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I think you need to identify what you really want. I suspect you're after a standard AOW course and just choosing specialties you want to learn a bit more about. A lot of the advice here is about additional specialty certifications. Some of them are great, but that's a different question than "which specialties for advanced."

To emphasize the difference, let's say you do a deep dive as part of Advanced. (If you do PADI, you'll have to). But having done that deep dive won't substitute for a deep certification for going to Tech courses. Doing a nitrox dive with Advanced won't get you a Nitrox certification you can later show to get nitrox from an operation that is sticklers for certifications. If an op was really a stickler for dry suit certifications (e.g., let's say you want to rent a suit to dive the wrecks in Scapa Flow), you might not talk them into renting you one without the card even if your advanced certified.

That said, if you get the right instructor you could "count" your advanced dive toward one of the dives for the specialty certifications. E.g., if you did Advanced and Dry suit with the same instructor, you could do a dry suit dive as one of the Advanced dives and then just one extra dive to get the Dry suit certification. But that depends on your instructor being qualified to teach the specialty and willing to do it. (I think instructors may also be able to "refer" to make this happen, but that depends on finding two willing and compatible instructors.)

I'll leave it up to you and others to decide if this kind of linking is a good plan. [sarcasm] I'm sure somebody will say you should do 18 dives in a drysuit to get drysuit certification and the skills should include being horizontal on your back (with no more than 10 cm variation in depth) while blowing air rings. [/sarcasm]

That said, when I teach Advanced my standard protocol is Peak Performance Buoyancy, Navigation, Night, Deep, and Search/Recovery. The rationales are as follows:

1. Buoyancy control is something everybody should work on.
2. Nav is required.
3. Night dives are just plain fun in our area.
4. Deep is required.
5. Search and Recovery is a good thing for folks intending to do Rescue Diver down the road.

I'm certified to do specialties in deep, search and recovery, and drysuit (among others) and would be willing to work with a student wanting to link one of these to Advanced. I can also certify nitrox, but I'd just tell a student to get the nitrox certification first, since it doesn't require a dive. Then they can use nitrox if they want to on dives and we can build a more interesting topic into the Advanced class. If I had high interest (worth my paying PADI for instructor certs), I'd consider linking other specialties. (Not sure why a person would want those others, but you never know.)
 
I did PADI AOW after 6 post OW dives, with a shop on the FL panhandle in winter. Dives were:
Deep (to 63 feet...)
NAV
PPB
Night
Nitrox (the first of the two then required dives for nitrox cert.--got back to my home shop and had to do the whole course again, including the 2 dives to get the cert.--so much for continuing with a different shop). I guess "Nitrox Adventure Dive" qualifies as one of the 5 for AOW-- at least that's what the instructor wrote in my log book.
These were basically what was offered, though the following year I did complete 5 specialties for MSD and added Wreck & Equipment Specialist, so I guess I could've done Wreck as part of AOW if I wanted to.

Sometimes I guess it's not so much what you'd like to do, but what the shop offers at that time. Here in March you can do Ice Diver-- not in Florida.
 
Speaking from experience (I was in OP’s shoes a year and a half ago)...it’s difficult to “dive, dive, dive” when you can’t find a buddy. In my area at least...not a whole lot of folks want to buddy up with a brand new diver. Why? Locally...most everyone that I run into are tech divers. They don’t want a buddy that they’re going to have to babysit. They hear OW cert and x < 20 dives and are like “nope.”

Once I got an AOW cert and 20+ dives under my belt, I had no issue findIng a buddy. Sure...I got a lot out of AOW and I enjoyed the course, but one thing it did for me was open up doors. In terms of finding buddies and opening up diving opportunities. Ex. Deeper stuff.

I agree that divers shouldn’t get caught up in the “buy a card” thing with certs that you haven’t thought over thoroughly, but I think there are a number of good reasons to get your AOW cert early on.
Hello. Not definitive. But a fair definition of "Solo diving."
Cheers.
 
Hello. Not definitive. But a fair definition of "Solo diving."
Cheers.

Unfortunately, the only places that I readily have access to require a solo cert to dive solo (access is strictly controlled). A solo cert is my eventual goal.

I’ve had a regular buddy for a while now, but it would be nice to be able to fall back on a solo card if our plans happen to fall through.
 
Unfortunately, the only places that I readily have access to require a solo cert to dive solo (access is strictly controlled). A solo cert is my eventual goal.

I’ve had a regular buddy for a while now, but it would be nice to be able to fall back on a solo card if our plans happen to fall through.
Hello. Sounds good. There was a thread not long ago in regard to "Solo diving." Something about how your solo career began. I'd like to read it. My first solo dive....was the day I got certified.
I got my "Self-Reliant." certification just this year. Only to get people to shut the f@(% up.
Cheers.
 
Hello. Sounds good. There was a thread not long ago in regard to "Solo diving." Something about how your solo career began. I'd like to read it. My first solo dive....was the day I got certified.
I got my "Self-Reliant." certification just this year. Only to get people to shut the f@(% up.
Cheers.

:cheers:
How Did You Go Solo?
 
Most agencies also have Equipment Specialist specialty that gives you a better understanding of how the equipment works as well as routine maintenance. Again, can be done online and in a shop.
Hello. I highly recommend this. I took this course at Divers Market in Plymouth, Mass. Mainly, because I wanted to Overhaul/Service my own gear to save money. Unbeknownst to me....I would end up working in a shop authorized to service, U.S. Divers, Seaquest, Poseidon.
Cheers.
 
I will always love this book, flicking through it again at the moment

full.jpg


Seems friendlier than the others

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An easy read that shows you how to do different things to supplement your courses of course
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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