How long did you wait before you started Solo Diving?

[ScubaErgoSum]

Lots of interesting points here I think, and a most thought provoking debate. How nice to have a whole section of a forum to think out-loud on!

 

[sylpha]

I always saw AOW as an exposure to types of diving. I never thought of it as truly "advanced". I went deeper than 60', on night dives, started taking pictures, worked on buoyancy, etc. with mentors. I hate collecting cards just to make it up some chain to prove how good I am. I wouldn't care to have an AOW card unless I needed it to do some other courses like rescue. I just want to be a safe diver in the dives that I want to do. They don't make courses for "special" people like me

i can see where you are coming from, i tend to only do courses these days which teach me something about what i am interested in. I do like doing refresher courses though, every 2 years i do an O2 refresher & diver first aid (along with red Cross first aid) because there is usually some new thinking which i may have missed or i may have forgotten something and i don't get to practise O2 administration in real life ( wonderful not to be diving with trolls) so i feel it better to just do the refreshers.

as for badge collecting BSAC advanced diver gives me no advantage and makes me vulnerable to requests to take roles in the club i belong to which i don't want.