AOW curriculum/value??
- Thread starter browntrout
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The term AOW covers a wide range of courses depending on which agency / instructor running the course ( I instruct for an agency, BSAC, which has no direct equivalent). In my own training I took a PADI AOW course, so my comments are based on that experience. I think that, as others have already said, what you get out of an AOW course is proportional to how much you AND your instructor put in to it. As I see it five dives with agood instructor on which you work to increase your diving skills is never a waste of time or money. With a good instructor it is always possible to learn something and have fun (that is why we do it afterall). So my advice to the OP is find the best instructor you can and do the course.
Buoyant1
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Actually I wish more instructors took basic OW seriously regarding that statement...in regards to AOW it would be more COMPETENT divers!
I'm just peeved that I had to pay $XXX.XX (plus fills, thankfully I already owned my equipment and had a membership to the quarry where we took the course, or I would have had to put out that money as well!) for a card that tells people I'm qualified to do dives that I already knew how to do before I got the card! I thank my dive buddies for giving me the real education prior to my "AOW" experience!
I know that this subject has been beaten into the ground so much, but "AOW" as it is right now should be taken after the diver logs 5-10 dives without the aid of an instructor, and renamed Open Water part 2..because there's nothing advanced about it (well unless you take Walter or Jim's version of the course, which from what I've read in the past is WORTH taking, then again, two of the instructors that broke off from my LDS teach with similar methods, I just wish they taught the course when I took it!)
end rant.....
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There may be more divers diving if so.
Scuba diving has an incredibly high dropout rate. There are several reasons for this ... one of the major ones is that the typical OW/AOW classes teach you just enough to put you in a position to scare the crap outta yourself, at which point many people decide that scuba diving isn't enough fun to justify the expense and move on to some other recreational activity.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
blue steal
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I'm there..........now if Jim teaches Rescue............
Alive, Competent, and Diving. That's the life for me.
I am hoping to have my Instructor Cert by the end of 2011. I want to show people how much there is to this..."serious training, serious fun (Tag-line for Clear Recall: my buddy's business)."
I am hoping to have my Instructor Cert by the end of 2011. I want to show people how much there is to this..."serious training, serious fun (Tag-line for Clear Recall: my buddy's business)."
Regardless of what certification for whatever you study for the quality of the instruction is most telling. When you look at the various agencies' requirements to dive independently or get open water, there isn't much different between them. Oh, and it is why they transfer...
Is AoW worthwhile to get?
For me it was, and it was because when I looked at requirements, stuff taught and where you are after the course I decided at the start that I wanted to get rescue diver trained to be the point where I could say I am a diver. Still lots to learn and all, and I did many dives between when I got my "FINS" and when I completed my rescue course and the rescue course is the 2nd best training I have taken. The best training I have ever taken is interning as a divemaster candidate . And the people that teach me the most are my students.
And you don't get there without AOW
Is AoW worthwhile to get?
For me it was, and it was because when I looked at requirements, stuff taught and where you are after the course I decided at the start that I wanted to get rescue diver trained to be the point where I could say I am a diver. Still lots to learn and all, and I did many dives between when I got my "FINS" and when I completed my rescue course and the rescue course is the 2nd best training I have taken. The best training I have ever taken is interning as a divemaster candidate . And the people that teach me the most are my students.
And you don't get there without AOW
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