how long br aow

[mech]

I did my AOW after doing 34 enescorted dives beyond OW.
I wish that the rest of the class waited (even just a bit)because it took away from those that did wait.
Out of 10 classmates 6 had never seen water outside of their check out dives and needed lots of extra attention.
If I had to do it over I would survery the class better before making a commitment.
mech

 

[Daryl Morse]

As you can already see, there are many different opinions on this topic and there are have been lots of threads on it in the past. You should read as many of them as you can find.

I'm a new diver. I went directly from OW to AOW and I feel I made the right decision in doing so. I made the decision based on several factors: how my OW instructors thought I was doing in the water, how I felt I was doing in the water, and on the type of diving I wanted to do. For me, that related primarily to buoyancy control, air consumption, and situational awareness in the water.

I know I have a lot to learn about buoyancy control, but I'm able to maintain neutral buoyancy throughout a dive without too much difficulty.

I don't know what my SAC is, but even diving with more experienced divers, I'm usually not the first to run out air. I don't have a computer (yet), but NDL is consistently the limiting factor in how long my dives are.

I try to improve my skills and learn something new every dive. I also watch the people I dive with and I try to ask them for suggestions on how I can improve my skills. My dives are usually in the range of 85 fsw for the first and 75 fsw for the second because that's where the really interesting critters are here on the west coast.

I think the things taught in AOW are basic skills that every diver should have (e.g., navigation, deep, night, buoyancy, etc). The OW course simply isn't long enough in duration to cover these things. Every one of them could take up an entire course.

If you honestly feel you are ready and if you have personal diving objectives that can't be met by OW, then you should take AOW.

 

[EricJ]

I had done about thirty dives when I took the AOW course. I think for me it was a good time to take the next step and master some additional skills; however, just about everyone else in my class had only just recently finished their Open Water class. I respect the instructor, but I felt he was forced to teach the class to the lowest common demoninator.

My advice (please note that it's advice from a fellow recreational diver) is to follow the advice of your LDS because I think it ends up depending on the instructor and the other students in the class. I admit, though, that that the prerequisite should really be more standardized.