AOW skills

[DiveMaven]

I'm planning to do my AOW soon and would like to know what the skills are that will be taught and practiced. Yes, I could ask my instructor, but he's in Hawaii and can be difficult to get in touch with, so I thought I'd ask all the experts here. TIA

 

[ShakaZulu]

http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/rec/continue/aow.asp assuming you are with PADI, they usually include Navigation/Boat/Deep/Night dives.

Interesting screen name..........

 

[Far_X]

I am doing mine and the two definites are deep dive and navigation - so you will have to learn controlled ascending/descending with a safety stop, using a compass with mutliple directions rather than straight up and down. We were taught to use bottom composition, angle of the shadows, and other noticeable traits and were asked to do the same navigation without the compass. It is amazing what you can use to make sure you are heading in the correct direction - providing you have been there before. We were retracing our movements to it made sense to remember what we had passed over. Don't know how reliable that would be in a dive site that had basically the same bottom composition. The other three types of dives you will have to do will probably be decided by your instructor but most definitely will include a night dive. Good luck with yours. I should have been checked out yesterday but i got seasick on the boat!!! Just my luck as the previous three times I have been due to get checked out, the boat's engines packed up!!! Next time for sure otherwise I am going to DUtch Springs, PA for sure to get those deep dives done

 

[bbiesenkamp]

I just completed my AOW course. I had a private class where I was the only student, so your mileage may vary.

I had about 6 hours of classroom time where all of the training objective were laid out and discussed. In addition to the usual stuff such as you get narced at depth, we went into better buddy skills, dive planning, gas management, navigation, night light signals, bouyance and trim, and search and recovery techniques.

The nav dives were mid water at about 15-20 FSW with a bottom of 30-40 so no visual cues. I had to navigate 2 different pattern just using the compass. I then had to navigate a visual course knowing only relative depths of the objects and relational positions.

We did a dive to find my normal and working hard SAC then I had to calculate a dive plan for the deep dive using my SAC including rock bottom pressure and turn pressure. My skill that I had to do on the deep dive was and OOA at depth while maintaining neutral bouyancy. My instructor then shot a SMB from 40 feet and we did an open water ascent. All of my previous dive have been from the shore, so this was new.

The search and recovery was for a lost concrete brick. I had to find it and bring it up with a lift bag maintaining a controlled ascent. I then had to do a shallow search dive to find a small lost object.

The night dive was just fun. We saw a 6-8 ft octo, and practiced light communication skills.

Through all of the dives I concentrated on better buddy skills, neutral bouyancy, breathing, and overall better diving.

My course challenged me and increased my diving skills, and I think you would be doing a disservice to yourself if you course did not do the same for you.

Thanks Grateful Diver!
Brian

 

[Diver0001]

assuming you are with PADI, they usually include Navigation/Boat/Deep/Night dives.

Navigation and Deep are required. Where I assist we also normally do PPB, Night and Drift because it's relevant for local conditions but we'll do other ones too on request.

R..

 

[paolov]

I'm planning to do my AOW soon and would like to know what the skills are that will be taught and practiced. Yes, I could ask my instructor, but he's in Hawaii and can be difficult to get in touch with, so I thought I'd ask all the experts here. TIA

1.Deep
2.U/W nav.
3.Peak Performance Buoyancy
4.Search and REscue
5.Night Dive

 

[paolov]

Interesting screen name..........[/QUOTE] i wonder how many feet that would be?

 

[DiveMaven]

Thank you for all your answers. I should have been more specific with my question though. For example, in OW we had to remove our masks, buddy breathe, do a controlled ascent, etc. Do we do any "skills" like these, or is everything more focused on gaining new skills specific to the individual dives? TIA

 

[texdiveguy]

I just completed my AOW course. I had a private class where I was the only student, so your mileage may vary.

I had about 6 hours of classroom time where all of the training objective were laid out and discussed. In addition to the usual stuff such as you get narced at depth, we went into better buddy skills, dive planning, gas management, navigation, night light signals, bouyance and trim, and search and recovery techniques.

The nav dives were mid water at about 15-20 FSW with a bottom of 30-40 so no visual cues. I had to navigate 2 different pattern just using the compass. I then had to navigate a visual course knowing only relative depths of the objects and relational positions.

We did a dive to find my normal and working hard SAC then I had to calculate a dive plan for the deep dive using my SAC including rock bottom pressure and turn pressure. My skill that I had to do on the deep dive was and OOA at depth while maintaining neutral bouyancy. My instructor then shot a SMB from 40 feet and we did an open water ascent. All of my previous dive have been from the shore, so this was new.

The search and recovery was for a lost concrete brick. I had to find it and bring it up with a lift bag maintaining a controlled ascent. I then had to do a shallow search dive to find a small lost object.

The night dive was just fun. We saw a 6-8 ft octo, and practiced light communication skills.

Through all of the dives I concentrated on better buddy skills, neutral bouyancy, breathing, and overall better diving.

My course challenged me and increased my diving skills, and I think you would be doing a disservice to yourself if you course did not do the same for you.

Thanks Grateful Diver!
Brian

FSW--????

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

FSW--????

Denotes depth ...

FSW = feet salt water
FFW = feet fresh water

... Bob (Grateful Diver)