How many dives before going for AOW cert?

[Fourseventeen]

Looking forward to working on my rescue diver cert but need to get my advanced OW cert first. I have only logged 11 dives (including my 4 check out dives). How many dives did you have before going for your AOW or what would most people think would be a good number of logged dives before making the progression to AOW?

 

[Divedoggie]

If you have a motivated instructor who will put a challenging and fun program together for you, you might as well take the course asap. Its a great opportunity to do 5 directed dives with an instructor as a fellow diver, vs being a new student.
You should read the entire Adventures in Diving book and do all of the knowledge reviews.

When I teach the class, we highlight specialties that you may be interested in and use additional videos and material to delve further into each of those interesting specialties.
We also have a review/refresher in the pool along with a buoyancy/trim/finning technique workshop. Then its off to do the dives. You will be required to do a deep dive and and underwater navigation dive. You and your instructor can choose three additional dives.

You should emerge from the class as an enlightened diver, not necessarily "advanced." but probably more directed, disciplined and motivated!
Have fun and good luck! you will really enjoy your rescue class too.

 

[tstormdiver]

I went straight from OW to AOW. I probably should have waited a little, to gain more experience & confidence, as I had a very bad deep dive portion. The question you should ask yourself, is how comfortable are you in the water? & How comfortable are you with your basic skills. If you can honestly say you are comfortable or very comfortable with the 2 things above, you are probably ready to move on to AOW.

 

[aquaregia]

My OW instructor had an AOW course two months after my OW checkouts. I liked him so I grabbed a spot, even though I'd only managed two dives in the meantime. After my AOW I started diving almost every weekend just because it was a big confidence booster.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I had about 50 logged dives before I took the AOW class. That was more than enough preparation for the class. I had very good buoyancy control by that time and had done a fair number of night dives (approx. 20). The AOW class was instrumental in helping expand the scope of my diving experiences. We did a fabulous deep wall dive (Scripps Canyon) and a couple of boat dives which were brand new experiences for me.

A component of the class that I took for granted at the time was a complete OW skills review in a pool session prior to doing any of AOW dives. It was a great opportunity to practice the skills with an instructor there critiquing our performance.

To answer your question, I would say between 20 and 50 dives. I realize that many students go straight from basic OW to AOW nowadays, but I think that's a mistake. At a minimum, you should have good buoyancy control before taking the class.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It depends on the diver. The criteria you should be using isn't number of dives, but rather comfort level with the skills you learned in OW. When you can perform your skills without struggling, and don't have to concentrate to maintain your buoyancy, then it's time to move on.

That's generally true with any class you're contemplating ... the way to get the most out of the next class is to first get comfortable with the skills you learned in the last class. Then you'll have the mental bandwidth to focus on what you're supposed to be learning, rather than what you're supposed to already know ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[H2O 70]

I had about 140 dives before I took AOW, which I needed for rescue.

I don't know if I would go straight from OW to AOW. If you get some dives under your belt and get to the point were you are diving naturally, meaning you focused on the experience vs. when to add and remove air from your BC, checking your air every two seconds. If you hold off until you can dive a bit better, you'll be able to absorb more from the class. You won't be as task loaded from the class.

It is different for different people.

Rescue class was a lot of fun. By far the most fun class I've done to date.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

For those of you who are taking AOW simply because it's needed for Rescue ... consider taking a rescue class with NAUI rather than PADI ... NAUI doesn't make AOW a prerequisite for Rescue. Nor do I see any reason why it should ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[D_B]

I went straight to AOW from OW and that was right for me ... , I think Bob (Grateful Diver) and the others have the right idea, you need to be comfortable underwater, and have pretty reasonable control over your trim and buoyancy

 

[TyGuy]

if youre a confident diver and your comfortable at depth go for it. i would have done the same thing as alot of other people (right from OW to AOW) my issue was the cost. 2 jobs and a bunch of dives later im saving up to take it in july