Advance Open Water Certification

[TheRedHead]

Also, if the tank is bungied in the holder, remove the bungie before putting your reg on the tank, else you will wind up with the boat bungied to your back and it's hard to dive that way. I've heard this called the "Bungie Diver" specialty. (And hook the bungie back around the reg after it's set up so it doesn't crash on your feet!)

Oh yes, I've bungied myself before. I prefer the bungies because you can tip the tank towards you so you don't crush your fingers trying to get the bc on the tank. Some of the boat briefings I've heard were hilarious - particularly in the Keys. "Every once in a while pop up and take a bead on the boat .... and this boat is named .... if you get on the wrong boat by mistake .... try not to get down current of the boat ... wave one of your fins and we'll eventually get to you..."

The most difficult part of boat diving is getting back on the boat in a moderate or high sea. In my limited experience, the only diving accidents I've seen are people getting pitched back off the ladder, getting smacked in the face with the ladder, and being hit by someone falling off the ladder. The ladder itself might make for a course, or at least a seminar.

 

[rescue teen]

well im 13 and have my rescue and2 specilties if it was up to me i would continue your traing and get tas far as u can. the more traing i got with an instructor the more comfortable i feel in the water . plus u can try out specilties and see wich ones you want to get. its worth every cent

 

[TheRedHead]

I would rather dive with an OW diver who actually dove "OPEN" water for his/her cert than someone who is badge chasing his way to AOW or DM in a lake.

While I was living in Northern California I was always amazed at how many people got certed in Folsom lake...it's only a 2 hour drive to Monterey. One of those people was my wife. It took a lot of dives to get her used to blue water, boats, etc.. A real disservice on the part of her instructor if you ask me. But that is another topic.

Obviously, I'm a blue water diver, but I occasionally dive in a quarry when I want to practice skills or test new equipment. I'm not fond of lake diving (all the local LDS diving is lake diving). You're right in that it doesn't prepare you for ocean conditions. People around here think that since they were certified in a lake with bad viz that they can dive anywhere (that is the LDS line). You can have bad viz and waves and ripping currents.

I took a local SSI Wreck class and got credit for my previous wreck dives. I took the SSI Deep Class and had 15 students in it, taking it only for the reason that AOW was required for the LDS Key Largo trip to dive the deeper wrecks. I got credit again for my Deep dives so I have 2 SSI class credits without any dives with the instructors. I also have PADI AOW. I want to dive the more challenging wrecks in NC so I think I'm going to take wreck again with an instructor in the area. I have dived several deep wrecks in the Caribbean and in Florida, but I'm not confident of my ability to dive the deeper wrecks in North Carolina.

People take advanced classes for a lot of reasons. I've never known any badge chasers, but I don't hang out at the local lake.

 

[Azza]

Yeah...I just love diving with people who have done OW, PPB, AOW, Nav, and Rescue...and that accounts for 98% of their dives. Badge chasers scare the hell outta me.

Well I have OW, PPB, AOW, Nav and Rescue but I can asure you they about 1% of my dives. I also did not care if I got a c card for them, I did them for the knowledge. IMHO I believe that all of these combined should constitute the OW course, however the market is not dictating that at this point in time, and in this day and age of "Instant Gratification" it is unlikely to in the near future.

My original point was that I require these, or experience in these, for me to be able to trust my buddy implicitly. However it is, sadly, no guarantee that even though they have these certs they are proficient in these area's.
I quite often dive with new OW divers and while I enjoy diving with newbies and helping them improve their diving, I dont have faith that in the unlikely event of an emergency, they will be able to help either themselves or me out.

In fact there are about 3 people in the world that I fully and unconditionally trust. These are the buddies whom I dive with for maximum diving pleasure

 

[rowgaf]

I got my C card and my LDS really stressed certification to Rescue. I decided I would wait until I had a couple of dives under my belt so I would know what to dives to choose for my AOW. In the meantime I visited another LDS that advised me to join a dive club. I did and met the best bunch of divers in the world. They took me under their wings and now I regularly dive the NJ coast. I've only logged 35 dives but I've only been certified a little over a year. Most dives are 90-130 feet. Haven't gotten around to AOW, yet.

 

[Azza]

I got my C card and my LDS really stressed certification to Rescue. I decided I would wait until I had a couple of dives under my belt so I would know what to dives to choose for my AOW. In the meantime I visited another LDS that advised me to join a dive club. I did and met the best bunch of divers in the world. They took me under their wings and now I regularly dive the NJ coast. I've only logged 35 dives but I've only been certified a little over a year. Most dives are 90-130 feet. Haven't gotten around to AOW, yet.

I agree that dive clubs are awesome. The best way to learn is to have a mentor and dive clubs are often a great place to meet a potential mentor.

 

[String]

The way the system works here evidentally wont apply the same to a commercial environment but before you can actually qualify as the next grade up you need to have done xxxx dives in yyyy conditions SINCE qualifying at the previous grade.This does mean you dont get people with all the qualifications yet all their dives were in a muddy puddle training - the divers do actually have some experience. Example for the dive leader grade after completing the course training you need to log a further 20 dives or 600 minutes before its finished. I dont see a reason why a similar system couldnt be extended to school type diving agencies. In other words, get OW, then get say 10 dives in (cant be training dives), THEN you can enrol on AOW and so on. Yes it'd take longer and for all but OW wont be a 2 day resort wonder but it does give experience.

I agree about the club system being good to learn. In my case my instructors are also friends and regular buddys and now ive moved up the food chain the cycle is repeating- the senior instructors are still there to train me and im there to train newcomers etc.

 

[Azza]

The way the system works here evidentally wont apply the same to a commercial environment but before you can actually qualify as the next grade up you need to have done xxxx dives in yyyy conditions SINCE qualifying at the previous grade.This does mean you dont get people with all the qualifications yet all their dives were in a muddy puddle training - the divers do actually have some experience. Example for the dive leader grade after completing the course training you need to log a further 20 dives or 600 minutes before its finished. I dont see a reason why a similar system couldnt be extended to school type diving agencies. In other words, get OW, then get say 10 dives in (cant be training dives), THEN you can enrol on AOW and so on. Yes it'd take longer and for all but OW wont be a 2 day resort wonder but it does give experience.

I agree about the club system being good to learn. In my case my instructors are also friends and regular buddys and now ive moved up the food chain the cycle is repeating- the senior instructors are still there to train me and im there to train newcomers etc.

From what I have heard and seen of the BSAC system, I like it.
I am trying to get something *similar* happening with our local dive club.

 

[Sylvain]

The Goverments (US and CANADA) have just deceided to apply the scuba training theory to the department of transportation

YES everybody no matter what experience they have, will now have to qualify for NIGHT DRIVING, HIGHWAY DRIVING and also EMERGENCY SITUATION by attending different courses. The fee for each courses is 275-425 each depending on if you want 1 or 2 extra driving session each course will include a 30 min refresher sometime 5 min (in class) and one 25 to 45 min behind the wheel practice yes lets remember there will be 1 instructor and 6-8 student in different cars or 18 wheelers at the same time supervised by the instructor. WOW this will really make me feel better knowing that everybody will have all that experience.

 

[1RUSTYRIG]

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My original point was that I require these, or experience in these, for me to be able to trust my buddy implicitly. However it is, sadly, no guarantee that even though they have these certs they are proficient in these area's.
I quite often dive with new OW divers and while I enjoy diving with newbies and helping them improve their diving, I dont have faith that in the unlikely event of an emergency, they will be able to help either themselves or me out.

And I wholeheartedly agree with you. My only point was certs aren't worth the paper their written on in some cases (badge chasers). For instance, several weekends ago my wife and I were taking our AOW at a local lake. There was a gentleman in his late 50's early 60's that just took up diving. He told me that he is well on his way to his DM cert...He had been diving for a month :O So we will now have, in probably another month or two, a DM who is in his silver years, overweight, who has only dove fresh and has the bare minimum # of dives to cert. I don't know about you, but that scares the crap out of me.

Back to my original point, I would rather have a seasoned OW "blue" diver with a variety of dive locations/conditions under their belt than a badge chasing lake diver. Just my opinion of course...