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That is almost forgotten. The Advanced Plus Diver. I beleive it's on it's way out the door though... In my opinion it should be the other way around. The course is more extensive than the AOW course, just like the name suggests.

The AOW course is 5 dives on 2 days that is about 15 total hours of training.

The AOW Plus course is 9 dives on 4 days that is about 35 hours of training. In addition to 4 other types of diving exposure with a trained professional, it also includes a CPR requirement and a Diving theory requirement.

Perhaps the standards of the regular AOW course should be replaced with those of the Plus course...

Mario :D
 
I think you're correct about it being on it's way out. PADI has already killed it, it is no longer listed in their level chart. I was told this is due to very little interest in it, most people go for the Rescue instead.

But it appears that PADI stole my idea, well sorta anyway.:) I just looked and the "Adventure Diver" is now on their list, it includes 3 dives from the list of speacialties. And when you complete 2 more different speacialtie dives you become the "Advanced OW Diver". I think this course will also soon disappear. Pitty they didn't follow the rest of my advice.:)

 
..........."Advanced" courses being offered. With it's elimination PADI no longer has a decent "Advanced" course. It would have made more sense, from a training viewpoint, to eliminate Advanced and keep Advanced Plus. Looks like marketing still rules.

YMCA's Silver Star Advanced is still available and is still an excellent course. I'm not very thrilled with NAUI's "Advanced" course either.

PADI's Advanced Open Water Diver Course is listed as exactly like that in the Instructor Manual, not as "Adventures in Diving." I agree that would be a much more appropriate name.

Walter
 
I really like the SSI system...
After 12 logged dives, you are "Level Two"
Two specialties and 12 logged dives earns "Specialty Diver"
After 24 logged dives, you are "Level Three"
Four specialties and 24 logged dives earns "Advanced Diver"
After 50 logged dives, you are "Level Four"
Five specialties, one of which must be Rescue and 50 logged dives earns "Master Diver"
After 100 logged dives, you are "Level Five" and can get a "Century Diver" - you can get a special "Century Diver" card.
IOW, SSI has "experience recognition" with the levels, and "training recognition" with the rating system.
I like it.
Rick
 
I think you all would be surprised on the accident rate on aow compared to just your ow . I think in alot of cases it does make the diver feel invinsible . I guess it goes back to this you can have accident in a bath tube of water aow isnt gonna completely garuntee an accident or inncident free diving career
 
Here are some statistics from 1991 so assist in the thread:

Of the 63 diving related fatalities in '91:
4 were students
33 were open water
9 were advanced open water
2 were rescue divers
1 was a dive master
5 were instructors
1 was a commercial diver
2 were military
6 had unknown cert levels

32 were doing pleasure dives
5 were under instruction
4 were spearfishing/hunting
4 were wreck diving - no penetration
3 were taking pictures
2 were working
7 were in a cave
2 only 2! were deep diving.

19 had a problem with insufficient air
15 had buoyancy problems
11 had entrapement problems
8 had cardiovascular problems
5 were doing alcohol/drugs
5 panicked
4 got bent
3 had air embolisms
1 had hypothermia
1 was obeist
1 had a rapd ascent

2 of the accidents happened on the surface prior to descending
4 happened during descent
11 at depth
17 during ascent
18 on the surface after the dive
6 were unobserved
5 there wasn't enough info available

So if you look at the numbers you would have to disagree with O/W divers being safer than AOW divers. Numbers don't lie, and while they might not tell the story, you can't turn your back on the obvious that the more trained you are, the safer you are. Until that is you get to the instructor level. I think that instructors go through a period of arrogance in which they make stupid mistakes like not going through proper buddy checks etc...

Mario :D
 
that the better trained the better. That's why I'll continue my training for as long as I continue to dive, at my own pace. I have no desire to become a scuba instructor, but may just for the training. But there is one thing I question about those numbers, Mario. How many OW divers, AOW divers, Rescue Divers, and etc embarked on dives that year? And how many did they do? Alot of those OW divers that persished were most likely not very active as a diver, so more prone to error.
 
Great discussions folks! As a novice eager for knowledge and experience I find this forum super informative. Mario you seem to be one of the "gurus" great stats. where can one find stuff like that. I feel that diving is one of those things where you never stop learning. Is there a difficulty or experience rating on dive sites, so one can have an idea of what your getting into before you go? How can I find out if a place is above my experience level?

RC
 
Warhammer,
The info I posted came straight from DAN. Here is some more from the same source.

The estimated fatality rate per 100,000 active divers per year was between 2.09 and 2.68 for 1991. That's down from 8.62 in 1976 Which suggests that dive education and gear technology have contributed to the industry signiificantly!

Mario :D
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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