Certification
- Thread starter LarryNJ
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Do you consider AOW to be "advanced training"? I hate to take the OP's thread down that well-worn path, but whether he and his son take AOW on this trip or at some point in the future, they should understand that "PADI Advanced Open Water" is not "Advanced Training" by any stretch of the imagination. Nor is it intended to be. Per PADI's own description about "PADI Advanced Open Water":
You don’t have to be “advanced” to take it – it’s designed to advance your diving, so you can start right after earning your PADI Open Water Diver certification. The course helps build confidence and expand your scuba skills through different Adventure Dives. You try out different specialties while gaining experience under the supervision of your PADI Instructor. You log dives and develop capabilities as you find new ways to have fun scuba diving.
It's pretty clear that "PADI Advance Open Water" merely - and properly - represents an advance from Open Water. Per an analogy cited further above, AOW can/should be considered "the second semester" of Open Water training. As such, it can be taken at any point after Open Water certification has been achieved. For any individual diver, there may be good rationale for taking it immediately after OW and there may be good rationale for waiting a bit. Either way, perpetuating the misperception that AOW is "advanced training" does no one any favors.
CAPTAIN SINBAD
Contributor
No I dont. In fact if you follow some of my ramblings on other forums, I have expressed my reservations with the "Advanced Open Water." Since that is not the topic of this thread, I am using the term because this is how the agency has chosen to name it.
In fact, if it was me I would skip the AOW entirely and do full specialties in the Deep, Nitrox, Night and Drift.
I join the camp that says do your open waters and then go diving. Save AOW for another day. After you log 15 to 20 recreational dives, the AOW class ( at least my version of the PADI class) will be much more informative and skill advancing. We do a lot of navigation, a mlots of task loading,and you need to have developed good buoyancy skills and body control to get the full benefit of those kinds of exercises. As for a night dive, you can go on one without doing the AOW if you choose too. Just be sure to have at least 2 good lights each, and probably you should go on an escorted dive for your first night outing.
DivemasterDennis
DivemasterDennis
scagrotto
Contributor
There's a cliche that says it's practice that makes you good, not lessons. I'm pretty sure that nobody here would tell you to take 40 one hour piano lessons next week and then spend the next 39 weeks practicing. Diving is, of course, different, but that doesn't mean there's not some overlap in how you learn and become proficient. If you take an OW course from a good instructor you should be perfectly capable of diving on your own when you're done, especially in a place with warm, clear water like you'll have in Utila. If you take a class and then continue diving with the same shop for a few more recreational dives you should get a lot of good practice, and the "DM" you'll be diving with is probably an instructor. It might even be the instructor who certified you, and you may get a fair amount of additional instruction even though you're not taking (or paying for) an actual course). Working on the skills you just learned is what will let you improve them, not spending more time just listening to an instructor. After you've had that practice and improved your skills an instructor can help yo dial it in even further.
As far as the choice between e-learning and taking a classroom course I'm a fan of the classroom. If there's something you don't understand the immediate back and forth with the instructor is something that can't be replicated in an online course. There's nothing I consider difficult, but some people may find that some of the physiology or physics concepts don't come as easily as they could. Of course you can have the best of both worlds, and read the course book before taking a classroom course. I'll also note the the existence of e-learning indicates that taking a class isn't necessary to learn the information. If you do some deeper dives and a night dive as recreational dives, making sure the DM knows you're still new, it's not going to be a lot different than doing them as part of an actual AOW course. DM's are normally happy to help and share their knowledge, so there's no reason not to take advantage of that.
As far as the choice between e-learning and taking a classroom course I'm a fan of the classroom. If there's something you don't understand the immediate back and forth with the instructor is something that can't be replicated in an online course. There's nothing I consider difficult, but some people may find that some of the physiology or physics concepts don't come as easily as they could. Of course you can have the best of both worlds, and read the course book before taking a classroom course. I'll also note the the existence of e-learning indicates that taking a class isn't necessary to learn the information. If you do some deeper dives and a night dive as recreational dives, making sure the DM knows you're still new, it's not going to be a lot different than doing them as part of an actual AOW course. DM's are normally happy to help and share their knowledge, so there's no reason not to take advantage of that.
Neither would anyone tell you to take one lesson next week... practice for 39 weeks... and then take your second lesson on week 40.
Diving, is of course, more similar than different.
just my .02 but I would just do the extra dives, w/ out taking the Advanced Class. The advanced class will teach you a few new skills, but you have to ask yourself:
Do you feel ok going deeper?
Night dives?
Buoyancy skills
maybe after you log 25-50 dives, perhaps the advanced is a class you could take, Id suggest taking a buoyancy class, and spend time working on just that, its an ongoing process, and important skills to work on
Do you feel ok going deeper?
Night dives?
Buoyancy skills
maybe after you log 25-50 dives, perhaps the advanced is a class you could take, Id suggest taking a buoyancy class, and spend time working on just that, its an ongoing process, and important skills to work on
W.
New
It has been 32 years since I received my S.C.U.B.A. open water certification from a PADI shop and boy have things changed. When I took my certification, it took 6 weeks of twice a week, 2 hour sessions, one in the classroom and one in the pool, then a swimming test to insure you could swim a mile, unaided, and finally five dives, to a maximum depth of 80-100 feet with an instructor and on the fifth dive a test to insure that you had a firm grasp of procedures......
Today, I called a local dive shop to inquire about getting a course for my 15 year old, oceanographer-want-to-be granddaughter, and was told that you buy the books, study at home and then take and hand in your computer generated tests. Then four hours in one day, and, if needed, 2 hours the second day in the pool, and finally four dives to a maximum of 60 feet with an instructor. I am not only shocked at how easy it is to get the certification, I am dismayed that her training will be limited. I will let her do it this way, but I am going to be with her when she dives the first 10 times, to be absolutely sure she knows what she is doing. I stopped logging my dives after the first 200 or so, and would guess that I have upwards of 500 dives over the past 32 years, and I am still learning with each dive.
I know these kids are supposed to be a lot smarter than we were at their age, and their reflexes are so much better and faster, but they really are cutting this to the bone in my humble opinion..... I yearn for the old way.....
Today, I called a local dive shop to inquire about getting a course for my 15 year old, oceanographer-want-to-be granddaughter, and was told that you buy the books, study at home and then take and hand in your computer generated tests. Then four hours in one day, and, if needed, 2 hours the second day in the pool, and finally four dives to a maximum of 60 feet with an instructor. I am not only shocked at how easy it is to get the certification, I am dismayed that her training will be limited. I will let her do it this way, but I am going to be with her when she dives the first 10 times, to be absolutely sure she knows what she is doing. I stopped logging my dives after the first 200 or so, and would guess that I have upwards of 500 dives over the past 32 years, and I am still learning with each dive.
I know these kids are supposed to be a lot smarter than we were at their age, and their reflexes are so much better and faster, but they really are cutting this to the bone in my humble opinion..... I yearn for the old way.....
You are incorrectly assuming that diver two will be merely wasting time and learning nothing in his 5 months of diving. The reality is that most of what we teach in AOW should be common sense to a diver that has been diving regularly for 5 months.
The real question I have though is this: What does s diver truly learn and master in a 2 day 5 dive AOW class? And is it anything that couldn't have been learned in the OW class of the instructor had been more concerned with teaching the student the skills and knowledge they should know to begin with vice rushing them through to certification do they could shake another couple hundred dollars out of them for an advanced course right away?
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