RonFrank
Contributor
I did my AOW and Enriched Air last weekend. Here are some comments and lessons learned from the experience.
First, while some may disagree I think that the AOW is most benificial for divers who have not done a lot of diving. I'm newer to diving, and I felt that the AOW was more benifical for someone like myself who has not logged 50+ dives.
For our AOW we did Altitude, Buoyancy, Deep, Navigation, and Night.
A comment on Class size. If possible get into a smallish class. We had two students, and that made the entire experience a pleasure. A buddy tagged along on the diving, and while he had completed AOW about a month prior to our trip, he had twelve students in his AOW class, and his comment after we completed all the dives was that he felt that he REALLY completed the AOW class with us as we had a lot of fun, but also spent quality time doing skills where in a full class, there was much waiting for others to do rushed skills.
My favorite dives were the deep and the buoyancy dives. For our buoyancy dive they strung a line across the hole at about 40' with a few hoola-hoops attached, and we played follow the leader with out instructor.
OK, lessons learned.
1. Stay with your buddy! We were doing group diving for the dives. DM's enjoy the AOW dives and often join in, so we were generally a group of 4-6 but swelled to ten on the night dive. The night dive is where I lost my buddy mainly because we really did not talk before we decended. I tried to find my buddy after we got down to 40', but he had already taken off with a DM, and I buddied up with our instructor. While this was not really an issue, the reality is we screwed up, and we should have stayed together.
2. Watch those bubbles!! I was at 50', on my back so to speak, looking up, and decided to see if I could clear my mask in that position. I wear contacts so I had my eyes shut as I flooded my mask. Next thing, I hear a woosh, and am rolled. I'm not sure what is happening, so I clear the mask, open my eyes, and I find that I'm at 20', my computer is alarming, and I'm ascending fast. I immediately dump air, but no use, I'm at the surface before I know it. I look down, and I see four divers directly below me ascending... I was pushed up by bubbles, and once I started ascending my buoyancy kicked in and I rocketed to the surface.
This may not apply in many diving situations, but if you are diving at a place where others are below, keep an eye on them. Once I hit the surface, I cursed, and then immediately dived down to my previous depth and buddies. I got down to find my buddies pre-occupied (see lesson #1, they were not even aware I was gone), but when I looked over at the instructor, she had a big grin on her face.... busted!!
3. Be patient clearing. On the first (deep) dive on the second day, I could not get my left ear cleared!!. I needed to go down to the bottom (about 80'), my buddies and the instructor had decended, but my ear just would not clear. I was temped to just go down, but I've done that on shallower dives, and I knew that this would just result in problems. So I hung at about 20' and just worked on clearing. Finally, clear, and I was able to decend quickly down to the bottom, and locate my buddies. I was a bit irriated that my team had left me above, but I made the right choice to take my time, and clear properly.
4. Navigation, watch that depth. During the night dive I had to do an out and back. I initially felt I somehow messed this up. On the surface the instructor said I performed it perfectly, but I swam under he by about four feet. Vis was not as good as it could have been, and night diving is disorientating, and I never realized that I swam right under her. I did not see her, and instead thought that the lights I was seeing in front of me was part of the group she was in. Not so, it was part of our group, but some 15' beyond her. Keeping track of kick cycles would have helped me realize this, but in limited vis at night, I was more disorientated than I'd like to admit.
5. Check your OWN equipment. We were diving between the instructors OW classes, and were rushed a bit on a couple occasions. On one dive I thought I'd turned on my air, but was not 100% sure, so I asked a DM traineee for an air check. He turned OFF my air!! I make a practice to take a few breaths off my reg before decending, and WhatTheHeck, my air cut off!! Lesson learned, handle your own air!!
Well, I had a GREAT time in AOW, and I'vd discovered that I love to dive. There are those that only want to dive in awesome conditions, and there are those who just like to dive. I have discovered that I just like to dive, and while low vis may not be the best, I have found something that I love to do.
Why? Well when I'm diving I am NEVER thinking about work, home projects, family issues, gas prices, stock offerenings, 401K or ANYTHING!! It's rare to find an activty that focuses my attention so well.
Hope this long winded post helps at least ONE person!
First, while some may disagree I think that the AOW is most benificial for divers who have not done a lot of diving. I'm newer to diving, and I felt that the AOW was more benifical for someone like myself who has not logged 50+ dives.
For our AOW we did Altitude, Buoyancy, Deep, Navigation, and Night.
A comment on Class size. If possible get into a smallish class. We had two students, and that made the entire experience a pleasure. A buddy tagged along on the diving, and while he had completed AOW about a month prior to our trip, he had twelve students in his AOW class, and his comment after we completed all the dives was that he felt that he REALLY completed the AOW class with us as we had a lot of fun, but also spent quality time doing skills where in a full class, there was much waiting for others to do rushed skills.
My favorite dives were the deep and the buoyancy dives. For our buoyancy dive they strung a line across the hole at about 40' with a few hoola-hoops attached, and we played follow the leader with out instructor.
OK, lessons learned.
1. Stay with your buddy! We were doing group diving for the dives. DM's enjoy the AOW dives and often join in, so we were generally a group of 4-6 but swelled to ten on the night dive. The night dive is where I lost my buddy mainly because we really did not talk before we decended. I tried to find my buddy after we got down to 40', but he had already taken off with a DM, and I buddied up with our instructor. While this was not really an issue, the reality is we screwed up, and we should have stayed together.
2. Watch those bubbles!! I was at 50', on my back so to speak, looking up, and decided to see if I could clear my mask in that position. I wear contacts so I had my eyes shut as I flooded my mask. Next thing, I hear a woosh, and am rolled. I'm not sure what is happening, so I clear the mask, open my eyes, and I find that I'm at 20', my computer is alarming, and I'm ascending fast. I immediately dump air, but no use, I'm at the surface before I know it. I look down, and I see four divers directly below me ascending... I was pushed up by bubbles, and once I started ascending my buoyancy kicked in and I rocketed to the surface.
This may not apply in many diving situations, but if you are diving at a place where others are below, keep an eye on them. Once I hit the surface, I cursed, and then immediately dived down to my previous depth and buddies. I got down to find my buddies pre-occupied (see lesson #1, they were not even aware I was gone), but when I looked over at the instructor, she had a big grin on her face.... busted!!
3. Be patient clearing. On the first (deep) dive on the second day, I could not get my left ear cleared!!. I needed to go down to the bottom (about 80'), my buddies and the instructor had decended, but my ear just would not clear. I was temped to just go down, but I've done that on shallower dives, and I knew that this would just result in problems. So I hung at about 20' and just worked on clearing. Finally, clear, and I was able to decend quickly down to the bottom, and locate my buddies. I was a bit irriated that my team had left me above, but I made the right choice to take my time, and clear properly.
4. Navigation, watch that depth. During the night dive I had to do an out and back. I initially felt I somehow messed this up. On the surface the instructor said I performed it perfectly, but I swam under he by about four feet. Vis was not as good as it could have been, and night diving is disorientating, and I never realized that I swam right under her. I did not see her, and instead thought that the lights I was seeing in front of me was part of the group she was in. Not so, it was part of our group, but some 15' beyond her. Keeping track of kick cycles would have helped me realize this, but in limited vis at night, I was more disorientated than I'd like to admit.
5. Check your OWN equipment. We were diving between the instructors OW classes, and were rushed a bit on a couple occasions. On one dive I thought I'd turned on my air, but was not 100% sure, so I asked a DM traineee for an air check. He turned OFF my air!! I make a practice to take a few breaths off my reg before decending, and WhatTheHeck, my air cut off!! Lesson learned, handle your own air!!
Well, I had a GREAT time in AOW, and I'vd discovered that I love to dive. There are those that only want to dive in awesome conditions, and there are those who just like to dive. I have discovered that I just like to dive, and while low vis may not be the best, I have found something that I love to do.
Why? Well when I'm diving I am NEVER thinking about work, home projects, family issues, gas prices, stock offerenings, 401K or ANYTHING!! It's rare to find an activty that focuses my attention so well.
Hope this long winded post helps at least ONE person!
