Is advanced certification necessary?

[ReeferBen]

I am finally taking my AOW, after 9 years of diving. Only becuase some of the boats want it, and I want to take other courses that require it as a prerequisite. Otherwise I don't see much of a point.

 

[scubaskipper]

Some boats or shops will require it to do certain dives.

 

[vladimir]

.....

 

[BDSC]

If I had to do it all over again I probably wouldn't have taken AOW. BY the time I took it, which was about a year after OW, I had done several deep dives below 100 ft. as well as maybe 3 night dives. I will say I learned more about navigation but I don't even carry a compass with me when I dive so it really didn't prove useful. If a person wants to continue on with the rescue class and keep going beyond that I can see it. Otherwise I'd just keep diving for more experience and skip it.

 

[adutto]

Hi, in all the places I've been diving, the only certification that was actually requested was the Nitrox specialty. Anyway, I took Advanced (Deep, Night, Search, Navigation and PPB) and recently the Rescue Diver Cert. I may say that, while they are not actually needed for most operators (they tend to judge the experience of the diver by his/her dive log), the experience of a well planned and serious course is worth. Those are the moments that you can actually ask everything you need to know and more...

So, for me it was worth to take the courses, but mostly for the knowledge sake.

I hope this helps!

Alex

 

[Aerosynth]

Just my two cents to the OP, without having read the entire thread. I was OW certified not long ago and I have found that several of the dives that I really want to do require an AOW certification minimum (mainly wrecks). I plan on taking mine this September.

Even if I could get people to "give me a break" and let me go deeper or dive at night without an AOW cert, I am not sure that I would. Of course, I am somewhat safety conscious.

 

[Bob DBF]

All depends. I started in the sixties,there were no AWO certs then, just a scuba cert. I've been diving 40 years without any additional certs. I've been able to dive anywhere, anytime. So necessary? These days I'd say yes because in the OW class all you learn is how not to kill yourself. Or a resort 2 day or 4 day class even less. My course was 12 weeks 2 nights per week 2 hours per night session. We learned enough to be able to advance through diving which IMO is when you learn how to dive.

It is not the training that lets you dive anywhere, anytime on a scuba cert, it's that the 40 years of diving experience shows. The OP really dosen't want till he's old and experienced enough to not get carded.

The "good old days" are over and I miss them.


Bob
----------------------------------------
I may be old but I’m not dead yet.

 

[Dominantly]

Here is a video that give me chills to watch, it shows two non-certified divers and their lack of experience taking them into a horrible situation. Thank goodness for the trained and certified diver watching them.

YouTube - Scuba Diving Accident Intervention Bahamas 12/04/08

 

[seacreatures]

Sometimes you have to take Math 101 to get into Math 102. If your moving ahead with your diving AOW maybe your Math 101? If you're a recreational diver, diving will make you a better diver not a card I believe that no one should even do an AOW until you have 30 or more dives. That way you have become comfortable with your gear and equipment is not a number one priority on your mind. Diving makes divers not cards. Sometimes a card is like a fuel gauge and lets you know what you have in the tank. The only other reason to collect the cards that go with the knowledge is to be safe as in Cave Diving or Wreck Diving! I would rather dive with someone who has 500 dives than someone who has AOW and 40 dives in total........

 

[Easdem]

I just took the AOW Padi class over the weekend + PBB (bouyancy) Specialty. I will say that the class was a ton more involved than I expected. Like people have said it is very much based on the instructor. Mine was very strict and took the class very seriously. Our navigation dives were done in 2 ft visibility, deep part was 76ft in water 49 degrees!!! After a 30 minute surface swim... This class (at least in my case) was no walk in the park...