Advice for AOW

[HaleyF]

Hi there, I'm a looong time lurker, but first time poster. Thank you all for shared knowledge in this place, it's been super useful for me buying equipment and planning trips

I'm having a bit of trouble making sense of the AOW stuff, so thought I'd ask here. My husband and I dive once or twice a month and are starting to feel we're missing out not having the certs for more depth, night, etc.

I was wondering if it's allowed to take the dives to get the AOW separately. Like can we do a Nitrox course here at home in Singapore, a night dive section on another trip (we're planning on diving in Bali next month which seems like a fabulous place to take that), etc. and eventually they add up to the AOW? Is there are a textbook component like in OW that we have to take first (and can we do that ourselves online?) Do you have to do those 2 mandatory dives before doing the other Adventure ones?

Basically I'm trying to figure out if we can spread it out over a month or two of dive trips. Take our time, do some leisure dives in-between. Or is this whole idea silly and we should just suck it up and spend a long weekend doing everything?

 

[NAM001]

I would say it is possible but not worth it. These are exposure dives and not certification dives. Nitrox is a certification course. the exposure dives are >60 ft navigation, buoyancy, night, boat wreck ect. You do not get cards for these dives because they are only exposure. your agency will dictate what you have to have and the rest is up to you. Most do navigation and the deep and the student elects to do night/ limited visibility and a wreck.. This is not a real learning course so to speek of. its an experience or an extension of the OW course you took that focus on a couple of skills.

Some instructors can be more specific.

 

[darrenlowjq]

I'm assuming you are referring to the PADI AOW program, since you don't specify the agency but call out the course title. To provide a direct answer to your question:

1. You can spread out the course over a series of dives in different locations and across different times, PADI provides a way to do this via referrals. You can finish part of the requirements with one instructor, have him/her issue a referral form detailing the training you have completed towards that course. You can then hand that to the next instructor you do the next dive with.

2. You do have knowledge reviews to be completed. There is no specified instructor theory classes, just do the KRs in the book.

3. No requirement to do the mandatory adventure dives before the others.

4. Please note Nitrox is not likely to count towards AOW if done in Singapore. The dive in the Enriched Air Specialty class is optional and since we don't have easy access to local diving, local shops generally do not include the dive. Without the dive, it won't count towards AOW.

5. There are plenty of valid reasons to spread out AOW dives. The general weekend trips departing from Singapore might have fairly hectic schedules so that might not be to your liking. There may also be instructors well-known for being competent at teaching some specific adventure dives which you might want to specifically seek out to learn from. There might be also some specific location well suited for doing a specific adventure dive. Local shops also don't generally give you a choice of which optional adventure dive will be done to count towards AOW (as far as I know), so breaking it up gives you a say in which dive you want to do.

 

[Bob DBF]

I would probably just suck it up and do it in one trip. It would be a unfortunate to miss a dive you want in the interim because you don't have a card. Also there is more of chance of a paperwork mixup the longer you take and the further you are from home, not saying it would happen but...


Bob

 

[HaleyF]

Yes, thank you! That's exactly the information I was looking for. Apologies for not specifying the agency, indeed for PADI.

I had left out details on my reasoning as I wasn't sure how many here were familiar with how local Sinagporean classes work, but yeah. I really don't want to do all the specialty dives in Tioman. It's hard to schedule for us around work and weekend time is at a premium so I'd rather spread them out over different trips, at locations with really good specific instructors and sites where we can do some leisure dives inbetween and relax.

Going to organize a night dive class to see mandarin fish in North Bali now thank you again.

Regarding #4, I believe Marlin does a Nitrox dive at Hantu.

 

[gekodivebali]

Hi Haley,

Bear in mind this is a 2 day practical course with 5 dives and very little theory. Breaking it up between different dive shops may incur extra costs as the diveshop teaching the last Adventure Dive will have to pay certification costs. The Positive Identification Card is normally only sold with a manual.

We offer individual Adventure dives to guests. These count towards the Advanced certification, but getting the card again means extra costs.

Why not do the Advanced with the same Bali shop, but over 2 week ends if 5 dives in a week-end is too much? You can still get to dive very different sites.

 

[Storker]

Before you enroll an AOW class, you should ask yourself if your general diving skills are good enough for 30m/100' and/or walls without a hard bottom at moderate depth.

My youngest son took his OW this spring, and I anticipate enrolling him in AOW pretty soon. However, that won't happen until I'm pretty certain that he has a good routine for checking depth/time/tank pressure so he won't run out of gas or unexpectedly find himself in deco, and his buoyancy control is good enough that he can keep his depth and feel comfortable even without a hard bottom below him. Losing control of your buoyancy with a hard bottom at OW depth is one thing, losing it when the bottom is way deeper is quite another. Also, OOG at OW depths is one thing, OOG at 30m/100' is quite another.

 

[cneal]

Don't in in a hurry. Some specialties are worth the full course such as Bouyancy and Navigation. Start with those before AOW.

 

[TMHeimer]

I would do it all at once. But if not, check with the places you plan to do it in pieces to see if they will do that, or charge you for the full course. I would think this is against the rules, but I came upon that with Nitrox course (back when 2 dives were required). The second shop charged me for the whole course, so I guess I paid more and got 3 dives.