Getting AOW in cozumel

[BigDaddyGlad]

so for 140 bucks you got access to all the materials, went over all the materials and info with your instructor, and had 5 dives included ? i find this hard to believe but if you got all that for 140 then good on ya.

Not quite... the $140 got me the online PADI course materials and Knowledge Reviews, and review with the DM prior to the requisite "adventure dives." The actual dives were, naturally, at the standard 2-tank dive cost.

I guess I wasn't entirely clear above. The point I was trying to make is that in Cozumel, if you're diving for a week and doing four or five 2-tank dives, you will be pretty much performing the requisite "adventure dives" to earn the AOW certification. At Dressel, they don't/didn't charge a fee over and above the $140 PADI materials/card fee in order to get AOW certified.

 

[BigDaddyGlad]

This has been discussed a million times over, but AOW is appropriate as a "free" course. If you go into it as an experienced diver to "check the box" or as a newly certified OW diver looking to push your comfort zone on more adventurous diving while under the watchful eye of an instructor, then it makes sense. If you go into it expecting to come out "advanced", then you have the wrong expectation.

Agreed 100%. I went into it with exactly that expectation, and was completely satisfied with the end result.

 

[rick00001967]

so assuming the cost of dives was $40 each, the real cost of the course was about $340.00.
i completely understand the logic that if you were gonna be doing those dives anyway, the only extra cost to you was the $140.
when i did mine it was probably 10 to 15 years ago. i was in the dominican. i think it was like 175 or 200 including all materials, academics with the instructor and the required dives. i even got one extra as my first deep dive did not go so well. that was a pretty good deal even back then i think.
of course back then, dives were like 20 bucks. haha

 

[jonhall]

I did not get a book (or a tube or whistle) for AOW. The course materials and Knowledge Reviews were all online.
I did, however, get a book and plastic dive tables for the Nitrox certification.

Haha. I didn't interpret your previous post correctly. You took the online course!!

Doing the online Nitrox, I didn't get a book or anything; just the c-card.

 

[yle]

I'm getting the impression, just from the few stories posted here, that discussing and completing the specific performance requirements for the AOW dives may not be a priority for some dive ops and/or instrctors.

For those that did their AOW in Coz as part of their dive package, I'm curious about the five dives that were used and the specific performance requirements that were completed. The PBB dive has quite a list. The Nav dive has very specific requirements. The Deep dive is certainly available in Coz... but it also has specific requirements to count toward AOW. Of course "Boat Dive" is a given in Coz, although using that as part of an AOW isn't exactly giving the customer much value. Drift, Fish ID, Night Dive? Again, there are specific requirements.

If you're looking to do AOW in Coz and you want to actually learn something (instead of just getting the card), it might be worth finding how how much effort a dive op is willing to put into the class (i.e. is "Boat Dive" one of your dives?) and how well they adhere to the specific performance requirements of the dives. A deep dive where they tell you "hey look... you're deep!" doesn't qualify.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

Dressel did Nav, Deep, Drift, Buoyancy, Fish Id.

All the bases were covered... including a land nativation practice run. The instructor ended up being our guide the whole week so in some ways, the AOW course was 5 days over 14 dives.

 

[jonhall]

I'm curious about the five dives that were used and the specific performance requirements that were completed.

First, as a little background, I was a water safety instructor/swim coach for several years and am very comfortable in the water. Had 100 dives in before getting AOW, 40 of those being deep (below 60 ft.) dives , 83 with a camera - where I spent time identifying what I took pictures of, 18 wrecks - 10 of those penetrated, 25 drift dives, and 3 night dives. Learned a lot about boats and safety just listening to pre-dive spiels. Taught science so was knowledgeable about vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, light, colors, and orienteering with a compass. Probably why I don't feel there was much to the AOW skills that I had to do. Had a different instructor for all but the first 2 dives and it was just my buddy and I doing AOW on all but the last deep dive when we had 5 or 6 divers.

*PPB: hover in sitting position a few feet above bottom and knock a weight, sitting on the bottom, over with nose using no hands. As stated in earlier post, buddy took a few minutes longer to complete hover, but majority of dive was fun dive.

*Boat: identify parts of the boat, different lines, and where safety equipment could be found. Pretty much before the last divers in other groups got in the water, my buddy and I had completed the tasks so the rest of the time was a fun dive.

*Navigation: swam straight line counted kicks, swam straight line and reciprocal line, swam square using cardinal direction headings and kick counts. This dive had the most time consuming tasks. Not much time left once we were done with requirements.

*Naturalist: Identified 5 vertebrates, 5 invertebrates, and 5 plants. Wrote them on slate. Could have been a fun dive but when you're trying to find plants, you miss out on enjoying everything else! Don't think we were able to find 5.

*Deep: compared visible colors at depth and no deco times at depth. Except for stopping to look at colors and no deco time, dive was a fun dive.

Of course "Boat Dive" is a given in Coz, although using that as part of an AOW isn't exactly giving the customer much value.

For a diver taking AOW pretty quick after OW, there may be more of a value, unless that diver is already a boat expert.

 

[yle]

For a diver taking AOW pretty quick after OW, there may be more of a value, unless that diver is already a boat expert.

In my experience, everything covered in "Boat Diver" is covered in every boat briefing or can be learned on the fly. It can all be learned relatively quickly and reinforced with every dive. I've always felt that AOW dives should be actual dives that include an instructor helping a student develop actual diving related skills. Having an instructor tell a student about a boat and then tell the student "okay, that's 1/5 of your AOW class!" just seems... cheap.

My standard AOW course usually includes a deep dive and a wreck dive from a boat, usually out of San Diego. We cover all the "boat dive" information on the fly, some of it prior to boarding and some while on the boat. The two dives focus on the deep and wreck standards. And the wreck dive is usually also deep... so they get two dives to reinforce the important "deep" standards. I also encourage my students to get nitrox first, so we can use the trip as a deep-wreck-nitrox pair of dives.

Then we typically do navigation, search & recovery and night dives from the beach. Doing these from the beach allows us to take as much time as necessary, as we aren't tied to a tight boat schedule. Usually try to do all three dives in one day, as they're all relatively shallow and it makes for a nice day at the beach (ending with a night dive, after they've explored the site during the earlier two dives in daytime.)

I've never been a fan of PPB as an AOW dive either. In my opinion, the standards in the PPB dive should be included on every dive... so I've never found a reason to tell students that we would devote an entire dive to nothing but figuring out buoyancy. But then again, nearly all of my AOW students are my former OW students, which is a huge advantage that I know not all AOW instructors can have. I make sure their buoyancy is set before they finish OW class.

Everyone has a different take on AOW; some people criticize it as just another card, but I've always believed it has a lot of potential to offer students something worthwhile if they have an instructor with the necessary resources (time, shop policies, etc) to make it happen.

 

[yle]

*PPB: hover in sitting position a few feet above bottom and knock a weight, sitting on the bottom, over with nose using no hands. As stated in earlier post, buddy took a few minutes longer to complete hover, but majority of dive was fun dive.

*Boat: identify parts of the boat, different lines, and where safety equipment could be found. Pretty much before the last divers in other groups got in the water, my buddy and I had completed the tasks so the rest of the time was a fun dive.

Exactly my point, regarding PPB and "Boat DIve", in the previous post. I see this as an instructor that missed an opportunity to provide your AOW class with something of value that actually included diving. Difficult to see what value the instructor's presence added to these two dives. And it's this kind of scenario that leads people to conclude that an AOW card is not worth much. If an instructor takes the path of least resistance, i.e. technically completes the standards with as little effort possible on everyone's part (instructors and students), it reinforces the perception that every AOW card represents the same effort.

 

[yle]

83 with a camera - where I spent time identifying what I took pictures of,

I like it. My mom takes hundreds of pics on a typical dive trip. We've found a great way to kill time on the flight home is to scroll through them with a fish ID book, trying to identify the critters. It's challenging when the perspectives in the photos are kind of random, but a good way to learn.