I'm confused. is AOW just a tour?

[Rookie_J]

yesterday (sunday) i completed my first step to AOW (navigation). before the dive we (my instructor and I) spent about 10 minutes reviewing compass basics, then i was given a summary of what we would do during the dive (swim out and back with the compass, swim out and back without the compass, swim a square pattern, figure distance using kick cycles/time)...

on the square i missed the starting mark by about 50'..

and that was it, one dive signed off....


is that all there is to becoming advanced, do some basic skill, and sightsee???


$200 for 5 guided dives, that's a bargain.....

 

[WellBelowH2O]

is that all there is to becoming advanced, do some basic skill, and sightsee???

I think much of it depends on your instructor. The instructor makes a huge difference (and I think the agency does too, perhaps). My NAUI AOW instructor did a lot of buoyancy skills, navigation skills (required to be within 10' of the start), lift bag deployment (both in quarry and in the ocean) including the ascent, SAC calculation, search and recovery in zero vis, night (of course), deep, wreck reel deployment, and a few other things here and there. It was actually a good course with real skill learning vs. just getting a card because you've done so many dives here or there. Oh, and we also started with a classroom session, not just heading to the water and getting the 10 minute briefing before-hand.

I've heard a lot of people taking AOW and having it essentially be a "tour" vs. really learning anything. If you're not happy with the class, speak up.

 

[ScubaSixString]

yesterday (sunday) i completed my first step to AOW (navigation). before the dive we (my instructor and I) spent about 10 minutes reviewing compass basics, then i was given a summary of what we would do during the dive (swim out and back with the compass, swim out and back without the compass, swim a square pattern, figure distance using kick cycles/time)...

on the square i missed the starting mark by about 50'..

and that was it, one dive signed off....


is that all there is to becoming advanced, do some basic skill, and sightsee???


$200 for 5 guided dives, that's a bargain.....

Instructor's make the difference. Read some more posts here. There was a gal who was AOW/RESCUE/NITROX certified with 6 dives (what that means, we're not sure). Apparently she couldn't leave the boat without losing her mask, couldn't navigate, and had other major problems.

Unfortunantly there are some folks who will sell you a certification.....

 

[YCW]

...lift bag deployment (both in quarry and in the ocean) including the ascent, SAC calculation, ...wreck reel deployment...

Not in the PADI AOW course that I took. Different agency maybe?

 

[BrianS]

Difference is in the Instructor, as stated above.

Not in the PADI AOW course that I took. Different agency maybe?

 

[DiveMaven]

Definitely it's the instructor. We just completed our AOW and for UW Navigation we did the same land activities as Rookie J, but we did 4 different navigation patterns on our dive. The only module that was a waste of time IMO was "boat diving". As people who dive 99% of the time by boat, there was nothing to learn. However, I can see how this module might be valuable for someone who has never dove from a boat and needs help with entries/exits.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Difference is in the Instructor, as stated above.

Not entirely ... as a NAUI instructor, I offer a class similar to the one described by WellBelowH2O. If I were a PADI instructor, I would not be allowed to teach much of the curriculum I currently teach in my AOW.

Not to PADI-bash, certainly ... there's pros and cons to both instructional methods ... but simply to point out that different agencies take different approaches to AOW. So while the instructor matters, this class is one example of where the agency matters as well ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[mark99]

Difference is in the Instructor, as stated above.

I'm not so sure. My PADI AOW course was pretty much as described. First day, boat dive with three "adventure dives" picked for me- that is 1."Underwater naturalist"- look at the fish and plants 2. "Peak Performance buoyancy" - air in- go up, air out- go down, followed by look at the fish and plants and 3. (You guessed it) "Boat dive"- jump off the boat and look at the fish and plants.
Second day- deep dive- do a math problem on a slate and look at colors at 100', and finally navigation- my co-student and I together navigated a big square- we took turns on each leg- followed by looking at the fish and plants.
It kind of turned me off to doing more "specialty dive" classes- I'm going to take a NAUI Rescue class in Oct. with a different LDS and see how it goes.

 

[BrianS]

And with my PADI AOW course we did Peak Performance buoyancy, U/W Nav, Search and Recovery, Deep Dive, Wreck Dive. These are just Introductions for the Specialty courses, not the actual Specialty course itself. If you are interested in doing more of those types of dives, then you would take that specific specialty course.

 

[Tollie]

The PADI A/OW course has an academic or knowledge development component as well as an in water component. PADI students read and then go over their responses to basic questions concerning the type of dive they are going to undertake. At that time the instructor will extend and locacalize the content…

Now a small observation. Many students that I see are not terribly interested in this portion of the class. The instructor has a choice. Do I push it or do I meet the student where he or she is? The cost of the class… in this case $200 may have something to do with this. Think about it.