AOW: Different meaning for different agency?

[NorCalDawg]

In that case you should get 5 seperate cards. (If that's how specialty certs work).

One for each of your specialties, and one for AOW. Else, your only getting certified as AOW. No matter how he puts it, unless it's documented to you, your still only getting AOW.

Apparantly with SSI those specialty cards don't mean as much as the recognition cards. If you take 2 specialty classes, you get a "Specialty diver" card. If you take 4 (and have 25 dives), you get "AOW". And if you get AOW, +50 dives and take Stress & Rescue, you get "Master Diver".

 

[frankc420]

It looks like to get SSI AOW, you do 4 specialties and minimum of 24 dives for AOW.

I would still hope you take the whole course in the specialties rather than just the intro.

 

[NorCalDawg]

It looks like to get SSI AOW, you do 4 specialties and minimum of 24 dives for AOW.

I would still hope you take the whole course in the specialties rather than just the intro.

It's not the intro, it's the full course. According to the instructor i talked to. In other words, i would show up to each of the 4 specialty classes and do the dives for them to get AOW.

 

[frankc420]

Apparantly with SSI those specialty cards don't mean as much as the recognition cards. If you take 2 specialty classes, you get a "Specialty diver" card. If you take 4 (and have 25 dives), you get "AOW". And if you get AOW, +50 dives and take Stress & Rescue, you get "Master Diver".

This junk is confusing!

 

[frankc420]

It's not the intro, it's the full course. According to the instructor i talked to. In other words, i would show up to each of the 4 specialty classes and do the dives for them to get AOW.

What is the cost for each specialty? Plus materials?

 

[NorCalDawg]

What is the cost for each specialty? Plus materials?

$99 for each specialty, about $15 for the manual. If you sign up for the 4 necessary for your AOW for this shop, they knock off 100 bucks and you pay $299, plus materials. Not as good a price as the one your instructor friend is doing, i might note, but it is a bit different.

 

[garyfotodiver]

Not to want to convert this to an SSI better than PADI thread... But for an average person who just want to get more experience, PADI AOW is a great way for them to build confidence with planning your own dive.

You can pay extra money to do SSI specialty in deep diving, night diving, and navigation... Or just pay once, and do the essential of these programs..

Gary, if you have an agenda, then let us know... I think SSI and PADI just offer divers many options to get the comfort they need to plan and execute their dive.

If you want more, NAUI is the way to go.... I am just a recreational diver, and not into inflating PADI or NAUI... Many ways to skin a cat... PADI was the way for me, and SSI would be fine for my son.

Fisher, I have no agenda. I have had experience with instruction from several agencies and I have written extensively in this forum on the subject. For me, SSI fits my needs and philosophy more than other agencies. I write this as one whose original certification was one of those semi-military courses from 1969-70.

For my SSI AOW I took, in addition to providing evidence of 24 dives, several courses. So I am "certified" in them. They are all listed on my c-card.

What you do is your business; I'll dive with most anyone.

 

[diveman7683]

With SSI, you don't have to get the specialty cards if you don't want to. There are stickers that your instructor will put in your logbook saying that you've done that specialty. You can also wait till you get your Master Diver card and have your specialties listed on it so you're not getting a handful of cards.

 

[garyfotodiver]

In that case you should get 5 seperate cards. (If that's how specialty certs work).

One for each of your specialties, and one for AOW. Else, your only getting certified as AOW. No matter how he puts it, unless it's documented to you, your still only getting AOW.

OK, here are the business sides of my three most recent SSI c-cards.



Top to bottom, Stress/Rescue, AOW, Nitrox. Note the listng of the four specialties on the AOW card. It is the yellow box at the lower right corner. I got a separate Nitrox card so I wouldn't have to bring out the AOW.

There might be others who want to vehemently debate the merits of one agency philosophy over another, but not me. I simply try to report my experiences.

 

[diverdan214]

This junk is confusing!

In my experience having done SSI courses in different places, there's a lot of interpreting going on and not a lot of clarification from the top. Some of it might be allowing trainers "flexibility" but a lot of it is a just a lack of clear standards/shared standards/communication.

Also from what I was told by one of my instructors who had gone from being a PADI instructor to SSI and now certifies people the other way, SSI more or less recoginizes DM as equivalent to DiveCon (you pay a fee and sit through a short workshop about the different standards), but if you go from DiveCon to DM you have to take the whole course over. So depends on what you want but if you do PADI first its a course + workshop if you do SSI first its 2 courses. I'm not saying that's good or bad, just my understanding of how it works.