AOW for vacations/resorts?

[Sas]

That is just a minor example of how bad diving is in Oz, particularly in Queensland. Despite being literally surrounded by fantastic diving, Oz is the worst place in the world to go diving. Some of the best parts of the reasonably accessible portions of the great barrier reef were directly 30 miles or so offshore of the beach I lived on and I couldn't be bothered to go diving more than once every month or two because dealing with the Aussie DMs that strictly interpret ever silly dive regulation imaginable just wasn't worth it.

I was once kicked off a boat because we had scooters and it might disturb migrating whales (which could potentially be within a few miles of the boat, we weren't diving with them). The boat had about 200 snorkelers/ divers on it to give you an idea of the size. They weren't amused when I asked how they kept the boat from disturbing the whales.

I dive in Australia and have never encountered some of issues with places such as have been described here. I have been asked for a cert card a few times for fills and also for charter rides, but no 'fin pivots' (I had to look that up on youtube ) and check-out dives. I also never dive with DMs and there aren't any available on boats anyway, other than if you hire one personally so don't have to deal with them at all... The main issue seems to be if one wants to go on a club dive (only shop affliated clubs I must point out) as then they ask you to show a 'Night' diving card to do a night dive, a 'drift' diving card for a drift dive and so on :\ I avoid clubs like this and therefore do not have problems. I am finding charters now too that are much laxer and don't really require cards. The big ones do though or proof of equivalent experience, I looked at the guidelines today for the charter I use to see if one actually needed an AOW or a Deep card, etc but I was wrong, you don't necessarily. You can show equivalent experience or other certifications than AOW.

Which operators in particular have you been having trouble with? Just in QLD? I think they have much stricter guidelines up there, that aren't relevant for the rest of Australia, btw. It's a big country

With buying AOW cards, I know a few people who are very experienced divers. Due to some charters in various places (not locally though as most say 'AOW or equivalent experience' for dives >18m) requiring them to show a cert card, they have literally bought them off instructors who know them well. I don't think strangers showing up and asking for an AOW card would have any luck though.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Danny in Bob's AOW would be fascinating

Bob would be furiously taking notes and asking questions about how to make it a better class ...

Would be kind've like when I did Lynne's nitrox class. I learned something important that day ... never try to explain physiology to a surgeon ... :depressed:

With buying AOW cards, I know a few people who are very experienced divers. Due to some charters in various places (not locally though as most say 'AOW or equivalent experience' for dives >18m) requiring them to show a cert card, they have literally bought them off instructors who know them well. I don't think strangers showing up and asking for an AOW card would have any luck though.

I've had some pretty experienced divers go through my AOW class ... for pretty much the same reasons as discussed here ... they needed the card for certain dives they wanted to do. Usually it's a learning experience for both of us, but I can say with confidence that they didn't just buy a card ... they still had to earn it.

If you're gonna take a class, you should ALWAYS get more than just a card out of it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Sas]

I've had some pretty experienced divers go through my AOW class ... for pretty much the same reasons as discussed here ... they needed the card for certain dives they wanted to do. Usually it's a learning experience for both of us, but I can say with confidence that they didn't just buy a card ... they still had to earn it.

If you're gonna take a class, you should ALWAYS get more than just a card out of it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Trouble is, not many instructors make one *earn* an AOW card, at least from what I have seen so I can see why experienced divers don't think much of it and might just try and buy the card. I enjoyed doing the courses for my AOW card but I didn't feel I earned it so much, the courses were very easy... However, I only realised this in hindsight and knowing what I know now I would have done my courses differently for AOW and gotten a lot more out of it. New divers (such as myself) don't really know what they are missing out on til later on I think!

 

[TSandM]

New divers (such as myself) don't really know what they are missing out on til later on I think!

That's so true, and so sad. Which is why those of us who are looking back from a bit further on push classes like Bob's, and like GUE Fundamentals, so hard. (To return a bit to the topic/forum at hand . . . )

 

[Sas]

That's so true, and so sad. Which is why those of us who are looking back from a bit further on push classes like Bob's, and like GUE Fundamentals, so hard. (To return a bit to the topic/forum at hand . . . )

Yes, I advise friends who are interested in diving to take a very different path than the one I took when I started To try to save them from making the same mistakes I have done, largely through ignorance of better options.

 

[pwl]

That is just a minor example of how bad diving is in Oz, particularly in Queensland. Despite being literally surrounded by fantastic diving, Oz is the worst place in the world to go diving. [...]dealing with the Aussie DMs that strictly interpret ever silly dive regulation imaginable just wasn't worth it.

it's partly because of the great diving in queensland that the legislation there ties up dive operators so painfully: bear in mind that for every gue-trained or highly-experienced diver that takes to the water at the GBR, there's at least a thousand people who've never dived before, live hundreds of miles from water of any kind, and may not even be able to swim very well.

i'm also sure that operators hear plenty of stories from folk who believe they have sufficient skills & experience to be given a free hand; i'm also sure that they see a lot of those supposed experts get into trouble. in that sort of environment (& when you ultimately bear some responsibility for safety) it's usually safer to apply your own yardstick to measure a diver's ability.

sure, the yardsticks can seem simplistic & could often be applied in a better way, but from the point-of-view of responsibility if the operator sees an accreditation from a credible, blamable agency it may help reduce their culpability if anything goes wrong.


ob. ontopic: bob said it best, fundies = "skills", padi AOW = "experiential". no amount of fundies practice at 12m will give the visceral experience of colder, darker, much-shorter-bottom-times at 30m.

for the OP: find a GUE fundies+ instructor with other agency rating who can give you an AOW "experience" that matches your existing skills.

 

[Ben_ca]

Actually since the OP is taking Fundies pretty soon here maybe his instructor (I think he's NAUI also) can sign off on his AOW card at the same time.... Win win here.

(unless you really want to do fin pivots)

 

[cwkline]

I'm curious to find out which shop required that? I don't ever recall being asked to show any more than an OW card for all but really advanced dives.

 

[John_B]

I did my AOW this summer, just for the reason that most dive charters in Key Largo insist on seeing it in order to take you out to the good rec wrecks.

I had a good instructor and went into it with a positive attitude and actually learned some stuff.

But I could definitely see how it could also be a "mail it in" proposition, depending on the instructor and the student.

 

[Gombessa]

for the OP: find a GUE fundies+ instructor with other agency rating who can give you an AOW "experience" that matches your existing skills.

Actually since the OP is taking Fundies pretty soon here maybe his instructor (I think he's NAUI also) can sign off on his AOW card at the same time

Thanks guys, this actually sounds like a great idea. Fundies + AOW all at once? Talk about zero to hero

Also, I fully agree with Bob's sentiment that you should always get more than just a card out of a class (especially if you're paying good money for experience and education, not a piece of plastic). I'm glad to hear that several here got a lot out of AOW.