Advanced OWD or Peak Performancy Bouyancy?

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As an instructor I would reccomend doing the Adventure Dives first, with PPB as one of them. The best thing you can do for bouyancy is dive, dive, and dive some more. But youll get the most out of AOW right now, than after 50 dives when youve done it all.

And yes, tank bouyancy is covered in OW class. PADI tells you to float at eye level with an empty BC for proper weighting, then add a few pounds to take into acct an empty tank.
 
Although in general, I don't have a great opinion of AOW as a class, remember that if you do the PPB dive first, you can work on your buoyancy and trim through the other four dives, and get feedback on that from your instructor, as well as on the ideas from the other dives. Buoyancy is truly a lifetime study -- all of us "practice" it each time we dive.

Just ask your instructor a few questions about his approach to PPB: Are you going to work on proper weighting? Are you going to work on DISTRIBUTING the weight for better trim? Are you going to work on holding stops? My PPB class consisted of the instructor putting some weight on me and taking it off, and putting it on again. It wasn't worth much.
 
Although in general, I don't have a great opinion of AOW as a class, remember that if you do the PPB dive first, you can work on your buoyancy and trim through the other four dives, and get feedback on that from your instructor, as well as on the ideas from the other dives. Buoyancy is truly a lifetime study -- all of us "practice" it each time we dive.

Just ask your instructor a few questions about his approach to PPB: Are you going to work on proper weighting? Are you going to work on DISTRIBUTING the weight for better trim? Are you going to work on holding stops? My PPB class consisted of the instructor putting some weight on me and taking it off, and putting it on again. It wasn't worth much.
The PPB course is only 2 dives and requires far more than just proper weighting. If you dont get a lot more than that, I would report them. I dont see any reason that a student cant ask for the standards from the instructor.
 
PPB is a good course. I did it as one of my certs for AOW. I went directly from OW to AOW. The transition is seamless and its fills in a lot of the gaps with more specific hands-on focus in the water.

Another course to consider after PPB is navigation...know thy compass and how to use it. It becomes increasingly important in low visiblity or night dives when returning to the boat or shore.
 
My personal advice would be
1) Get a little more experience and acquire your own gear
2) Take AOW with PPB as one of the dives
3) Finish PPB by doing the 2nd dive
You can always complete any specialty started in AOW by finishing the requisite dives, deep, navigation, wreck... I think the additional training and experience might be more appreciated and applicable if you were diving your own gear that you already had passing familiarity with.

For what it's worth, good diving, Craig
 
Just ask your instructor a few questions about his approach to PPB: Are you going to work on proper weighting? Are you going to work on DISTRIBUTING the weight for better trim?

I'm sure TSandM knows this already but these are required components of the PPB class - if an instructor is not working on correct weighting and repositioning for trim, they are not keeping to the standards of the course.

I tend to try to get my students to do the PPB dive as the first dive of the AOW course so they have information and techniques that they can practice as they go along. I have seen many divers improve greatly over that one single dive.

I personally believe that AOW should follow straight after OW - people disagree with the class more for the name, I think, than the training that is offered. It doesn't make you an 'Advanced Diver' - it advances your basic Open Water training by furthering your horizons in areas which are useful or in which you may have an interest. Some people suggest that having more diving experience before taking the AOW course is beneficial - I actually disagree; the extra information and techniques you are taught will hopefully give you some grounding on which to base your further experiences.

Expert buoyancy requires experience and practice. It will come with time and it's something that even experienced divers will practice and experiment with. As one of my former instructors used to say: Do you think Tiger Woods practices golf?

Safe diving,

C.
 
Thanks for all your advice.

We met with our instructor the other day and his advice is to take the AOWD course with the following dives: deep, navigation, PPB, multi-level and night. After reading the replies here, we decided to take the AOWD course. We evaluated our dives with our instructor and we realized that our buoyancy aren't really that bad. We could decently hover above corals and/or in midwater without too much flipping of our fins and with very minimal flapping of our arms.

I will also take note of your suggestion of taking the PPB as the first dive of the course and suggest it to our instructor. We hope to do the first part of the course next week. :D

Thanks again and best regards!

Ron
 
Thanks for all your advice.

We met with our instructor the other day and his advice is to take the AOWD course with the following dives: deep, navigation, PPB, multi-level and night. After reading the replies here, we decided to take the AOWD course. We evaluated our dives with our instructor and we realized that our buoyancy aren't really that bad. We could decently hover above corals and/or in midwater without too much flipping of our fins and with very minimal flapping of our arms.

I will also take note of your suggestion of taking the PPB as the first dive of the course and suggest it to our instructor. We hope to do the first part of the course next week. :D

Thanks again and best regards!

Ron

Best of luck!
 
Thanks for all your advice.

We met with our instructor the other day and his advice is to take the AOWD course with the following dives: deep, navigation, PPB, multi-level and night. After reading the replies here, we decided to take the AOWD course. We evaluated our dives with our instructor and we realized that our buoyancy aren't really that bad. We could decently hover above corals and/or in midwater without too much flipping of our fins and with very minimal flapping of our arms.

I will also take note of your suggestion of taking the PPB as the first dive of the course and suggest it to our instructor. We hope to do the first part of the course next week. :D

Thanks again and best regards!

Ron


So much of what course or speciality depends on your instructor. If they are a teacher first and an examiner second, you should do just fine.

So many instructors just run the students through the basic skills and make suggestions on how to do it better. Good instructors teach the skill, then test you ability to perform it.

Have fun!
 
PPB is an often overlooked and undervalued specialty. Buoyancy skills are something that you will use on EVERY dive. Go for the PPB opportunity then the AOW later - especially if you intend on diving beyond 60 feet.
 
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