Alternatives to "ADVANCED" open water

[carldarl]

Quote" :

Safe diving is safe diving and I'll expand my knowledge and skills with a good Instructor. should be able to find one out there and then its off to those goals people keep talking about.........

off to read that thread on Drinking and Diving..................................

You may want to show a copy of this thread to your "good instructor" once you find them. See how interested they are in having you as a student after they have read of your ideas and attitude. You may get surprised.

 

[daniel f aleman]

From what I have heard from other divers who had taken the AOW and fromwhat I have researched, its sounds like basically a waste of money. If you really want the experience, supervision and guidance during a dive, I highly recommend you join a local dive club, as you get this experience there.

...and...

I'm still deciding whether I should take the AOW or DIR-F myself. I think I'm going to wait a few years till I can afford some equipment, then take the DIR-F.

The point that is being made is that you must have the AOW certification card to prove that you have taken something more than OW to be allowed to dive more complex dive profiles at many resorts and dive boats.

 

[StSomewhere]

You yourself had to throw buoyancy in the mix to then call the use of deco and Trimix a skill, and you are right. Buoyancy is a skill, but it has little to do with Trimix.

Semantics. Helium without great buoyancy skills is dangerous.

 

[StSomewhere]

I really think the DIR-F as additional advanced diver training is the way to go. Just by watching other DIR divers dive, they really look and act like fish in the water. I've dived with some really experienced non-DIR divers and some moderately experienced DIR divers, and the difference is like chalk and cheese. The con with taking the DIR-F course it that you almost need to buy all the DIR equipment..so that's a downer.

Most DIR instructors will have some sort of rental program. Don't wait, it will really expose your weaknesses and give you stuff to work on. I really can't recommend a basic DIR class (DIR-F, Rec-F, Essentials, whatever) highly enough.

Heck, you could even practices the skills you learned later on in AOW Adventure Dives!

 

[Ben_ca]

Here in Monterey there is an informal mentorship program of sorts... if you show an interest in DIR just ask around and you'll be suprised how many people respond. Most have extra gear you can borrow too

It is in the best interest of the DIR diver to groom the junior divers and bring them up to speed so you can have more dive buddies

 

[*Floater*]

From PADI's site:

Why Advanced Open Water Diver?
After your five dives, you'll be more experienced, feel more comfortable in the water and simply enjoy diving more because you better understand the underwater environment.

The way I see it, AOW is just basic open water, part II, and is meant to be taken soon or right after OW. It's basically meant to let people practice their OW skills under the supervision of an instructor. At least that's how I see a lot of dive ops sell it and for that purpose I think it's a good course. For an experienced diver I don't feel AOW is all that useful unless the instructor adds some extra beyond PADI's minimum requirements.

 

[J75]

Many (if not all) of the charter boats off of Jersey require at least an advanced certification for diving with them. Many places also require an advanced card for night diving as well. You can gain more knowledge from many other sources, but IMO, an advanced C-card is almost like a driver's license - a requirement.

 

[Santa]

You could do AOW just for the dives and the added allowable depth. As discussed at length in several threads it's almost the same cost anyway. If the instructor is good it will be more than just your guided tour.

 

[*Floater*]

Many (if not all) of the charter boats off of Jersey require at least an advanced certification for diving with them. Many places also require an advanced card for night diving as well. You can gain more knowledge from many other sources, but IMO, an advanced C-card is almost like a driver's license - a requirement.

I've had simialar experiences; several dive ops I used required an AOW cert before they took a diver below 60 ft. In fact, I believe PADI's website used to say that AOW was required to go below 60 ft. and the deep diver specialty course was required to go below 100 ft. (upto 130 ft.) I checked again yesterday, and I didn't see those requirements stated up there anymore so maybe PADI has chaged their rules- maybe they lost customers to other agencies that would take divers below those limits without extra certs.

 

[lmorin]

Here's an example of how AOW helped us. Perhaps a similar rationale might apply to one or more of you.

My wife and I have been OW certified for about 3 yrs. We are in our 50's. My wife is a much better swimmer than I, but I have a long, continuing history of athletics (soccer and skiing at high competitive levels). I am more adventuresome and physically self-assured than my wife. But, we both took up diving at the same time as a sport to do together. And, I emphasize "together."

Now, I had no qualms pushing my own diving depth gradually toward the recreational limit while continuing to learn through the experience of repeated diving. My wife, on the other hand, worried about going beyond 40-50 ft. That worry became an obstacle to our growth as divers. The solution we elected was the PADI AOW course. The navigation and deep dives were great confidence builders for both of us and we did them together. Knowledgeable, reasonable confidence is important. It probably matters little how the confidence and knowledge is achieved. Hiring an instructor just to teach navigation or deep diving would do just as well for some people. Getting the info from, and diving with, a trained friend might be even better. In our case, AOW was just the ticket, plus we did 5 dives with an instructor all of which were vastly different experiences underwater. Each was unexpectedly fun in its own way.

However, neither my wife nor I in any way consider ourselves "advanced" divers. "Advanced" divers are those (a) who have done a lot of diving and (b) are good at it. I qualify at the high end of such a scale applied to skiing and will never approach that level of capability for diving. But, it is a goal, nevertheless.