Alternatives to "ADVANCED" open water

[The Horn]

A simple post to see what other courses are offered out there and out comes the soap boxes and the angry voices. In and amoungst the lectures and assumptions I have recieved some good information. Mostly a simple answer to a pretty simple question.

Geez, getting ragged on the internet by people who have some perception of a bad attitude diver. I don't know how the "quote" function works because I like to spend my time diving not sitting behind a computer programming.

My basic OW training happened old school where we spent over 60 hrs in class and had use of a pool 12 hrs a day (kinda like a prison). Open water dives in the atlantic in January in wet suits. I don't know what dive I have been on that was not a challenge of some sort from kicking through the surf to avoid implailment on the rocks at low tide to 7 feet down in three foot swells with zero vis clipped to my buddy with a seven foot John line..........hey diving is fun when you play safe.:05:

Just so this thread can hopefully end on a happy note I am working on taking the AOW in the early spring when the ice is out as the Instructor will throw in some nitrox and dry suit techniques, just have to hammer out a date as I sail the month of May. I will also try and learn how to "quote" people because then others don't have to read the entire thread to find out who it was...............

 

[theskull]

A simple post to see what other courses are offered out there and out comes the soap boxes and the angry voices. In and amoungst the lectures and assumptions I have recieved some good information. Mostly a simple answer to a pretty simple question. ..............

Standard protocol on this board. But you do so often find a couple good answers scattered in among the soap boxes and the angry voices.

Happy diving to you.

theskull

 

[boogeywoogey]

Soiunds like me....fire from the hip....I suspect you are already beyond so please only lay out your quals....so we can really understand your bull****......apologies in advance if you are not the the **** you seem to be

 

[waynne fowler]

DIR-F

I'm not going to say anything else less someone jump down my throat again

Haha.... funny.. you'll get no argument from me. I think it is a great complement to the AOW unfortunately it does not teach complex navigation, nor buoyancy, I don't think that it goes into the proper detail for deep dives... as far as buoyancy goes you better have a good grip on it before you get there or you will fail... while it covers alot of the information for deep dives I don't think that it goes quite far enough in some areas... However.. if you want to do the deep dives.. you need all the skills that the DIR-F has to offer.. IMO you need these skills 'BEFORE' you ever go deep.


Hope your throat feels better!

 

[waynne fowler]

A simple post to see what other courses are offered out there and out comes the soap boxes and the angry voices. In and amoungst the lectures and assumptions I have recieved some good information. Mostly a simple answer to a pretty simple question.

Well at least through the BS hopefully we all learned something.

Geez, getting ragged on the internet by people who have some perception of a bad attitude diver. I don't know how the "quote" function works because I like to spend my time diving not sitting behind a computer programming.

I'm sorry if you thought I was ragging on you.
Considering the comment I made about divers thinking they "had things well figured out" I could see how you might think that I was. I sincerely apologize. That comment was not directed specifically and exclusively at you per se'. Though your posts and some others by someone else did precipitate the comment.

If you were to go back and read your posts again putting yourself in the audience's shoes you could probably see that your wording did... umm... how should I say it... leave a bad taste in ones mouth

If you look to the bottom right of the message you are reading you will see a little tab that says "Quote"... if you click this tab you will pop into "Message mode" and the contents of the message you are replying to will be added to your response and then displayed in the same fashion that your comments have been displayed in this message... Does that make any sense... cuz I think I just confused myself...

My basic OW training happened old school where we spent over 60 hrs in class and had use of a pool 12 hrs a day (kinda like a prison). Open water dives in the atlantic in January in wet suits. I don't know what dive I have been on that was not a challenge of some sort from kicking through the surf to avoid implailment on the rocks at low tide to 7 feet down in three foot swells with zero vis clipped to my buddy with a seven foot John line..........hey diving is fun when you play safe.:05:

Wow sounds like an intense course.. good stuff.. Good to have an old salt aboard!
I too did my first certification 'old school' it was not 60hrs long however more like 25 - 30... we did not spend 12hrs a day in the pool either.. more like 4hrs 3 nights a week for about 4 weeks if I remember correctly. Funny I also did my Open Water dives in January.. (of 1972) with our home made wetsuits.. The funniest part was after about 2 months of diving them you'd be kicking along and a leg would separate from the torso or an arm...Burrrrrr... The water here in the PNW is unforgiving to an 80lbs 12yr old kid... But we stuck it out and just reglued it before the next dive the following weekend only to have the other leg pop off...

Just so this thread can hopefully end on a happy note I am working on taking the AOW in the early spring when the ice is out as the Instructor will throw in some nitrox and dry suit techniques, just have to hammer out a date as I sail the month of May. I will also try and learn how to "quote" people because then others don't have to read the entire thread to find out who it was...............

Good for you. I hope that it turns out to be MORE then you hope for. Please keep us informed how it goes. Though you may have gotten the impression that no one cares here, nothing could be farther from the truth. Sometimes things may get heated it is only through passion that these fires are fed. Everyone here I am sure wishes you the best of luck and I believe over time you will come to realize that your thoughts and mine truly are probably not to vastly different. We most likely just are not able to communicate them in a way that the other can easily discern.

Again.. Best of luck to you..

 

[Diver0001]

LA County has their Advanced Diver Program, which is probably the best advanced class anywhere. My second choice is the YMCA's Silver Advanced course. That is not to be confused with their AOW which is, IMO, no better than other AOW classes available and, again IMO, a waste of time and money.

That's interesting. What's in it?

R..