The problem with an AOW card is that it also gives no real indication of the level of training. Those of us who teach an AOW course that actually imparts real new skills that may be termed advanced or knowledge get lumped in with the "taste" or "tour" of what the recreational community considers advanced dives. Add to that the fact that some agencies allow dives to count towards the "advanced" rating that impart no new skills or are used as filler to avoid doing dives that require real skills. Around here altitude is used a lot as one of these. The thing that I find hilarious with this is that ALL the dives in the course are usually done at altitude so rather than adding another nav, search and recovery, deep dive, etc., they toss in an altitude dive to meet the 5th dive and for the most part nothing is done on it.
The AOW class I teach has been described a number of times so I'm not going to do that again but if anyone wants the outline PM me. I drew on my tech experience as well as the dives most useful to the majority of divers local to me and developed the course from there with the blessing of my agency. I only offer 7 different dives. The course has 6 in it. Only one is optional or may be substituted for another. I cover altitude considerations and so do not do an altitude dive. Because they all are done at altitude. So they are all altitude dives. There is no boat dive, fish ID, or other such fluff.
There is actually more skills and knowledge than was in my intro to tech class. My whole point in setting it up the way I did was that an AOW card gives divers access to sites where they could get into more serious trouble much faster with more severe consequences. I wanted my students to have the knowledge and basic "advanced" skills do deal with those situations. An AOW course that does not have bag shoots, gas planning, rescue skills, and a focus on buddy skills, situational awareness, and developing good judgment along with those skills is worthless. My students are task loaded on every dive in increasing degrees and each dive is the foundation for the next. It is also possible to fail the course or not receive a card. Ignoring safety rules will get you thrown out. No cert, no refund. Buddy separation is not an option even on the low vis dive where divers encounter what a full silt out feels like. They do no encounter this until they've gotten the skills and knowledge to not only deal with it but see it as a challenge to be overcome.
There is 8 hours of classroom plus the onsite instruction over two days. It ends up being a 24 hour course or more. I take pride in people telling me it was challenging, intense, educational, tiring, and humbling.
The AOW class I teach has been described a number of times so I'm not going to do that again but if anyone wants the outline PM me. I drew on my tech experience as well as the dives most useful to the majority of divers local to me and developed the course from there with the blessing of my agency. I only offer 7 different dives. The course has 6 in it. Only one is optional or may be substituted for another. I cover altitude considerations and so do not do an altitude dive. Because they all are done at altitude. So they are all altitude dives. There is no boat dive, fish ID, or other such fluff.
There is actually more skills and knowledge than was in my intro to tech class. My whole point in setting it up the way I did was that an AOW card gives divers access to sites where they could get into more serious trouble much faster with more severe consequences. I wanted my students to have the knowledge and basic "advanced" skills do deal with those situations. An AOW course that does not have bag shoots, gas planning, rescue skills, and a focus on buddy skills, situational awareness, and developing good judgment along with those skills is worthless. My students are task loaded on every dive in increasing degrees and each dive is the foundation for the next. It is also possible to fail the course or not receive a card. Ignoring safety rules will get you thrown out. No cert, no refund. Buddy separation is not an option even on the low vis dive where divers encounter what a full silt out feels like. They do no encounter this until they've gotten the skills and knowledge to not only deal with it but see it as a challenge to be overcome.
There is 8 hours of classroom plus the onsite instruction over two days. It ends up being a 24 hour course or more. I take pride in people telling me it was challenging, intense, educational, tiring, and humbling.
