Advanced Open Water exercises combined with recreational dive?

[BoltSnap]

If you take a dive course, especially an AOW, as a check list course thinking of it as an impediment to your enjoyment of diving, you are totally wasting your time and you're better off not taking this course. An instructor who would accept your conditions is a person who shouldn't be an instructor at all.

When divers sign up for the advanced courses, or any dive courses, I teach, they are in training from the minute they show up for the training to the minute they are dismissed and are on their way home in their vehicle. All time underwater is spent practicing/performing skills and drills. Even if it is just proper buoyancy control or interaction with dive buddy. Navigation skills dive(s) (there is more than one in my course), there are specific navigation skills throughout the dive from the briefing and dive planning on the surface before getting in the water until the students end their dive and are back on shore/boat. Students' ability to get back to shore or boat is part of their navigation skills development and evaluation. Their interaction with their buddy, dealing with surface float/dsmb, precautionary stop, controlling their buoyancy, diving their plan, etc. while navigating are all part of their training. Same line of diver engagement in the dive for training on any other type of skill(s) and not just navigation. In short, you and your attention belong to the instructor from the minute you show up for class until you are dismissed after completing your dives and training for the day. Same type of commitment applies to the instructor towards his students.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

What is your SO's goals, as we are talking about another person's training?

As others have stated, AOW is to be taken seriously, should be challenging, where students learn a fair bit. Also, finishing in 5 dives isn't guaranteed. While I do not teach for PADI anymore, I am a proponent of structuring the dives to build up previous dives as much as possible. If my student needed remedial training for buoyancy not being taught properly in OW, I'd start with PPB, nav, night, deep, and DSMB. None of my students finished within 5 dives. Often there were breaks where they'd go practice.

This will probably sound harsh, but if just a c-card is the goal and not skill improvement, then you probably will be able to find a shop to sell that to you. I don't expect any of the instructors here though to provide that sale.

 

[Scubatude]

This is a very good question, and one that I get asked fairly often. I tell people all the time to interview instructors before enrolling in a course. In this case, if you find an instructor who will allow you to "tag along" or "hang out in the area" or just does some quick skills as a small part of the dives, then PLEASE find a different instructor. AOW is not just 5 random dives with a few skills. It is a learning and evaluation program and progression. Your instructor should give the student all the time available to learn, practice, refine and enjoy these new skills. Each dive should include not only new skills, but skills learned during previous dives.

All that said, why do you just want to "hang out'? If you have a good instructor, take advantage of that! You may even be able to arrange to take a course that will add to your own skill and comfort in the water. Perhaps Digital Underwater Photo. I bet your SO would love to see pictures of their AOW course.

 

[TMHeimer]

I'll try to recount the AOW course I took in 2006.
--NAV dive: instruction took the whole dive.
--S & R dive: same.
--PPV: same.
(These 3 were in a Springs with not great viz, so not much to see anyway)
FROM BOAT:
--Deep dive: Did the skill or two with some free time left over (max depth only 63').
--Nitrox Adventure Dive (74' --whole dive free time)--I didn't even know Nitrox Dive No.1
(of the 2 that were then required for the Nitrox cert.) counted as one for AOW.

So from the course I took it seems at least 3/5 of the time was doing skills. Not a lot of just diving around, so if you were tagging along with our group (of 4, I think), you'd just be watching skills at least 60% of the time.

 

[Damselfish]

If she really wants to get something out of AOW, a class where she can do a few skills then go play is incompatible with that and not what you should be looking for. If she just wants to get the card I'm sure it's possible, but it would be the kind of AOW class that gives AOW a bad name.

The dives she does will affect how much playtime is possible . I would argue that the dive choices most conducive to quick skills and playtime maybe aren't worth wasting an AOW training dive that she's paid for on.

I seem to remember actually having more time to "sightsee" on OW dives. AOW we were pretty much busy with stuff for the duration.

If you go out on the boat together and dive separately you are still sharing a fair amount of the time and experience.