AOW curriculum/value??

[browntrout]

My wife and I have been open water PADI cerified just over a year and have logged about 25 dives. We have been to 115' and done night dives. We want to increase our skills and we are about to enroll in the AOW course. We are in No. Utah and the deepest dive available during the course will be about 60 - 65'. To me it looks like the curriculum is focused on the 5 dives and I wonder if with our limited dive enviroments we will get alot out of the investment in the course??

 

[OldNSalty]

If you are comfortable doing the types of dives that will be required in the AOW course then I am not sure why you would take them. Yes, if you are going to do some charters there might be limits on you because you don't have a card but a card is no replacement for real world experience IMO.

 

[CaboJim]

If you want to become a safer, better diver I would recommend a stress & rescue course.
It will open your eyes to alot of mistakes that not only you maybe making but also the divers around you.

 

[rcs9250]

If you want to become a safer, better diver I would recommend a stress & rescue course.
It will open your eyes to alot of mistakes that not only you maybe making but also the divers around you.

Not sure about SSI (stress and rescue) but PADI requires AOW for there equivalent course (rescue).
I hear what you are saying though. I wonder how many people end up taking advanced just because certain dive operations insist on it. It doesn't guarantee that the student really is at that level.
A few years back the crew on a Blackbeards trip told us they don't consider people advanced till 500 dives.

 

[SubMariner]

My wife and I have been open water PADI cerified just over a year and have logged about 25 dives. We have been to 115' and done night dives. We want to increase our skills and we are about to enroll in the AOW course. We are in No. Utah and the deepest dive available during the course will be about 60 - 65'. To me it looks like the curriculum is focused on the 5 dives and I wonder if with our limited dive enviroments we will get alot out of the investment in the course??

The Adventures in Diving course is there to give people a taste of other types of diving under the tutelage of an Instructor. Not only is it good experience, but you get to try all sorts of great stuff without having to go out & buy it yourself. For example, we do u/w photography & videography specialties, so anyone doing AOW could pick one of those as an elective dive. Nice when you consider how many thousands of dollars of equipment that entails.

Only two of the five dives are mandatory: deep and navigation. The other three are up to you & the Instructor.

And yes, if you do decide you want to do Rescue, you will need this course (or its equivalent) as a prerequisite.

 

[rob@diveinutila.com]

There are a few good reasons to take an Advanced course, even with experience of deep and night dives. First of all is safety - you may have experience of deeper dives, night dives, etc but a good advanced class will teach you to evaluate questions like Is today a good day for me to make a deep dive? Is this a good dive site for a night dive? It should help you structure your evaluation of skill/experience/your ever changing personal limits/dive site conditions in order to make these dives. Navigational tips and techniques come in really useful as well. We teach navigation through as many dives of the advanced course as possible.

Liveaboard operations, resorts, etc require an advanced certification for some dives.

Advanced, while not a pre-requisite for Rescue I would recommend doing it first. Particularly it will help with the more advanced compass navigation in the Rescue course.

Don't forget you have agency choices as well. NAUI has a 40m deep dive plus rescue skills in their advanced, along with a minimum of 6 training dives. Make the most of them and learn something that you don't know. How much Search and Recovery have you done? Search patterns, rigging and using lift bags, etc. There are many options to choose from that will help increase your knowledge and experience. You can also include Nitrox training on your advanced.

Finally make sure you talk to the instructor who will be doing the training, explain your experience and doubts. Talk in detail about how they teach and conduct the dives and what you will get out of the course.

If you enjoy your diving I would also recommend stepping up to Rescue Diver as well, maybe at a later date.

Real world experience is, of course, very important but a little training can make it much safer and much easier to collect that experience.

 

[Arizona_SVO]

When I contemplated going to the 'next level' so to speak, I always thought to myself, am I ready?

As far as going from OW to AOW, that answer for you seems to be 'yes' because you are doing some soul searching and asking the question. Are you going to get anything out of AOW and if so, what is it going to be?

You have the basics, and some experience - so yes, now is a good time to take the course by most peoples reckoning. Keep in mind that most things that are 'taught' in AOW are things that experience itself can get you as you have already seen in previous replies - good bouyancy, good trim characteristics, proper techniques for a lot of things. Remember though, you are getting to dive with an instructor for this - be certain to use them and get them to offer suggestions so that you can learn this stuff faster and make the gains all the easier. Take a look at the course, at the specialities offered and make the choice as to what will make you a better diver for YOU.

If you use the instructor for their wealth of knowledge, and do not just take the course to say you did it... and you actually listen and not go lemming, you can get some good things out of AOW.

YMMV.

btw, before you ask... the way I knew it was time to take Rescue (after AOW) was when I noticed that I was becoming concerned with how other people were diving and wondering what I would do if the situation went bad real fast....

Of course, this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Take it and have fun... just get everything you can out of it.

 

[fireflock]

I would take it.

The class should really be called 'things we used to teach in Open Water class but don't anymore'. Many of the things taught are really very basic diving skills.

The class gets flack because it's called 'advanced' and divers understandably think they are advanced after getting an AOW card. Again, think of it Open Water part B.

Having the card will make your life easier if you travel to dive. A lot of ops very much prefer to see an AOW card before taking you on certain dives.

Depending on the agency, you mighy some choices. Take things like buoyancy, deep diving, navigation and nitrox.

Worry more about the quality of the instructor than where you are going to dive. A good instructor can greatly improve your skills in a small mudhole. A poor instructor will do the minimum required to check off the boxes and you will learn far less.

 

[Steve50]

+1 for rescue course and the Prerequisite Certification
is not full AOW, but I would suggestfull AOW while you're at it;

To qualify for PADI Rescue Diver certification, student divers must
hold, as a minimum, a PADI Adventure Diver certification (with
Underwater Navigation Adventure Dive) or have a qualifying certification​

from another training organization.

Interview potential instructors to find out what they include in AOW.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Ask yourself why you want the class.

Is it to improve your skills? If so, then the AOW you describe isn't the right choice. Better alternatives would be something that would focus on specific skills ... perhaps a workshop or specialty in a specific set of skills you want to improve on. A "sampler" class such as the typical AOW simply doesn't provide you with much more than an introduction to the things you will want to learn.

Is it for the access the certification provides? If so, then take the AOW and get what you can from it. After all, what you really want in this case is just the c-card.

Is it so as to be able to take the Rescue class? If so, then perhaps a better choice would be to take a Rescue class from a different agency ... such as NAUI ... that doesn't require AOW as a prerequisite.

To my concern, the first question you should be asking before any class is why you want to take it ... what do you expect to get out of it? And only you can answer that question.

I'm not sure what options are available in your area ... but before signing up for the class you may want to check around and find out whether other shops or agencies are available that better suit your particular goals ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)