How do you choose your Advanced Open Water speciality

[boulderjohn]

Yes.
No kelp means no fish, no abalone, a drastic reduction in cover both in surface kelp and bottom dwelling kelp AKA false bottom, and all the other sea life that depends on kelp forests to exist. Kelp is also a CO2 sink very necessary for removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. It’s a disaster on epic proportions that nobody is paying attention to! We need divers!!!
Divers are the new giant sea stars and sea otters. We are the new predators of purple sea urchins.
Sorry for the hijack but you asked.

Several years ago a an elementary school teacher invited me to talk about diving and its relation to some of the content standards for the course. The loss of kelp due to the loss of predators like the sea otter was a major lesson in the class. Loss of kelp is a massive problem destroying the environment, no doubt about it.

Meanwhile, on the east coast of the Americas, kelp's cousin, sargassum, is reproducing at a rate so great it is destroying the environment there.

Balance.

 

[boulderjohn]

Come here and help collect purple urchins. I’ll even write you a special “Purple Urchin Removal Diver” specialty cert.

That's to help restore kelp, right?

The catch is you have to actually dive and get a limit if urchins before you get even one morsel.

Limit?

That reminds of the time not many years ago when lionfish were first devastating the east coast and people asked why there was a limit on catching them. The limit was removed.

 

[Jake 10]

Limit?

That reminds of the time not many years ago when lionfish were first devastating the east coast and people asked why there was a limit on catching them. The limit was removed.

I’m sure @Eric Sedletzky meant a minimum number of urchins to be collected

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Limit?

That reminds of the time not many years ago when lionfish were first devastating the east coast and people asked why there was a limit on catching them. The limit was removed.

40 gallons of whole purple urchins per day, no possession limit. There are only two locations right now that allow unlimited urchin smashing, one in Mendocino County and one in Monterey County.
That’s a sh!t load if you’ve ever had to deal with that many. It’s between 800 and 1200 urchins depending on size.

 

[Jake 10]

@MaverickDiver94 in my opinion you should pick what you find interesting, besides that, you should select peak performance buoyancy, navigation, deep dive to complete the 5 optional specialties.

 

[tursiops]

@MaverickDiver94 in my opinion you should pick what you find interesting, besides that, you should select peak performance buoyancy, navigation, deep dive to complete the 5 optional specialties.

Maybe some confusion here.
PADI's AOW requires NO specialties, but rather the first dive of each of five different specialties, which must include dive #1 of Navigation and dive #1 of Deep. To complete AOW three more "dive #1's" are needed, which can be selected from the topics of PPB, Night, Wreck, etc. These three electives are not wide open....they usually depends strongly on the logistics of the dive shop/instructor and the environment.

 

[Jake 10]

Maybe some confusion here.
PADI's AOW requires NO specialties, but rather the first dive of each of five different specialties, which must include dive #1 of Navigation and dive #1 of Deep. To complete AOW three more "dive #1's" are needed, which can be selected from the topics of PPB, Night, Wreck, etc. These three electives are not wide open....they usually depends strongly on the logistics of the dive shop/instructor and the environment.

Thank you for clarifying

 

[Cthippo]

I’ve seen a lot of things milder than AOW discussions get peoples’ panties all up in a wad here on scubaboard.
They need to go diving.
Come here and help collect purple urchins. I’ll even write you a special “Purple Urchin Removal Diver” specialty cert.

That's tempting.

The air temprature outside right now is a toasty (checks thermometer) 25 degrees Fahrenheit, with highs in the low to mid 30s during the day. Finding motivation to get in the water is a bit, erm, challenging right now.

 

[Beau Holden]

The lesson I learned was that the overwhelming majority (and that phrase is inadequate) are pleased as punch to be OW or AOW divers. Even the instructors and DMs in the shop were generally of the "Meh! I don't need any of that" attitude.

Completely agree! I was talking to one of my vendors that I found out was a diver that has around 80 dives. We started talking about diving and how he wanted to eventually retire and become an instructor. When I started talking about how I was always looking for a buddy to practice skills and would enjoy helping and mentoring him. Well to him that just did not seem to be any fun and since it would be in the Florida springs this time of the year, that was just to cold.

 

[Cthippo]

So since we are sort of on this topic, I have a question...

What is actually in the recreational Wreck Diver specialty? If you are not doing penetrations because overhead environments are tech, then what skills do you get?