AOW necessary?

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Heck no it is Mexico. They will decide if you are a dufus based on diving, not cards.

That being said, AOW is a fun course if not really advanced.

Actually, when I dove with Mexico Divers (on Isla Mujeres), they did require AOW. I can understand why, as in some of the wrecks we dove, we had to enter the water inverted and negative. Though AOW doesn't address that, my guess as to why they would have this policy was the hope (possibly naïve) that with AOW they would hopefully (again, they are hoping) that the divers would be proficient enough to enter the water that way.

 

[gr8jab]

Many of the dives in Cozumel are deeper than OW qualifies one for. It is a good qualification to have.

Oh no... not this again. PADI open water max depth


Your mileage may vary. I went to Scuba Club Cozumel with only an OW. It did not seem to matter. At the beginning of the week, dives were easy and shallow. We got more variety as the week went on, after (I think) the DM had a good look at us.

 

[boulderjohn]

Different operators have different attitudes about the OW issue and depth. I think pretty much all of them will take an OW diver beyond 60 feet. After that, it varies.

Quite a few years ago two of us asked out operator if we could do Devil's Throat. He said we could if he could get more people. We did the dive, with a young couple joining us. We had a fin dive, and the young couple did fine with it. (FOr those who don't know, you enter the tunnel at about 90 feet and come out around 125.) As we headed back north, we were surprised (shocked) to learn that they had just been certified. This was their first OW dive.

 

[gopbroek]

Oh no... not this again. PADI open water max depth

Then again IMO this never gets old

 

[Lorenzoid]

Here's an old thread that might be of interest: Advanced dives for beginners?

 

[ggunn]

I have been diving Cozumel on my OW cert since 1995. I have been to Punta Sur, Maracaibo, Barracuda, San Juan, etc. with no problems. Dive ops there generally want to dive with you for a bit before they take you to any of those places. An AOW cert in and of itself doesn't count for much.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I have been diving Cozumel on my OW cert since 1995. I have been to Punta Sur, Maracaibo, Barracuda, San Juan, etc. with no problems. Dive ops there generally want to dive with you for a bit before they take you to any of those places. An AOW cert in and of itself doesn't count for much.

From your post in that thread I mentioned, it sounds like they wouldn't take you when you were a brand new diver and hadn't dived with them yet. The "no way, gringo" story is priceless.

So long as the OP doesn't dive like the stereotypical brand new diver, he shouldn't have any problem getting taken to even the more challenging sites if that's what he wants.

 

[Streydog]

I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times before, but the search didn't yield any useful results.

I'm planning a trip to coz in early April for a week, and I'm wondering whether being only OW certified will limit my options. Normally I'd be happy to go ahead and get the AOW either before or while I'm there, but my local dive club does a free AOW course (along with a couple other certs) in August, so if it's not necessary, I'd prefer to just put it off until then.

Is an AOW cert needed to get the most of a week in coz, or will I be fine with just my OW?

I am fairly new diver and just finished a trip a couple weeks ago hitting my 50th dive. I do not have my AOW. The more training the better but I have not had felt I was missing anything in Cozumel by not having one. The first dive each day ranged from 71-94'.

During this trip a couple of times different divers asked the dive masters to take them to more advanced sites for their next trip. The next day these guys were with us again, they were not ready for the advanced sites.

 

[Prop Joe]

AOW is a card. If you suck air and have no control of your buoyancy you will not be going to any advanced sites, regardless of the dive shop/op, OR what card/cert you posses. If you are good they will asses that and maybe recommend some training while taking you to more advanced sites?
It really depends how you dive. I'm no expert but, I dove for years with just an OW and never even thought about it, just dove. Then got put on boats with good/great divers that dove EAN/NITROX tanks = more bottom time. So I/we naturally went and got EAN certs.
I think EAN for the physiology aspect (even if you don't dive EAN tanks) and Rescue for awareness are the best "cards" to have. My normal buddy Mark got his Rescue card so I figured if he's going to "Rescue" me, I should reciprocate with the same training. These cards are only as good as the instructor and how seriously you take the training though, please keep that in mind. Mateo Gutierrez gave me my EAN and Liang Chen gave me my Rescue. Two of the best IMO. You will be fine with Aldora. Do some training (if you can swing it) while your there. Ask the DM's questions regardless. They are a wealth of knowledge, take advantage of that knowledge, there are no stupid questions (well maybe a few).

 

[deepsea21]

OW vs: AOW? What's the difference other than a few more dives and certs that have absolutely nothing to do with proficiency. I'll dive with an OW certified diver with 500 dives any day over an AOW with 50 dives.