"Advanced Divers Only..."

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Fwiw, passing AOW with 10 dives in perfect conditions hardly qualified me as "advanced".

Exactly. I hear you. It can only be legal mumbo jumbo.

I’m nowhere near an expert diver with a few less than 150 dives, but plenty advanced enough for many dives less than 130’ with no overhead. But as just an open water, I’m stymied from some trips in Florida. Luckily Aldora saw me diving and were happy to take me north or wherever. First dive this morning in Arkansas was basically a night dive - 52 minutes with max 110’. 46f water, 26f air and 15ft visibility.

If there’s no DM in the water, then I should have the final say on whether or not I can handle the dive.

I am not referring to overhead, tech and similar where people want to police things to reduce potential for closing a site, that’s perhaps a different scenario.
 
I asked this question a few years ago while preparing to go to Roatan. Most of the dives shops listed their morning dives as "for advanced divers". At the time I had only OW. Come to find out what they were calling advanced where deeper dives, around 115'.

I have not done the adventure dives with Aldora but have done a couple of the northern sights, Gato's reef and a dive on the East side. These dives were both pretty tame. I have heard that one of the dives on their adventure dive requires a fast decent due to current.

I think what Aldora means by advanced is having decent air consumption, being able to clear quickly, not getting seasick too easily. They are taking 4 or 5 people on an all day trip in a small boat, they don't want to have to bring someone back early.
 
I asked this question a few years ago while preparing to go to Roatan. Most of the dives shops listed their morning dives as "for advanced divers". At the time I had only OW. Come to find out what they were calling advanced where deeper dives, around 115'.

I have not done the adventure dives with Aldora but have done a couple of the northern sights, Gato's reef and a dive on the East side. These dives were both pretty tame. I have heard that one of the dives on their adventure dive requires a fast decent due to current.

I think what Aldora means by advanced is having decent air consumption, being able to clear quickly, not getting seasick too easily. They are taking 4 or 5 people on an all day trip in a small boat, they don't want to have to bring someone back early.

What does clear quickly mean?
 
I think the only ambiguity here is how many is “a few”. Other that that it’s pretty self explanatory - you must have an AOW card or an equivalent, and you must show them that you can actually dive.
 
Yes, subject has been discussed to death on SB. Not to be terse but, it means contact the op before you go and ask.
 
So, what exactly does "Advanced Divers Only" mean or require?

What I think of when I see it:

1.) May be about depth. If you're diving mostly 'square profile' deep wrecks on 110 feet sandy bottom out of Morehead City, NC, in buddy pairs (or maybe solo, or a guide if you hired one), big tanks are available and you need to be mindful of NDL which may limit you instead of remaining gas pressure, and no one else is going to mind your gauges for you.

2.) May be about a combo. of depth, some drift, limited viz. and the need to stay with a group - such as diving in Jupiter, FL was my first trip. If you need to get off the boat and into the water quickly one after the other before you drift apart, get down, stay together, and ride the current with 30-50 foot viz., and the guide won't be signaling you periodically to ask about your remaining gas pressure... It'd also be neat if you carry and know how to deploy an SMB in case you do get separated and surface away from the group.

3.) Any diving where conditions require negative entry, getting down pretty quickly, getting together, maybe in some current (some Galapagos diving), and basically the ability to do without a lot of back and forth 'Is everyone okay?' from the guide. Preferably with your weighting decently dialed in.

4.) Ability to accept somewhat psychological stressful conditions - if you're going on shark feed dives and the hoped for tiger shark comes in for the guide to hand feed, and swims your way, that needs to be 'okay.'

5.) Ability to independently navigate difficult entry/exit shore diving conditions and the watermanship and athleticism to handle rough conditions, current (particularly swimming into it), and navigate underwater.

6.) I don't see this put out there much, but precise control of buoyancy in some environments could be useful.

7.) Can you handle being separated far from the boat, put up an SMB, ideally have a Nautilus or similar device, and wait for the boat without freaking out too badly? And are you capable enough at staying with the group to make this scenario very unlikely to begin with?

So, deep diving, overall 'challenging' mix of dive conditions, a lack of guides closely monitoring your NDL and gas time remaining, or the ability to handle surge/current/'rough' conditions/entry/exit.

So it's a case-by-case issue. Dive those wrecks out of Morehead City, NC? Game on! Do a solo shore dive off the southern tip of Bonaire? No way!
 
ME: "What exactly is an "advanced diver"?"

Reply From Aldora:

"Hi Mike, if this is in relation to our Aldora adventures post, an advanced diver would be someone that is a seasoned diver, experience with the deep reefs of Cozumel and its currents, and had a good number of dives under their belt. We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip, as the currents can be very strong and some of the sites are quite deep. Hope this answers your question!"
 
ME: "What exactly is an "advanced diver"?"

Reply From Aldora:

"Hi Mike, if this is in relation to our Aldora adventures post, an advanced diver would be someone that is a seasoned diver, experience with the deep reefs of Cozumel and its currents, and had a good number of dives under their belt. We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip, as the currents can be very strong and some of the sites are quite deep. Hope this answers your question!"

Does this answer make everything less clear only to me?
 
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