Advanced open water question

[Slym]

So I am just reading what courses are all available for diving and trying to think of what stuff I want down the road my obvious next step would be advanced open water first. Reading about the course I noticed you take navigation and peak buoyancy and two electives.

For the two electives you can choose deep diving and wreck diving, ect. are these the speciality courses or like an "into to" kind of thing?

 

[CuzzA]

No, the certificate requires deep and navigation, you pick three more specialty dives and I would describe them as "experience" dives. I did peak performance buoyancy, night and wreck.

To give you an example. On the wreck dive you'll practice surveying the wreck. This by no means qualifies you for wreck penetration.

 

[Dave_lucas]

Deep and navigation are required.

An intro to is a good way to explain it.

Search and recovery was my favorite

 

[tbone1004]

Before you go down that rabbit hole let's take a step back. Answer the following questions and then we can answer you better, because AOW may in fact not be the "obvious next step".

Why did you start scuba diving?
What do you ultimately want to do with your scuba diving?
Do you have any military/LE type background/training?
Do you believe in team diving?
Do you believe in solo diving?
Does any of the technical type diving specialties appeal to you? i.e. wreck/cave etc

Answer those first, then we can help you with your question

 

[Slym]

Ahh okay that is what I was wondering, good to know! Thanks!

 

[Slym]

Before you go down that rabbit hole let's take a step back. Answer the following questions and then we can answer you better, because AOW may in fact not be the "obvious next step".

Why did you start scuba diving?
What do you ultimately want to do with your scuba diving?
Do you have any military/LE type background/training?
Do you believe in team diving?
Do you believe in solo diving?
Does any of the technical type diving specialities appeal to you? i.e. wreck/cave etc

Answer those first, then we can help you with your question

1: I really wanted some adventure, and since travelling to the Antarctic and exploring the Amazon conflict with my day job diving really seems to give me something to enjoy, advance, and see some history in person.
2. I want to see some cool wrecks! reefs are nice but I am a history buff, I worked for Parks Canada for 5 years as a student telling people about the war of 1812. A lot of things have sunk and a lot of history is down below.
3. no military, and I am not sure what LE training is so lets say no
4. yea for sure I joined to make friends too!
5. the idea scares me a bit honestly, sounds cool but I don't think it is for me right now.
6. wreck, deep diving, maybe rescue. caves don't appeal to me as much

 

[tbone1004]

Welcome

Get in touch with Steve, talk to him about taking Intro to Tech. It will be money much better spent than on AOW and for what it sounds like you want to do, he's the guy.

 

[Slym]

Wow he travels all over the place! I'll give him some consideration for sure! thanks for passing that along.

My LDS is Dan's Dive shop, and I know that they offer quite a selection as well so when the time comes I'll have to do more research.

 

[tbone1004]

oh, well Matt et al are super good too, so I retract that statement. See if you can skip AOW and go straight into Intro to Tec with Matt.... Sorry, most LDS instruction stinks and PADI AOW is generally a waste of money if you want to actually get into any serious diving. Matt, Grace et al are certainly an exception to the rule, though I would still recommend going into something like Intro to Tec sooner rather than later

 

[Slym]

Wow a lot of people know my shop, or at least the owner, and after you said this:

Before you go down that rabbit hole let's take a step back. Answer the following questions and then we can answer you better, because AOW may in fact not be the "obvious next step"

I see what you mean now, I had thought that you had to take it to start anything else, now I know you can take the intro to tech instead.

So I suppose the NAUI wreck courses are a better/safer option rather than taking the padi wreck diver speciality course. Bit more money, a bit more time and effort; but it sounds like more enjoyment in the long run.