AOW immediately after OW?

[cloudswinger]

I got my AOW from a university class. They never bothered giving me the OW card. All the academic class work and pool training was geared toward a AOW rating, but you didn't get the AOW card until you completed the 5 extra dives required for AOW, so if you weren't able to do that little week trip, they gave you the OW card. They made everyone do a navigation dive for one of the OW dives. I also remember doing in pool rescue type stuff like in water resuscitation breathing. I think for my first 11 dives I had an instructor. We covered everything. Freshwater, saltwater, boat, deep, night, currents, rough seas, low viz, navigation.

 

[k374]

Only you can decide. Some things to think about ...

- If your skills are so limited, why would you want to widen them right away?
- What would you expect to learn by taking the class?
- Would you facilitate that learning better by waiting until you are more comfortable with what you learned in OW?

I actually took a private course and except for a lot of problems with equalization while descending I had no issues with comfort level in the water or any of the exercises

 

[Tigerman]

Sorry if someones already mentioned this but...
Am I the only person seeing the irony in this thread?
People complain that OW dont teach enough, that its been shortened down and has a lesser value than it used to. Yet people say "dont take AOW immediately after OW"..

 

[HIGHwing]

I took it immediately after OW and didn't really have a problem with anything but the deep dive. My regulator free flowed at 65-70 feet in the cold and that was a considerable amount of task loading for me to deal with in the cold 47 degree water nearly in the dark looking at an airplane in a quarry.

If I had to do it again, I'd still do the AOW right away because I didn't really feel comfortable with the level of knowledge gained in the OW class. I went on to do the Rescue also, because I was just interested in doing it. I think being less "comfortable" in the water is a disadvantage to progressing in the classes, but then again doing the classes gets you more comfortable in the water.

I say, just do it. It's like you're going to be Aquaman/woman before or after you get your AOW. You're just going to be more aware of the rewards and dangers of different types of diving. To me the deep dive in a dark low-viz quarry was a high-task loading situation at my relative level of experience.

 

[DougieIL]

This is an interesting conversation. I did my OW and moved immediately to AOW because I was on a trip, liked my instructor and knew we had a deep wreck coming in a couple of days. I was relaxed, on vacation in the Carribean so it was good for me. In general, based on my experience, I would say your instructor is right. However, if I have learned anything in diving, it is never do anything you can't get comfortable with. So wait til you feel ready but know you are limited to 60 feet.

 

[Walter]

Sorry if someones already mentioned this but...
Am I the only person seeing the irony in this thread?
People complain that OW dont teach enough, that its been shortened down and has a lesser value than it used to. Yet people say "dont take AOW immediately after OW"..

There would be irony in that if the skills taken from OW were present in AOW, but they simply are not there.

 

[CompuDude]

There are multiple levels to the OP's question.

1) The shop's policy is BS. There should be no "requirement" to take AOW immediately after OW, if they are doing their job properly in the first place. It is certainly possible to pass new OW students with all the skills they need to safely dive within their training constraints (60' max, similar temps/conditions to those they were trained in, etc.).

2) That said, point #1 is wasted on the OP, who has already received training from a shop that teaches rushed classes which probably do not prepare her very well for diving without instructor/DM supervision.

So what are the choices, in her situation? Well, certainly you can kowtow to the shop's insistence, spend the money, and take AOW. Hopefully the extra dives will give her the extra skills and confidence her OW course lacked. However, I suspect that's not the best option. As others have noted, there is actually at least some value to the actual AOW course dives, and frankly, a new diver who is struggling with basics left over from OW is not going to benefit as much as if she had the basics a little more dialed in. However, as someone also noted above, it's also true that if you wait too long, there's very little benefit to be gained from AOW, since most things can be picked up relatively easily without the class.

So what's the other option? There are two options that are quite good, to my way of thinking: IF the OP is actually fairly confident in her skills, she could take the AOW class and benefit from it. If, however, she thinks some easy dives spent dialing in skills would be a good idea before attending class (I agree in most cases, and I'm guessing she does, too, else why post this thread?) then absolutely she should get some dives in first. Some ideas thoughts for that: (a) Make them nice easy dives in conditions similar to those she's familiar with, from her training dives. Or, (2) hire a local DM to take her on some easy dives. Or, (c) find an experienced buddy to dive with just for a few dives, to keep an eye on you while you're still getting comfortable. Not a buddy you just took OW with, but an actually experienced local diver.

There's no need to spend a lot of money to take a full-blown AOW course just to get some supervised dives. In many (possibly most?) locations you can hire a DM (or even an instructor) for a couple of supervised dives... no need to clutter up those dives with course information before you're ready to focus on the course information.

After a few dives, say 6 or so (bringing your total # of logged dives up to around 10-15 or so), go ahead and take AOW, from a more confident standpoint, and then you'll be ready to absorb the information given in AOW more readily. I'd much rather see an AOW-graduated diver with 15-20 dives than one with 9.

This is the approach I'm taking with my wife. After her OW course's 4 dives, I plan to take her on 6-10 easy dives before she takes AOW. Since I'm a divemaster, it's a little different for me, but not much... she simply doesn't need to hire me to accompany her.

Whatever you choose, good luck, and dive safe!

 

[diver 85]

To the OP---either way will work....always remember the guy/gal who makes soap(instructor in this case) wants to sell soap.....He/she may be looking after his/her own pocket book....

 

[rstofer]

The shop where I did my certification insists that it is important that I do my AOW immediately now that I got my OW. I'm of the opinion that I want to get some dives under my belt first. Their argument is that the OW is a very limited skillset and getting an AOW will increase my comfort level. My opinion is that comfort level comes through actual experience and time in the water so I should concentrate on that first.

Who do you think is right?

Earlier in the thread, I recommended taking AOW immediately. I still do. However...

Several folks have bemoaned the fact that OW training is somewhat deficient. There just isn't much time in 4 OW dives to get much done. Sure, some instructors will take additional time but the majority do not.

We can't turn back the clock so whatever level of training you got; well, that's what you got.

So that brings up the next point, your's actually: You think you will be more comfortable just going diving. OK... Who are you going to dive with? If you have a competent buddy that you have known for years, no problem. But if it's going to be insta-buddies and a brand new c-card... Maybe not a good solution.

For one thing, you will be dependent on your buddy for most of your safety. I don't know about you, but I don't like relying on anybody. Never have... I'm also not a big fan of guided dives. I understand why they are done, I have done them, but I don't like them. Just drive the boat somewhere interesting and I'll do the rest. I'm just not a 'trust-me' kind of diver.

Looking back, of my first 21 dives, only 2 were not training classes.

So, not only do I recommend you do the AOW and Rescue sequence but I also recommend you take some specialties: Peak Performance Buoyancy (if you can find an instructor that has a clue), Deep, Navigation, Search & Recovery and anyting else that involves swimming. Not for the c-cards but for the experience. You can learn more in a couple of days of formal training than you can in a very long time on your own.

But wait! What about that very experienced buddy? They can show you the ropes. Well, don't count on it! A lot of very experienced people have forgotten just what was involved in the beginning. They have already been there and done that. They can get you in over your head in a heartbeat!

So, get as much training as early in the process as possible. If your first 25 dives are all training dives, great!

Richard

 

[leapfrog]

Sorry if someones already mentioned this but...
Am I the only person seeing the irony in this thread?
People complain that OW dont teach enough, that its been shortened down and has a lesser value than it used to. Yet people say "dont take AOW immediately after OW"..

As you are a veteran and have been here a long time, you know we did the "Dumbing down" thread that lasted quite a while. I certainly felt I learned a lot from that thread once the initial punches had been thrown and we all started to look for common ground. The truth is, IMHO, that scuba training has been cut up into little pieces to accomodate people who basically want to go "resort diving" or on "guided dives". It's also been cut up for financial reasons to make it more easily accesible to a wider range of people.

I think this is like almost everything in life: some people will get more out of a course than another (and I mean the same course wth the same instructor). There will always be people who just want the card to go diving and others who actually want to learn (just like college!) There will be students who will stay behind to ask questions and others who watch the clock.

What I like about Scubaboard is that there are some folks here who are putting a lot in and it's not "another dollar"

As the man says, the OW skill set isn't normally in the AOW syllabus....unless, IMHO, that an instructor is intelligent enough to sell PPB to the student as the first dive and then builds on that through the next four dives of the course.