How important is it to stick with your original agency for ADV OW?

[tursiops]

i do hear that different agencies may have slight variations on hand signals though (not the basic hand signals), could be great to try out another agency which may or may not have a better training philosophy?

But yeah, shop the instructor is what i've read as the general guideline

Most courses do not have specific hand signals that are used. Instructors do, but they have probably learned them from another instructor...and just passed them along without question. Even the hand signals for basic things like STOP or HOW MUCH AIR I HAVE or QUESTION or OK or SEVEN or DECO or BUBBLES/LEAK or SEAHORSE are done differently by different people, and are often misunderstood.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

i do hear that different agencies may have slight variations on hand signals though (not the basic hand signals), could be great to try out another agency which may or may not have a better training philosophy?

But yeah, shop the instructor is what i've read as the general guideline

Agencies really don't in my experience. Unless it's some minor variation. Where you are more likely to find hand signal variations is based on the instructor. And to some extent the region as I have noticed some difference in signals used by DMs in Puerto Rico, Bonaire, Jamaica, etc. But those are more likely to be used for detailed things like pointing out specific features and species.
You may also find differences if the instructor is a technical cave or wreck diver/instructor. Some signals are specific to the discipline and environment.
Hence the need for a thorough discussion about communication as part of the planning process before you get in the water.
And if you dive with the same people every time, it's common to see the team develop their own signals and even pre-dive checks.
My tech instructor trainer and I knew each other well enough that the pre-dive verbal check was something like goggles, flippers, pointy things, breathy things, and stuff to breath. Would have sounded flippant to someone else, but it wasn't at all between us.
Underwater, we could look at each other, and a shrug or eye movement was enough to communicate what we needed to.