AOW Skills
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Tek Adventure Diver
Contributor
Teaches you minimal gas planning. Some reel work, lift bag and how to tie knots. Theres also so basic nav. skills. Its good to take, but it all depends on your instructor.
lifeisfullofgooddives
Contributor
You will basicly learn how to dive deeper and under different situations not presented to you in your open water cert. For example I had 2 deep dives, a night dive, underwater navigation, boyuency control....etc.
You are basicly continuing your skills and knowledge with an emphsis on deeper diving.
One thing I realized, as you might after the course, is you will probably want to get Nitrox certified as well. Helps with your service intervals on those days you have a deep dive plus multiple other dives!
I am sure you can get more detailed info @ Padi.com or from someone else.
You are basicly continuing your skills and knowledge with an emphsis on deeper diving.
One thing I realized, as you might after the course, is you will probably want to get Nitrox certified as well. Helps with your service intervals on those days you have a deep dive plus multiple other dives!
I am sure you can get more detailed info @ Padi.com or from someone else.
Advanced Open Water is a class that varies a great deal, but it's different from Open Water in that its purpose is to expand your range of skills and experience, rather than to teach you to dive in the first place.
PADI's AOW consists of five dives. A deep and a navigation dive are required, and you can select the other three from a long list of possibilities, including such things as a bouyancy dive, a night dive, a photography dive, or even a scooter dive. The actual intellectual content is not great -- There is a short chapter to read in the AOW book for each type of dive. The value of the course depends VERY heavily on the instructor (which I think is true for most diving classes). It's designed, I believe, with the idea that many newly certified divers will proceed directly into AOW, and one is certainly encouraged to do so.
In contrast, there's NWGratefulDiver's AOW class, which has a manual he has written that goes with it, and includes a lot of information on gas management and dive planning, among other topics. He has a set menu of dives, some of which are VERY challenging, like his midwater navigation exercise. When you finish such a class, you have learned a great deal and have a strong feeling of accomplishment. It's not a class, however, that one goes into immediately after finishing OW.
Hope this gives you some information. Please feel free to PM me if you have further questions.
PADI's AOW consists of five dives. A deep and a navigation dive are required, and you can select the other three from a long list of possibilities, including such things as a bouyancy dive, a night dive, a photography dive, or even a scooter dive. The actual intellectual content is not great -- There is a short chapter to read in the AOW book for each type of dive. The value of the course depends VERY heavily on the instructor (which I think is true for most diving classes). It's designed, I believe, with the idea that many newly certified divers will proceed directly into AOW, and one is certainly encouraged to do so.
In contrast, there's NWGratefulDiver's AOW class, which has a manual he has written that goes with it, and includes a lot of information on gas management and dive planning, among other topics. He has a set menu of dives, some of which are VERY challenging, like his midwater navigation exercise. When you finish such a class, you have learned a great deal and have a strong feeling of accomplishment. It's not a class, however, that one goes into immediately after finishing OW.
Hope this gives you some information. Please feel free to PM me if you have further questions.
laivindil
Contributor
Since you're in the PNW I would recommend taking advanced with NWGratefulDiver or BDub. I highly recommend either (depending on where you live) as they teach some material that isn't covered in most advanced classes.
I'm taking BDub's class and while he starts with the standard material he adds some components that I believe help greatly in making one a much safer diver. For example gas management is discussed in greater depth then what you get in OW. He gives you several techniques to choose from on any given dive and the know-how to choose between them.
TSandM is right though, it's not a class to take immediatly after OW.
I'm taking BDub's class and while he starts with the standard material he adds some components that I believe help greatly in making one a much safer diver. For example gas management is discussed in greater depth then what you get in OW. He gives you several techniques to choose from on any given dive and the know-how to choose between them.
TSandM is right though, it's not a class to take immediatly after OW.
Tigerman
Contributor
As far as PADI goes, the AOW course basically give you a bit more knowledge within 5 different topics. 2 of them will be deep dive and underwater navigation. Other than that youre free to choose 3 different topics of your (or your groups) choice.
There is no written exam, only some theory with a few checkup questions that you have to answer, sign and hand in (PADI dont wanna be sued for your errors when you come tell them "I didnt learn that" you know).
Then you go do the chosen dives with the instructor in order to get some basic experience with it.
If youre within PADI you can look here http://www.padi.com/padi/en/kd/padicourses.aspx for more details.
Personally I did deep dive, underwater navigation, night dive (I had to, its pretty dark in Norway during the winter months), wreck dive and search and recovery.
Dont know how it is with other organisations tho
There is no written exam, only some theory with a few checkup questions that you have to answer, sign and hand in (PADI dont wanna be sued for your errors when you come tell them "I didnt learn that" you know).
Then you go do the chosen dives with the instructor in order to get some basic experience with it.
If youre within PADI you can look here http://www.padi.com/padi/en/kd/padicourses.aspx for more details.
Personally I did deep dive, underwater navigation, night dive (I had to, its pretty dark in Norway during the winter months), wreck dive and search and recovery.
Dont know how it is with other organisations tho
dsteding
Contributor
I'll add to the recommendation to take Bob Bailey's (NW Grateful Diver) or Brian Wiederspan's (BDub) class. I took my AOW with Bob, and it was challenging and very rewarding to say the least. I have yet to take a class from Brian, but he has worked closely with Bob in developing the coursework, and Brian is also one of the great instructors in this area.
A review of Bob's class that I wrote is here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=154809
Brian's website is here:
www.frogkickdiving.com
Bottom line, seek out an instructor, go dive with them before the class so they can see if you are ready to take it, and discuss your goals and their curriculum to see if it matches up for what you are looking for.
A review of Bob's class that I wrote is here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=154809
Brian's website is here:
www.frogkickdiving.com
Bottom line, seek out an instructor, go dive with them before the class so they can see if you are ready to take it, and discuss your goals and their curriculum to see if it matches up for what you are looking for.
I'm reasonably familiar with NWGrateful Diver's materials and highly recommend him and the course he teaches. I don't know BDub, but if he worked closely with NWGrateful Diver in creating his course material then IMO he would be a good choice also. AOW really is very instructor dependent regarding the quality of the class and Bob and Brian would be top notch choices for anyone wanting a quality course.
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Brian (BDub) and I co-wrote the material. It's a project we started working on together back when we were both DM's and contemplating becoming instructors.jbd:
For those wondering what we're talking about, it's a progression of skills that we felt would target the needs of the Puget Sound diver ... or basically any diver who dives in cold, murky conditions without the supervision of a DM.
Those skills would be dive planning, gas management, buddy awareness, buoyancy control, trim and propulsion, and underwater navigation. We also relate those skills to how they apply to specific diving conditions, such as limited visibility, deep diving, and search and recovery.
In my class, the dives are structured scenarios to practice these skills ... and are presented in a specific manner to build on them from one dive to the next. Unlike other AOW courses, there are no "electives".
Brian's class is structured a bit differently than mine ... but the basic approach is the same.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
IwakuniDiver
Contributor
When we teach the NAUI AOW Course here in Iwakuni these are the topics that are covered.
- Bouyancy and Finning refinement
- Night Diving
- Underwater Nav, 3 and 4 point
- Light Salvage with 100lbs lift bags
- Search Patterns
- Gas Management (SAC Calculations)
- Deep Diving (to 85fsw typcially)
- Dive Planning
- Basic Seamanship
- Bouyancy and Finning refinement
- Night Diving
- Underwater Nav, 3 and 4 point
- Light Salvage with 100lbs lift bags
- Search Patterns
- Gas Management (SAC Calculations)
- Deep Diving (to 85fsw typcially)
- Dive Planning
- Basic Seamanship
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