Advanced Open Water Certification Requirements

[Quero]

SSI has two "advanced" certs, and the one the shop is trying to sell you is the more involved (and consequently more expensive) one. Try asking about a SSI cert called ADVANCED ADVENTURER rather than Advanced Open Water. It's only 5 dives, I think, and it's equivalent to the PADI Advanced Open Water course. It's actually much closer to what most certifying agencies consider the second level of certification.

 

[LowDrag]

I certified with SSI also. AOW is 24 logged dives and four specialties. Of the 24, you can count your certification dives in your 24 total dives. You don't have to go with the LDS you shop thru. My LDS has never said anything like that since I joined up with them but like someone else said, maybe it was a misunderstanding.

Quero is correct, Advanced Adventurer is 5 specialty dives. Next is Specialty Diver with 2 specialties completed and 12 logged dives, then AOW with 4 specialties completed and 24 dives. The specialties for AOW are picked based on your location and what specialties would apply to the area you are diving in. Here in Oregon my LDS teaches Night/Limited Vis, Perfect Buoyancy, Navigation and Deep Diving.

 

[al248005]

There's a similar thread going on another diving message board except it's about PADI's version of AOW and the guy was told he had to do the specialties individually and was charged $400 for the deep specialty

 

[Quero]

Like SSI, PADI does have a cert that includes full specialties--though it's not actually a course but rather a collection of courses that eventually add up to a rating. It's called Master Scuba Diver and it requires five specialties plus rescue plus 50 dives. It's roughly similar in structure to SSI's AOW. For a PADI Deep Spec rating, four dives are required, so without seeing what the shop is offering, it might be that there are four distinct boat trips involved. Dunno.

My point is that sometimes messages are lost in translation between the customer/prospective student diver and the person behind the counter trying to explain the requirements and the pricing. It could be that in both of these cases the shop is engaging in deceptive practices, but it could also just be that there's been a communication breakdown.