announced 'PASS'

Now that's funny! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Oh, the image in my mind: wind blows exam into the water. Instructor looks at the papers fly away, thinks "oh s__t! Now what I'm gong to do? .... I know!", and says .....