AOW as an experienced diver

[The Chairman]

My OW students have to deploy a sausage on the surface at least once. It's not fair to them to think that they are prepared to dive if they can't accomplish this simple, simple survival skill.

 

[AfterDark]

To be fair, some of those skills eg. DSMB isn't needed as a basic Level 1 diver. More important IMO is to have beginner divers understand that they are beginner divers and they should first be enjoying themselves in shallow water and honing their new skills before attempting anything advanced.

Other skills such as basic navigation are covered in many but not all Level 1 courses. I'd love to have all my students leave me with"great buoyancy and trim" but just like teaching a kid to ride a bike, you have to let them go at some stage.

If they do any diving that incorperats a SS they should be able to maintain their SS depth. Buoyancy control is the hallmark of a scuba diver, it is the reason scuba diving has become the popular endover it is. Being able to fly thru the water is part of the allure of diving. IMO buoyancv control should be right there with "don't ever hold your breath". Everyone may not be able to obtain perfect control but adaqute control should be attained before a cert.
A diver should be as comfortable in the water as on the recliner in the living room.

 

[supergaijin]

SMB use should be mandatory IMO for all Level 1 Divers. Maldivian law requires all divers to carry them and we get all divers on their orientation dive to do so on the surface. If divers want to dive unguided, they must first demonstrate they can deploy them underwater as well, which is why the PADI Adv drift dive is IMO one of the most overlooked ADV dives to do during an AOW course.

My perfect 5 dive AOW course would be PPB, NAV, Drift, Night and Naturalist. No Deep Dive. In my perfect world Deep would be a separate and distinct 2-3 dive Specialty that had a clear pass and fail. Comparing air gauges and colour changes has IMO nothing to do with preparing someone to dive deeper than 15m!

 

[AfterDark]

We couldn't even do the color card because here in RI @100FSW a diver needs a light to even see the card. Here in the US most states require a diver to have a diver flag/float. The SMB isn't something ws use a lot here shore diving. Boat diving we use the anchor line. Drift diving in less than 10'vis isn't much fun so arond here we don't do much of it. The SMB in RI is more emergency gear. I carry one that has a dive flag sewn onto to it. I usually nav to the rocks near my egress if I see enforcemnet or think Ii do, I depoly the SMB/flag and swim in. I'm covered and I didn't need to tow a flag around. IMO the SMB/flag should replace the flag/float requirment. The float line gets entangled with lobster pot lines and often requires surfacing near the pot marker to get it by. A sitting duck if the lobsterman is nearby. They think every diver steals lobsters, ands will try to hurt you if they can.

We train for where we dive.

Check out post 12 of this link http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/no...s/420521-diving-rockport-1st-time-read-3.html talks about lobster man and dive flags. Funny I found right after I posted the above.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Thr color card is kind of silly anyway around here as well. My task load at depth is to compare gauges, a couple quick math problems using fingers, then tie a line off to the deep platform at 90 feet. Run it out oh say 50- 75 yds and then hand the reel.over to the students to let them bring us back while managing the reel, their light, and the six feet of silt just below them. Get back to the platform, secure the reel, hand it back to me and as we start the ascent I pull an OOA on them. If with two students I have them switch donor roles at about 70 feet. We then finish the ascent to the next platform at 50 feet where we retrieve the stages we dropped there, switch to them in midwater, and finish the dive using deep.stops and a simulated deco at 20. Dive ends up being a deep/multi level with a total run time of about 50 minutes. This is in contrast to my aow deep dive that was drop down, open a lock, compare gauges, and surface. All in about twenty minutes.

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[ECpirates96]

You have to think with most of the better dives here in NC over 60 ft and to remove liability I would require AOW on my boat to. I enjoyed mine and combined it with EAN. Then I did master which was even better. Make the most of it and have fun. Not everyone has logged 1000 so many less experienced divers gain alot of knowledge. I know it seems like a waste for another c card.

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[AfterDark]

You have to think with most of the better dives here in NC over 60 ft and to remove liability I would require AOW on my boat to. I enjoyed mine and combined it with EAN. Then I did master which was even better. Make the most of it and have fun. Not everyone has logged 1000 so many less experienced divers gain alot of knowledge. I know it seems like a waste for another c card.

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Ironic, NC is one of the places where all I had to do was show them my OW card displaying my cert date and more than 1400 logged dives and I was diving the Atlas and nine others over 5 days! You live in a great state!

 

[Racer_X]

Just did my AOW dives this weekend. I found the course very useful as a tune-up for getting back in the water.
I'm actually glad the shop I'm using on vacation insisted on an AOW card to do one particular dive just because AOW is a far better de-ruster than the typical pool-based refresher. At 8' plus length in fins, a refresher in a pool is a waste of time for me.

The "deep dive" was a bit disappointing - only 80' to the bottom. I've been deeper than that plenty of times, but oh well. At least it was clear - something that doesn't happen often here in the Midwest. We also did a wreck dive that was useful because it closed with a 14' long swim through a culvert. Another useful thing I discovered (or confirmed) was that my left leg is so much stronger than my right, I need to take a 5-7 degree heading adjustment to have a shot at ending up in the right place.

Overall, a great refresher course, but nothing terribly new. At least I've got the right paperwork now.

 

[Bob DBF]

My perfect 5 dive AOW course would be PPB, NAV, Drift, Night and Naturalist. No Deep Dive. In my perfect world Deep would be a separate and distinct 2-3 dive Specialty that had a clear pass and fail. Comparing air gauges and colour changes has IMO nothing to do with preparing someone to dive deeper than 15m!

Although I agree in principal, the major reason divers take AOW is to increase the depth restriction to 100' and not necessarly for the education. My solution would be to run AOW at 80 to 100' except for PPB which takes more skill in shallow water.

I regularly see an instructor do the deep AOW dive at 85' even though it could easily be done (very good viz, still water, and an available bottom) at 100', and it is the only "deep" dive.

Of course the classes can be finished faster if the SI's are shorter.



Bob
---------------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[Racer_X]

Yup - that's why I had to take it. I've been diving for quite a while and have often gone into the 80-100 range (started on my OW cert dive #3). However, the vacation dive shop insisted I get the AOW to do a dive I want that's deep. So we did PPB, Nav, S&R, Deep, and Wreck. PPB was very useful as a refresher. Nav was okay, S&R was interesting, and deep and wreck were checkmark dives. Given we are in the midwest, drift and naturalist really weren't options.

Our rock bottom (literally, it was a quarry) was at 80 feet.