Credit for past dives towards AOW Certification?

[cameokid]

Hello friends

I received Basic Scuba certification in 1976 from both PADI and YMCA organizations while in college. In the subsequent 6 years I made 30 dives, including deep (to 90 ft) dives, ocean, cave, wreck, lobstering, photography, and night dives. I believe this was before any specialty certifications existed.

After a 21 year hiatus raising my family, I returned to diving this year when both my kids received their certification and I took a refresher and we just spent a wonderful vacation diving together. We did 9 ocean dives, including a wreck and a night dive.

My question is this: Is it possible to get Advanced Open Water Certification by just completing the pieces I have not yet done - knowledge review and underwater navigation - since I have already done more than enough of the other qualified dives and I am very comfortable with managing buoyancy, dealing with some adverse events such as strong currents, high seas, and equipment malfunction?

Seems like all the LDS AOW courses require paying list price for 5 more dives, the course instruction, and the materials. Diving has become quite a racket, if I must say.

 

[DiveTub]

So if you are such a great diver then why take the AOW at all ?

Seriously, if you find yourself a great instructor he may be able to impart some of his wisdom to you during your 5 AOW dives.
You never stop learning

 

[cameokid]

Well, that was a pretty rude statement (the first line).

There are many things I would like to learn. I object to having to pay again to get credit for things I have already done.

 

[DiveTub]

The AOW dives are credited as the first dive of that specialty
So if you are planning on doing some specialties then do the first dive of said spacialty during the AOW. That will save you some money.

cameokid once bubbled...
Well, that was a pretty rude statement (the first line).

There are many things I would like to learn. I object to having to pay again to get credit for things I have already done.

 

[cameokid]

Thanks, that helps, but did not answer my question...

 

[DiveTub]

cameokid once bubbled...
Thanks, that helps, but did not answer my question...

To answer your question, No you can't gain credit from previous dives towards the AOW.. Standards state the AOW dives must be supervised by an Instructor.
However if you have an equivalent certification from another agency you can do a crossover to PADI

 

[cameokid]

I was with a PADI instructor {who was also the tour operator} for many of my past dives. The only unverifiable [AOW-required] dive is my deep dive, and I am willing to do another deep dive to check out since all but one of my dives have been to less than 60 ft and I need to schedule a trip to learn and validate the underwater navigation piece too.

Should I attempt to contact my former instructor to 'sign off' on my past wreck, boat, night, and buoyancy dives? Is an instructor's authentication for individual dives acceptable and transferrable towards advanced certification in the same sense that referrals are made for open water checkout after basic instruction?

 

[DiveTub]

If the instructor is happy to sign off on the appropriate dives then it is not a problem, provided you completed all the skills on each of the dives as stated in the instructor manual. The instructor will also need to sight and sign your Knowledge review for that dive before he signs the paperwork.

 

[cameokid]

Thanks again that does help. Funny to sit here and chat on a message board with someone on the opposite side of the Earth. Good thing I have insomnia or I might have had to wait 12 hours for a response.

If you will indulge me one further question...

Is there a secondary [used] market for the books & video? I hate to buy new books, ever -

 

[Walter]

AOW is 5 dives. Silver Advanced is only 10 dives. Why would you want to eliminate any of them? Do you seriously believe dives from 21 years ago should count at all towards your experience? If you'd kept active, maybe, but since you have dived in over 2 decades, I'd say you have less experience than someone fresh out of an OW class. 21 years is a long time. It's also not like you were an experienced diver when you stopped diving. 30 dives in 6 years is precious little. I don't consider someone who makes 5 dives per year a diver. You were certified and dived from time to time. You were never really a diver. If you are serious about learning and diving, interview several instructors to see what they cover in their classes. Take the classes that include the most material and the most dives. You should take either a refresher or a new OW class. Once you've completed that, get out and make 25 or so dives on your own in 2 or 3 months, then take the most comprehensive Advanced class you can find. LA County's Advanced Diver program is about the best, next would be YMCA Silver Advanced. Try to find more to do, not less.