Advanced Open Water elective dives?

[ScubaCanoe]

I earned my PADI Open Water cert. this past fall and plan to get back in the water this spring to go for my Advanced cert. I'm just wondering if there are any strong feelings out there about which elective dives, after the required deep dive and navigation dive, are the most useful ones to do. I'm leaning toward the buoyancy and night dives, for possibilities. Any suggestions?

 

[jeckyll]

I did Deep, Nav, Night, Wreck and Peak Performance Buoyancy.

How much you get out of your advance will depend largely on the instructor IMO.

Good luck

Bjorn

 

[ththooft]

My other three were Naturalist, Bouyancy, and Multi-level. All were fun, but if I had to pick the most beneficial of the three I'd pick bouyancy.

 

[BurBunny]

Definitely recommend buoyancy and night... then have the last one be whatever most appeals to you for fun.

 

[wreckchick]

I would say it depends on where you are in your diving. If you feel comfortable with your buoyancy, then the PPB might not be a good one to advance your skills, Photography might be a better option. I did Underwater Naturalist, Search and Recovery and Night as my electives. For students, I look at what THEY want to do and where we can make it a productive class, not just a sign off. Around here that usually means Night, S&R, and Wreck. Nitrox is also a great add-on to the AOW course since you can usually do 2 deep dives and make that work pretty well.

Rachel

 

[Seadiver5]

I am not sure how PADI offers their classes currently but with IDEA or NASE you can for a nominal extra fee actually get certified in each of the 5 specialties making you a much more proficient diver. You end up doing around 12 dives instead of 5.

Kevin

 

[capybara]

We did Buoyancy, Night, and Photo. Buoyancy was the most helpful; I dropped 4 lbs of lead after that. Night was useful too. We've also done the Wreck, night and nav specialties. Check out Nitrox; we did it at the same time as our AOW and it's been very useful.

 

[MoonWrasse]

I earned my PADI Open Water cert. this past fall and plan to get back in the water this spring to go for my Advanced cert. I'm just wondering if there are any strong feelings out there about which elective dives, after the required deep dive and navigation dive, are the most useful ones to do. I'm leaning toward the buoyancy and night dives, for possibilities. Any suggestions?

Much of the AOW is book reading, so I'd get the book and DVD.
For your other 3 dives, I'd suggest buoyancy and multi-level. What you get out of selecting specific dives may depend more on your specific instructor, but you can read all the AOW book.

 

[creamofwheat]

I did Deep, Nav, Night, Wreck and Peak Performance Buoyancy.

Hey that's exactly what i want to do for my AOW in february.

 

[terrasmak]

I got search and recovery , deep , photography , navigation and Night. Now im working on getting a few more signed off , just for the experiance. Yes, the instructor makes the difference .