AOW course expensive in Palm Beach?

[CT Sean]

So if the Diving Op does not advertize AOW - OW should be fine? I am asking because my son and I are headed to FL in April. All the sites that we looked at did not mention AOW...
Thanks

I would not assume that. I would call and check. I have seen language like "must have AOW or pay for a dive guide to do this dive" on some sites

 

[AdivingBel]

So if the Diving Op does not advertize AOW - OW should be fine? I am asking because my son and I are headed to FL in April. All the sites that we looked at did not mention AOW...
Thanks

If I was traveling, I would call ahead and talk to the shop if possible (if you know what shop you are diving with). Many shops are pretty good with their websites, but there are soooo many shops it's hard to make blanket statements. That said, there are a lot of really nice dives that are easily OW acceptable. It's kind of what the area is known for IMO. The AOW dives tend to be the deeper wrecks which are also very popular, but they are pretty obvious when advertised. In the Jupiter (and WPB) area there's some deeper drift diving that may also be catagoized as "advanced/AOW" by some of the charters. Best to call/email in advance, if possible. Good diving.

 

[Johnoly]

.... my son and I are headed to FL in April......

Everyone else gave great advice on contacting the shop prior. But some of the AOW spots hold some incredible and fascinating pictures and really cool stuff. That's why you should both get AOW. There isn't even a written test for it, just 5 dives which you were going to do/pay for anyways. Some of my favorite signature AOW dives that I'll remember for my the rest of my life are the Duane's crow's nest, the Vandenburg's massive radar dishes, Spiegel Grove's brass plaque of donor names, and Jupiter's wild Hole in the Wall. And many instructors will throw in a Nitrox cert for half price if you do it along with your AOW.


Duane crow's nest {photo shot by my friend Dadsdream)

Vandenburg massive radar dish {Photo shot by my friend Roger S)

Spiegel Grove Brass plaque

Jupiter Hole-In-The-Wall > cruddy pict but 2 semi trucks side by side would fit in the hole.
Maybe someone else has a better pict of inside the Hole.

 

[Kairoos]

What would you consider a reasonable price?
Can you break down the cost of the price you think is reasonable for at least 5 dives, possible pool time, instruction, materials and the fees for certification?

If you convince me that that's a reasonable price I'll be glad to teach you AOW for that price. Deal?

Two tank boat dive costs me $75. So $37.50 per dive, 5 dives that's $187.50. That's going to cover boat fees, and obviously there's some profit built into that, otherwise charters wouldn't make any money. Figure the cost per dive would be even lower because it would only be 2 days out on the boat. Book is around $40 if I'm not mistaken, and I don't know what PADI's fees are like, but I'm guessing $60-$80. I'd expect to be around $300.

Just taking a browse through non-local dive shops, even out of state, I see a lot in the mid to upper $200's, and I'm sure for some outfits $400 is worth the time of the instructor but this specific course seems pretty silly to me. Only thing I want out of it is the option to not have to hassle with dive operations about depth of dive. I'm interested in some of the specialties, like night diving, and I would certainly take a course before ever doing night diving, but one specialty night dive as a part of the AOW course isn't going to do anything for me, I'm still going to need to drop another $200+ for a night diver cert. I felt that the nitrox course was too expensive for what it was as well. All I did was answer a short test and have a dive master show me how to use an O2 analyzer, so difficult! Kind of turned off from the PADI cash cow courses.

 

[bradells]

Two tank boat dive costs me $75. So $37.50 per dive, 5 dives that's $187.50. That's going to cover boat fees, and obviously there's some profit built into that, otherwise charters wouldn't make any money. Figure the cost per dive would be even lower because it would only be 2 days out on the boat. Book is around $40 if I'm not mistaken, and I don't know what PADI's fees are like, but I'm guessing $60-$80. I'd expect to be around $300.

So your instructors time and knowledge is worth nothing?

Just taking a browse through non-local dive shops, even out of state, I see a lot in the mid to upper $200's, and I'm sure for some outfits $400 is worth the time of the instructor but this specific course seems pretty silly to me.

Do the $200 places include the boat charter? Lots of shops use shore diving for their in water part of the course, requiring no charter fees (sometimes though, park fees and the like are still required)

Only thing I want out of it is the option to not have to hassle with dive operations about depth of dive. I'm interested in some of the specialties, like night diving, and I would certainly take a course before ever doing night diving, but one specialty night dive as a part of the AOW course isn't going to do anything for me, I'm still going to need to drop another $200+ for a night diver cert. I felt that the nitrox course was too expensive for what it was as well. All I did was answer a short test and have a dive master show me how to use an O2 analyzer, so difficult! Kind
of turned off from the PADI cash cow courses.

To each their own, but it's kinda hard to do PADI AOW required dives without an PADI AOW...

Another option is to look at training not with PADI, seems you don't want to do a course per style of diving. Some organizations include many equivalent specialties (say nitrox, drysuit, advanced depth, etc) in their basic courses and are recognized by most operations much like PADI.


BRad

 

[LowVizWiz]

Two tank boat dive costs me $75. So $37.50 per dive, 5 dives that's $187.50. That's going to cover boat fees, and obviously there's some profit built into that, otherwise charters wouldn't make any money. Figure the cost per dive would be even lower because it would only be 2 days out on the boat. Book is around $40 if I'm not mistaken, and I don't know what PADI's fees are like, but I'm guessing $60-$80. I'd expect to be around $300.

You are not too far off, but you seem to be forgetting a few critical factors.
1. You pay per charter not per dive, so 5 dives = 3 charter trips. Or you could do 2 trips and a shore dive.
2. Your $300 "cost" does not include your instructor's time.

Local 2 tank trips are 4 to 5 hours long. Add at least 1 hour for instruction before departing each day and add a few extra hours to whatever day we do the additional (5) dive.

What do you expect an instructor to charge hourly?

Let's say we use your $300 cost + 13hrs @ a bargain basement price of $15/h =$195 for a grand total of $495.

Does $400 still seem like a lot?

If you don't get any value out of the class even $300 is too much to pay, but that's where you need to do your due diligence.
If you shop based on price the only guarantee you have is that you will pay that price!

 

[uncfnp]

Only thing I want out of it is the option to not have to hassle with dive operations about depth of dive.

I agree. You should go for the cheapest course you can find. It's true that the quality of the instructor is important but so too is the attitude of the student. Going into the course with this attitude is likely to produce the expected result.

I'm interested in some of the specialties, like night diving, and I would certainly take a course before ever doing night diving, but one specialty night dive as a part of the AOW course isn't going to do anything for me, I'm still going to need to drop another $200+ for a night diver cert.

Not at all. AOW (with a night dive) for most of us is sufficient introduction to night dives for you to then gain the experience you need by doing the dives. I personally don't know anyone that required a night dive speciality course to do night dives.

 

[MB]

Fast forward 6 months... I believe we're going to be seeing another post saying, "I got nothing from my advanced class!" Kairoos, you've already established that you believe you have little to learn, aren't ready to actually learn, and don't value what you might learn. I'm sure you can purchase a card, probably cheap, and not bother with all this silly teaching and learning thing...

 

[CajunDiva]

If you're willing to drive south a bit:

Diving Instruction and Courses | Rainbow Reef Dive Center | Key Largo, Florida Keys

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Two tank boat dive costs me $75. So $37.50 per dive, 5 dives that's $187.50. That's going to cover boat fees, and obviously there's some profit built into that, otherwise charters wouldn't make any money. Figure the cost per dive would be even lower because it would only be 2 days out on the boat. Book is around $40 if I'm not mistaken, and I don't know what PADI's fees are like, but I'm guessing $60-$80. I'd expect to be around $300.

Just taking a browse through non-local dive shops, even out of state, I see a lot in the mid to upper $200's, and I'm sure for some outfits $400 is worth the time of the instructor but this specific course seems pretty silly to me. Only thing I want out of it is the option to not have to hassle with dive operations about depth of dive. I'm interested in some of the specialties, like night diving, and I would certainly take a course before ever doing night diving, but one specialty night dive as a part of the AOW course isn't going to do anything for me, I'm still going to need to drop another $200+ for a night diver cert. I felt that the nitrox course was too expensive for what it was as well. All I did was answer a short test and have a dive master show me how to use an O2 analyzer, so difficult! Kind of turned off from the PADI cash cow courses.

Why do you say you need a night diving course? I never took a night diving class. if you do one night dive in the open ocean and feel comfortable doing it, then you can practice a few more at the Blue Heron Bridge (on your own) and I would think this is sufficient to prepare yourself to to do deeper, more challenging night dives without supervision.

To be honest, I think a night dive in 60 or 80 feet of water, off a boat, into a strong current is a lot more challenging than a 100 ft dive in clear water in the day.