Question Is my AOW class “normal”?

[Bob DBF]

That’s what I said. 4 specialties + rescue. Total is 5.

Rescue is not a specialty in the PADI system, so it is in addition to the 5 specialties. Total training classes is 6.

 

[boulderjohn]

That’s what I said. 4 specialties + rescue. Total is 5.

No, it's 5 specialties plus rescue.

 

[boulderjohn]

The AOW course was created by Los Angeles County in the mid 60s. They noted that an extremely high percentage of divers were completing OW certification and then dropping out of diving. They theorized that a class that introduced them to different aspects of diving would pique their interests and keep them involved, and the AOW class was born. NAUI followed soon after that for the same reason.

 

[Dody]

OW + AOW + Nitrox is really just your learners permit. Ignore the word Advanced. It’s meaningless.

What does Nitrox has to do with Advanced? Some never dive Nitrox and Nitrox is only about a bit of theory. I have even seen dive facilities where everybody dive Nitrox certified or not. If you are not they only teach you reduced MOD in 2 minutes and extended NDL in one.

 

[Belzelbub]

Rescue is not a specialty in the PADI system, so it is in addition to the 5 specialties. Total training classes is 6.

No, it's 5 specialties plus rescue.

Got it. Thanks. I thought rescue was included.

 

[Bob DBF]

Got it. Thanks. I thought rescue was included.

SSI has Stress and Rescue (their Rescue class) as a specialty. It can be used as one of their 5 specialties for their master diver recognition.

It's confusing because the names and requirements are different across the different agencies. The confusion is used by some in their marketing.

 

[boulderjohn]

The confusion is used by some in their marketing.

Absolutely.

I attended a week-long workshop on scuba marketing led by the owner of a major agency, and he said that using names that are different from other agencies and operations was a benefit. If a potential student is shopping around after hearing your pitch and hears the people not know the names for things as you named them, they feel like the other people don't know what they are talking about. At least that was his theory.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

What does Nitrox has to do with Advanced? Some never dive Nitrox and Nitrox is only about a bit of theory. I have even seen dive facilities where everybody dive Nitrox certified or not. If you are not they only teach you reduced MOD in 2 minutes and extended NDL in one.

Reread my post please. I said they were a learners permit. The very basics. I believe everyone should be trained to use Nitrox right from open water. It’s so basic it should be include from the very beginning.

 

[boulderjohn]

It’s so basic it should be include from the very beginning.

As a very long-time ScubaBoard veteran, I find this interesting. Yes, this is almost certainly the majority opinion these days, but that it not how it always was. In the first years, the majority of posters in the nitrox threads were decrying the fact that newly certified nitrox divers had not adequately memorized all the formulas related to nitrox calculations. I remember posts that castigated divers who were relying on charts to find MODs rather than doing the mathematical processes required to determine them. What had the world come to, they asked.

Not long after that I took Advanced Nitrox and could not identify anything in it I had not learned in the basic nitrox class I had taken, which had included all those equations.

 

[Dody]

Reread my post please. I said they were a learners permit. The very basics. I believe everyone should be trained to use Nitrox right from open water. It’s so basic it should be include from the very beginning.

Unfortunately, there are many locations in the world where Nitrox is not available like where I got certified in Cabo Verde and did my first 100 dives. But I did SSI "Science of Diving" on my way to AOW. Nitrox training was irrelevant after that.