AOW cert at Dive Paradise- Worth it??

[driftin' by]

We did our OW referral in Mexico. Nothing wrong with it but I'll never do training dives again while on vacation. It's a personal choice that I don't want to be tasked with doing skills, studying for exams or taking exams while on pricey vacation time. I'd rather have all my required training completed at home then utilize those skills and training while on vacation. I understand that it's not always feasible to do some certifications at home depending where you live... it wasn't a pleasant experience doing our deep dive for AOW in White Star Quarry in Ohio in 43 degree water! I'd personally do what you can at home. YMMV.

 

[jjwdiver]

I have seen plenty of people do their training in Coz, and many who waited until not on vacation. Since our home waters are close to the same, I'd recommend my friends to do the training (book & pool practice) at home, then dives while in Coz. Like a previous poster wrote, go for something of substance...Peak performance, multi-level, etc. Having the boat & drift specialty was a waste FOR ME because I was already doing those dives with proficiency.

Continuing your dive education is great for everyone! It will help you as a batter diver, your buddy will have more confidence diving with you, and reefs will like your improved abilities too!

just my thoughts

 

[fishyangel]

I just did AOW at Dive Paradise in December with Jorge, who used to be a DM there for years (they will give you any instructor available unless you request someone; we took potluck). I was traveling with my boyfriend and it had been over 6 months since we last dove, and that was the trip on which we certified. We felt that doing AOW would get us back in the groove with someone watching us closely, plus we felt doing night dive with prep would be better than just jumping off the boat.

Overall, I would recommend the course and the dive op, but I did hate taking a day to do shore diving when I prefer the boat (had to do UW nav from the shore because of the currents) and I turn out to suck at nav, so that was a pretty frustrating dive, though I finally got it. We did night diving from the DP pier at Hotel Cozumel, which turned out to be awesome, including finding an octopus roaming about and a bit of bioluminescent plankton.

Our main disappointment was that we had hoped to do the wreck dive for AOW, but because of the diver's choice system on the boats, we never went to the wreck in 8 days of diving. Instead, we did multilevel and computer diving, which turned out to be very interesting and a nice adjunct to our new dive computers. (We also did deep and drift.)

Happy to answer any questions by PM!