I am taking the SSI AOW courses.Deep Diving,Nav,Boat,Night /Limited..(money wasnt a problem,I just wanted to do it for off season).So far I have done the Nav classroom,it was ok,learned something and wasnt just "given" the cert.I will be taking the other classroom lessons soon,I have read the books and watched the videos and what I can see,Boat diving.Night /Limited is a joke.The deep diving I'm not sure about yet,but seems to be some to learn from the book/videos and classroom.I have yet to do the the dives for each course(its cold),but when the weather is back,and we get to do the dives,I will be doing them with what seems to me to be a competent instructor,(already have nitrox).I wish I could have traded a couple of courses for others,but this is what his AOW is.The reason I say all this is about a comment earlier.After talking with the instructor,when we do the cert dives,he did say I was welcome to go diving with them whenever they went,no charge, except my air and usual expense.To me,,that will give more time with the instructor,at no charge,to pick his brain more,to get basically personal instruction.And yes,this will boost my self esteem,confidence and learning.But this is just me.I have read and been told,,dont take dry suite class if I have a friend that cant teach me,,,thats cool,but will probably take the class anyway,cause I want to.I have always been an education,classroom person,,some classes good,,some suck.I wish I could say why I like this instructor and we get along good,,,but that is in LDS bashing thread..But I did find a way to get along with an LDS withe respect to each other...ie....local purchase as opposed to online..No,,I;m not interested in haveing a pocket full of cards,but after all the reading,I am looking forward to the rescue class when I get up to that point.