Getting AOW in cozumel

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mattspiral8

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Location
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hey guys, im curious if anyone here has done their AOW course in Cozumel. Are there dive operations there that offer "free" AOW course if you book a 5-7 day diving package with them or even at a discounted price?
 
Doubtful, but anything is negotiable.....but plenty of shops willing to offer you the training for a fee.
 
You want to learn something or just the card? AOW is a PADI class that can have a wide variety of how it's taught unfortunately.
 
Why bother. I've been diving since 1974 with just an open water cert. Not the card that makes you Advanced its your skills. Just ask the divemasters you go with for some pointers on how to improve yourself and they are more than willing to help you at no cost. If you are doing 5 days of 2 tanks you should be able to pick up and practice the suggestions of the divemasters!
 
No such thing as an AOW cert for free regardless of how many dives you may book with a dive op. The PADI certs are all about $ and generating $ for PADI and PADI affiliated dive ops. My experience is similar to that of another who posted... I've been diving with a basic OW for 18? years now. If you want to spend more $ to achieve a higher Cert level that is your option but true skills are developed over time. Heck, if one spends enough $ PADI and affiliated dive ops can certify a 15 year old as a "Master Diver" (the highest common cert offered other than DM certs) with just 50 dives logged. The next cert I'd get if I were you is the enriched air/Nitrox cert and you can do that on line.
 
There’s nothing really advanced about the AOW cert. Spend your money on more dives to get more experienced and then do Peak Performance Buoyancy instead. Good buoyancy is one of the most important things that will help you become a more advanced diver.
 
hey guys, im curious if anyone here has done their AOW course in Cozumel. Are there dive operations there that offer "free" AOW course if you book a 5-7 day diving package with them or even at a discounted price?

Definitely inquire with the dive shop, but generally equipment is included in those dives, along with an instructor (think private dm) and the course will usually include two 2-tank boat trips. Nav dives are usually done from the shore. So, it's spendy, but it does cover some dive cost and if you don't have equipment it covers rental.

As far as cards go, this is one that can be useful if you dive somewhere that insists on the AOW card to go deeper than 60 feet. You can read stories from people that have been diving for decades, have hundreds if not thousands of dives and are denied dives deeper than 60 feet because they only have an OW card. Cozumel isn't one of those places.
 
Dressel Divers offers "free advanced diving courses" and since there are 5 required adventure dives, you'll purchase some kind of dive package with them. Booking online gives you a 20% discount but it is also the only way to book the dives.

Dressel on Coz is located at the Iberostar resort. I took the "free AOW" (which is how it was advertised at the time) a couple of years ago when I stayed in Playa Del Carmen. One of the days we did 2 dives in Coz, one of which was the deep dive for the AOW. The dives work out to be really cheap $$. We did an 11 dive package which included cenotes and a night dive.

Plusses: low cost, well organized op, communicated through WhatsApp, all transportation included, stored our gear, initial contact and booking was pretty easy even though it's through their home base in Spain, being in Coz you should get to dive some great sites (PDC wasn't so great)

Minuses: resort op, so 45-50 min dives (2 cenote dives at about 40 min each)

I'm a vacation diver and my only goal was to get the card at a good price and only for the purpose that if I ever ran into some op that required it for a particular dive, I'd have it. Reading (actually skimming through) sections on the 5 dives I did for AOW were good in the respect it refreshed my memory on some things but the dives were nothing I had to train for and the skill/knowledge to pass them was pretty easy. Dressel was exactly what I was looking for. But like others have indicated, if you want to become a better diver, take the course with an op that will really teach you something.
 
If you really want to learn something, take the search and rescue...AOW is a prerequisite.
 
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