Experience vs certification

[driftwood]

I have to go with Halemano. Buy your material before your trip to get the bookwork out of the way and do the diving with a pro while you are on vacation. You will kill two birds with one stone, you will get the class/experience and have some good dives. If the cost of the 5 dives AOW requires is roughly the same as 5 boat dives, why not. Even if the cost is $100 higher, that is $20 a dive with a guardian angel looking out for you.

 

[Meredith78]

Thank you everyone for your input! Even if a lot of you seem to disagree, it seems there really is no "wrong" choice here. If I just do guided dives and gain experience, great; if I do my AOW I will have more training for not much more money. I am right now leaning toward *not* doing my AOW in Oahu, largely because I had been planning to do my AOW this summer in NY anyway. I'm not sure when I'll be diving next after this trip, so leaving my AOW for this summer means I know I'll be getting back underwater again, and with an instructor I already know and trust. Keep posting your comments though -- it's great to know what more experienced divers think!

 

[boulderjohn]

I did my AOW in Cozumel, and I think it as a very good choice for me. Thus, I tend to agree with those who say to do it on your trip. You will be doing pretty much the same dives as you would otherwise, but you will be doing them with an instructor and should get more out of it. When I was on the big island last May there were some people doing AOW on the boat, and I thought the instructor did an excellent job, especially with the navigation dive. The instruction was very thorough. The divers picked up a lot that they used to their benefit during the remainder of the stay.

I think that was the main benefit to doing my own instruction in Cozumel. I got the AOW done int he first few days and spent the rest of the week honing the extra skills I had just learned.

 

[Meredith78]

I got the AOW done int he first few days and spent the rest of the week honing the extra skills I had just learned.

Hm, good point. This makes me think my AOW would best be done when I know I will have a chance to practice it again soon after. So it would be a good idea to get it done in a place where I will be able to do some more diving soon after. Something to think about, definitely!

 

[noreastDIVER84]

I would lean towards finding a good dive operator and talking to them and letting them know you are interested in doing the dives, but you are newly certified. If they are a good dive operator they will either set you up directly with a divemaster or instructor for the dives, and they will keep an eye on you. I just got back from a cruise where I saw both extremes on the dive operators. The operator in Isla Roatan just loaded everyone up on the boat and told us to gear up and suit up. They did not ask to see if anyone was more or less experienced or even newly certified. We were on a shallow dive of no more than 50' but there were still people who were newly certified. In Belize they quickly interviewed everyone about when they were certified, how long they have been diving, how many dives, and what type of dives. They then closely watched everyone as they set-up their gear. The people who exaggerated their experience stuck out like a sore thumb. I had a couple who said they had been diving since the 60's, they did not know how to attach their yoke regs to the tank, when asked if they needed weight, they looked at the divemaster with a weird face, and then they threw in even more of a complication of carrying a camera.

I am not going to say I am super experienced, I only have 35 dives now, and have my buoyancy good, but there is still room for improvement on it. I will go for the PADI master diver rating, but not for any reason other than to keep learning. I will also do the rescue diver course, and oxygen provider course as well. If I do continue on to divemaster or more, it will be just for furthering my education. I do not want the liability of that comes with any of those levels.

I will do get my advanced open water this spring when the water warms up, I have done my reading and pool dives, I now just need to do the open water dives for it. As far as the advanced making me feel more confident; I cannot say it is going to do that for me. I have done most of my diving with instructors or divemasters and have worked out my navigation skills, I have done deep and boat dives, I am now in a drysuit, and will do peak performance buoyancy in the spring.

Brent

 

[Meredith78]

I will do get my advanced open water this spring when the water warms up, I have done my reading and pool dives, I now just need to do the open water dives for it.

AOW requires pool dives? I don't think PADI AOW does. I was told it was reading and 5 open water dives.

 

[paddler3d]

AOW requires pool dives? I don't think PADI AOW does. I was told it was reading and 5 open water dives.

Does not require pool dives and it does require more than 5 open water dives.

I may be confusing SDI and PADI, but 'Deep Diver' is two OW dives...'Wreck' was two dives...'Search and Recovery' was two dives.

There are academic portions for each specialty.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

It is usually advisable to only answer posts or threads when you actually have real answers for the post or thread.

PADI AOW has no pool dives and is 5 dives in the open water; a Deep dive, a Navigation dive and three elective dives.

SDI has Advanced Adventure Diver and Advanced Diver Development Program; the first is comparable to PADI Advanced Open Water, the second is kind of a "lite" PADI Master Diver.

 

[paddler3d]

It is usually advisable to only answer posts or threads when you actually have real answers for the post or thread.

PADI AOW has no pool dives and is 5 dives in the open water; a Deep dive, a Navigation dive and three elective dives.

Well, maybe this is why PADI is loosing ground overseas.

 

[drydiver]

It is usually advisable to only answer posts or threads when you actually have real answers for the post or thread.

PADI AOW has no pool dives and is 5 dives in the open water; a Deep dive, a Navigation dive and three elective dives.

Like he said, only an additional 5 dives beyond OW. At 9 OW dives I had the card, but it took me an additional year and 100 + dives to feel comfortable at 130 in all conditions, typically low viz here on the east coast.

I have learned alot through continuing education, would never recommend against it, the better the instructor, the luckier you are, however, experience counts. If you are fortunate enough to buddy up with more experienced divers with great communication skills, that is the way to go