How useful is AOW for Cozumel?

[deepsea21]

(constant finning in vertical trim)

I'd really like to know who certified the divers who are trying to "walk" under water. Luckily I haven't seen many, but I've seen a few. I'm wondering if they were AOW or Master Diver certified. Basically one can achieve any level of certification they wish as long as they keep opening their purse or wallet.

Full disclosure: I can't totally fault a couple of those "vertical dive-walkers" as they were wearing weight belts that were dragging them down at the hips while their BC's was pulling them up from the torso... An over weighted belt at the hips = an over inflated BC at the torso = the vertical diver.

 

[Esprise Me]

@deepsea21, I know people **** on PADI a lot, and they probably deserve some of it. But of the last five divers I've seen doing the vertical dive walk, four were certified before I was born, and the fifth had just taken GUE Fundamentals. So please everyone, if we could keep from turning this into another of those threads...

 

[ggunn]

I'd really like to know who certified the divers who are trying to "walk" under water. Luckily I haven't seen many, but I've seen a few. I'm wondering if they were AOW or Master Diver certified. Basically one can achieve any level of certification they wish as long as they keep opening their purse or wallet.

Full disclosure: I can't totally fault a couple of those "vertical dive-walkers" as they were wearing weight belts that were dragging them down at the hips while their BC's was pulling them up from the torso... An over weighted belt at the hips = an over inflated BC at the torso = the vertical diver.

The first and only time I dove Monterrey Bay, without ever seeing me in the water the DM told me I needed ankle weights. He was very much off the beam. As long as I kept finning hard I could sort of stay horizontal, but when I stopped my legs would sink until I was vertical and then I would go past vertical to where I was looking up. Not a great dive.

 

[deepsea21]

The first and only time I dove Monterrey Bay, without ever seeing me in the water the DM told me I needed ankle weights.

Ankle weights? Good Lord who ever heard of such a thing?

 

[ggunn]

Ankle weights? Good Lord who ever heard of such a thing?

I certainly hadn't, and I'll never wear them diving again.

 

[MargaritaMike]

I've got ankle weights. I also have floaty fins and floaty booties. Sometimes I wear the weights. It depends on my mood.

 

[rick00001967]

many divers in dry suits have used ankle weights over the year. in the end, they usually are not necessary as corrections can be made in other ways. but sometimes they are an easy fix. the problem is that sometimes they will fall off.