Advanced Open Water

[Frosty]

Hi,
Is AOW actually worth taking? Aside from the skills will it make you more confident in the water?
Thanks

IF you are still out there reading this. Is AOW worth it? Yes it definitely is.
You have been given training in a range of skills. Then you have been sent into the big bad world to "just do it' which translates really into "Practice those skills" (have fun doing it though)
So then you do your Advanced open water course. You once again have the beady eye of an instructor watching what you are doing.
So any bad habits you might be starting to develop can be sorted out.
It also tunes up skills that at the OW stage might not have fully sunk in.
If you have a genuine desire to improve your diving its just fantastic.

 

[kwat34]

IF you are still out there reading this. Is AOW worth it? Yes it definitely is.
You have been given training in a range of skills. Then you have been sent into the big bad world to "just do it' which translates really into "Practice those skills" (have fun doing it though)
So then you do your Advanced open water course. You once again have the beady eye of an instructor watching what you are doing.
So any bad habits you might be starting to develop can be sorted out.
It also tunes up skills that at the OW stage might not have fully sunk in.
If you have a genuine desire to improve your diving its just fantastic.

Yes I am still out here. I did decide to book it and I am excited to complete it. I just have to decide what my 5 dives will be.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

 

[DDI]

I suppose if I hadn't done it back 2 back I wouldn't have continued diving as often, probably would have still dived on vacations though. To my understanding if the OW became the AOW it could take too long and less people may get certified and there would be less revenue and gear sales for dive operations. That's not a good thing as the industry and training would suffer, at the end of the day I know my capabilities and it didn't take me very long to realize my limitations without endangering my myself or my buddies. Others will be different because there is nothing as rare as common sense and no instruction can change that.

 

[tursiops]

I did decide to book it and I am excited to complete it. I just have to decide what my 5 dives will be.

Deep and Nav are mandatory.
Peak Performance Buoyancy is highly recommended.
So you really only need to choose two, and that will depend on logistics, location, the instructor, etc.
Night is good, especially if you haven't done a night dive; Underwater Naturalist, Shark Conservation and Fish ID are good, if you have a decent instructor and you are in the ocean, not a quarry; Search and Recovery is good if you are interested in that kind of thing; Wreck is popular, but sometimes not very good because of the location and/or the instructor; DPV can be fun if you like machines; Drift can be useful if it is a real drift dive; Boat can be informative if you've not been on a boat and have a good instructor; Multi-level and computer is badly out of date; I'd avoid both Digital Photography and Videography until later in your diving career; Altitude is useful if you will be doing that kind of diving; Drysuit is useful but if you need a drysuit you should do the full specialty, and you ought to learn to control your buoyancy still with your BCD but not everybody teaches it that way; and Sidemount can be interesting if you are thinking of going that direction.

Remember that each of these is just the first dive of a full specialty class...a sort of taster. The full S&R, the full Wreck, the full Fish ID, the full Navigation...these are all great specialties.

And after AOW there are other specialties that become available to you, like Cavern, Ice, and (ultimately) Self-Reliant.
And along the way, Nitrox is incredibly useful for dive trips with lots of repetitive diving, like Bonaire or liveaboards. It is not part of AOW because it has no dives. Other non-diving specialties that have value (depending on the instructor) are Equipment and Coral Reef Conservation.

 

[jonhall]

Which is exactly why thousands of new scuba divers die every year.

The DAN 2010 Diving Fatalities Workshop reports that the number of dive related fatalities for the US/Canada is 80 deaths per year (lower in other areas.) This is based on a 10 year average and for DAN members only. Interesting number from report was 1 fatality per 200,000 dives made. 40% of fatalities occurred during buddy separation and 14% on planned solo dives.

The American Academy of Physicians, in a 2001 report, estimated 90 diving deaths per year worldwide.

In swimming, the CDC reports about 10 people die from unintentional drowning every day. Last week, here in Indiana, we were up to 14 or 16 deaths from drowning (last two being a young girl jumping in an apartment pool to help boyfriend who was struggling.)

So there are thousands of swimmers who die every year, not new divers!

Most everyone I have met has done OW and AOW back to back - and I've even heard a couple snickers from dive shop people when we show our OW card (as opposed to an AOW card).

I'd probably walk out of the dive shop that snickered about that. One of my buddies will probably never get his AOW. He did his OW course back in the late 70's. His PADI card has no student/certification number and his picture looks like Charles Manson! Doesn't mean he can't expand his diving experience as he took a ½ day nitrox course earlier this year.

 

[RJP]

When are they going to install that damn sarcasm font on SB...

 

[jonhall]

When are they going to install that damn sarcasm font on SB...

Sorry, I knew it but it got me thinking!!! lol I'm retired and don't have anything better to do!

It's hard to compare (but interesting) diving and other activities because they are different in danger factors and numbers of people doing them. Diving definitely presents dangers that are often presented in the threads here on SB, which I'm thankful for as they are constant reminders of things I've often forgotten about.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Without quoting some of the other comments, you also need to consider that there is more than one agency that offers an advanced or aow type cert. Don't limit yourself to any one agency. Some instructors like Bob Bailey and myself offer our own courses that are within the standards of the agency we issue the card through, but in fact are our own creations. My own does not offer the student much of a choice in terms of picking dives. You can sub wreck for search and recovery or add an additional nav or deep dive in their place. The others are set. There is no peak buoyancy because it is covered and emphasized on every dive. We are, if necessary, adjusting and moving weights and working on trim throughout the course. Think you're ok at nav? Fine, you'll get a dive with requirements that are ratcheted up a bit. We'll spend 8 hours or so in the classroom covering each dive. The last dive of the 6 in the std course is all rescue skills and assisting a buddy.
Not all aow classes are the same just as not all ow courses are the same.

 

[Frosty]

Yes I am still out here. I did decide to book it and I am excited to complete it. I just have to decide what my 5 dives will be.Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

A bit of advice for you.-(probably preaching to the converted) Ignoring variations in instructors You will get out of the AOW course exactly what you put in.
If all you want is that plastic card then its not all that hard to get to be honest.
BUT if what you want to do is improve and tune up your diving then it can be immensely rewarding both for you and your instructor.
This is regardless of agency.

 

[Becca65]

I can see that AWO gives you more time with an instructor - and if he/she is good you will get some new knowledge out f the course probably no matter how long you've been diving...and yes, as with any class about anything you will get out what you put in...having said that the tiny little cynical voice in my head says maybe PADI wants everyone to take AOW so they can try and "sell" their other courses....of course you can look at it like getting a taste of other classes without having to sign up for them....what if you signed up for wreck diver did the first dive and hated it? Two sides of he coin I suppose - how do you want to look at it?
We are signed up for our AOW - but have no choice of classes - doing what can be done at the lake we're going to which is fine - we'll have to do a night dive even though we've already taken and passed the night diver course.