Adv Open water cert question.

[Clayton122]

I am a new diver. I have only been diving for a couple of years now. My first few dives were discover scuba dives down in Mexico. I completed my open water earlier this year down in Dominican Republic.

I will be doing my PADI Adv Open water dives in 2 months at Haigh Quarry down in Kankakee IL.

The organization that I am going through ( Learn Scuba Chicago ) will require 5 adventure dives.

They require 3 of the dives already to be Deep Dive, Peak bouyency, and underwater navigation.

My 2 other adv dives will be Nitrox, and Wreck dive.

When I signed up for the Adv class, I was given a book, told to read it, and show up for the dives.

I do not feel that the book ( Padi Adventures in diving ) did a very good job of explaining the details of these objectives though, and really only gives a very broad overview.

My question is this, for anyone else who has went through this.

I have read the book, but feel incredibly unprepared for these dives.

For example, on wreck diving, the book doesnt really cover the anchoring of a lead line to get in the event of viz loss. It mentions it in passing, but no real detail. How to evaluate a wreck to determine if it is safe to enter. Things like that.

On Nitrox it really covers nothing at all.

Will these dives cover these things in your experience? Will I be adequitley prepared after doing these dives to utilize these tools in my recreational diving?

 

[RainPilot]

No you won't be prepared. The AOW is there to add depth to your card, no other privilege will be conferred. The idea of the other dives is to give you an intro to some different types of diving so that you can take the appropriate speciality if your interest has been piqued.

The wreck dive will NOT allow you to enter wrecks except in the most benign circumstances. The use of line is hotly debated on the rec wreck level, but AFAIK PADI does not require it in AOW.

You will also not be allowed to dive Nitrox after the course. I would change the nitrox dive to a night dive as that is at least a different experience. An AOW nitrox dive will feel exactly the same to you as a diver within the bounds of the course dives, not a lot to learn there. Better off doing a nitrox course on its own.

YMMV etc etc

 

[bmbeaty]

Advanced open water is just an overview to allow you to test out interests. If you want to really know how do any of the skills you do the specialty. Should it be more/with an instructor who goes above and beyond will you get more? Sure. In practice it's usually just an instructor monitored tasted of the different specialties to allow you to see what you would like to do under supervision of a skilled diver.

 

[tursiops]

Nitrox has its own manual. They are being disingenuous by offering it as an adventure dive; no dives are required if you take the actual Nitrox class. Better to request/demand Night, or Search&Recovery, instead of Nitrox.

The Wreck adventure dive is just swimming around a wreck and looking for points of possible danger (rusty sharp metal, entangling wires, broken glass, etc), directly supervised by an instructor (not a divemaster). The AOW book is sufficient. Peak Buoyancy is NOT required by PADI, but it is a good thing to do, especially as the first dive of the AOW; comfortable diving depends on good weighting and buoyancy. Navigation is a good dive; most learn a lot from it. Take it seriously!

 

[TMHeimer]

One of my AOW dives was "Nitrox Adventure Dive", but back then two dives were required for Nitrox Cert. (Side note, the other shop I did the cert. with required I do the whole course with them anyway).
Yes, AOW is just an overview and the dives just the first of the several required for each specialty cert. With the Wreck dive I would assume it does not include any penetration (could be wrong). On the last Wreck specialty dive we did limited penetration. Other than penetration, what great info. is needed to "Wreck" dive--wear gloves, don't go near a porthole that may suck you in, don't go near something that may break and fall on you? Or maybe to research the wreck for your own interest and to find out what you can or can't touch or remove--gee, seems logical, no? Not much to it. I did all the knowledge reviews in the Adventures book just for the heck of it. It's just a card that some dive ops require to go below 60'--you'll be fine. Hey I was shown how to tie 3 knots on S & R dive (couldn't really do them until DM Course, now I can teach someone else something they may never never use).

 

[Diver0001]

The wreck dive will NOT allow you to enter wrecks except in the most benign circumstances.

Actually, within certain limits this is allowed in the PADI system but only during the specialty course. This is one case where depending on the instructor the adventure dive is hardly worth getting kitted up for but the specialty can actually be quite good if you have a decent instructor. To make something of this dive I teach students how to lay a line so they at least learn some kind of new skill. They then use a reel to measure the dimensions of the wreck and then make a "mock up" of what they remember of it using "sidewalk chalk" in the parking lot after the dive. This turns what is otherwise a waste of time into something interesting and fun. The wreck I use for this is small and shallow, about 12 meters long and 9m depth but visibility on this particular wreck is usually horrendous which makes it a challenging enough dive for a first go at laying a line and getting some kind of orientation. Key to this, of course is that I do all my OW dives with 2:1 ratios. If you were in a large group, there's not much you can do with this dive except swim around and wish you were learning something about wreck diving.

That said, maybe the OP has found an dive center with access to a very interesting wreck and like I said, with the right instructor it doesn't need to be a waste of time.

You will also not be allowed to dive Nitrox after the course. I would change the nitrox dive to a night dive as that is at least a different experience. An AOW nitrox dive will feel exactly the same to you as a diver within the bounds of the course dives, not a lot to learn there. Better off doing a nitrox course on its own.

Definitely agree with that. You have to get nitrox certified to get anything useful out of it.

R..

 

[2airishuman]

For example, on wreck diving, the book doesnt really cover the anchoring of a lead line to get in the event of viz loss. It mentions it in passing, but no real detail. How to evaluate a wreck to determine if it is safe to enter. Things like that.

On Nitrox it really covers nothing at all.

Will these dives cover these things in your experience? Will I be adequitley prepared after doing these dives to utilize these tools in my recreational diving?

For AOW classes, the background of the other students and their level of preparation will vary widely. It would not be unusual for the instructor to focus on the students who need the most help. There is supposed to be a brief classroom component before each dive.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Your instructor should explain the performance requirements for each dive and how strictly he/she interprets them.

Like many courses (not all), it really depends on the instructor and over what timeframe you will conduct the dives. Different instructors may allow you to choose 3 adventure dives, as navigation and deep are the only ones mandated by PADI (I'm assuming we are talking PADI here). I'm definitely not the instructor for everyone, as my students get to choose zero (the adventure dives in my program are PPB, navigation, night, self-reliant, and deep).

Nitrox as an adventure dive doesn't make any sense to me. Nitrox is a course you definitely want to take as a separate specialty, though no dives are required.

I'd recommend getting James (Jim) Lapenta's second book on AOW training. Use it to help you determine what exactly you want to get out of AOW and who would be the right instructor for you. Do you want just a c-card that you are pretty much guaranteed to get after 5 dives. Or do you want to meet strict interpretations of the performance standards that require beyond 5 dives. That is a personal choice and the right instructor for your objectives exists. You may just need to do a bit of homework/interviewing to find him or her.

 

[AdivingBel]

For me AOW was mainly about getting additional dives with an instructor after diving on my own enough after OW to be able to let the dives "slow down" so I could formulate my own questions. I went into the course with the idea that while the "specialty" dives were a nice, interesting structure for the course, I was going to watch, learn, & ask questions in order to further my own diving needs regardless of the specialty. By approaching the class in this manner I improved my trim, buoyancy, propulsion, better ways to rig my gear, better ways to prep, etc. etc. under the eye of an instructor. This combined with pushing my own envelope with deeper dives with an instructor present, were the real strengths of the cert. I've seen where folks say they don't get much from AOW, but how can dives with an instructor (if he/she's any good at all and enjoys diving him/herself) be a waste of time especially this early in your diving progression? I feel like I really benefited from the "free form" structure of the course. Like many things in life, you get out of it what you put into it. Then again maybe I just lucked into a patient instructor that really enjoyed sharing his craft.

 

[tursiops]

(the adventure dives in my program are PPB, navigation, night, self-reliant, and deep).

So you only accept AOW students who have 100+ logged dives?