Oahu or Maui - Nov 23 - 26; AOW certification

[Eduardo]

I have a free airline ticket from Phoenix to Oahu or Maui and would like to get suggestions on getting AOW certification during Thanksgiving weekend.

Newbie: I just received the PADI OW in Sept. (in Wailea, Maui) and have 2 additional dives in Mexico.

Your recommendations on:

1. Good dive shop for AOW training.
2. Inexpensive hotel convenient to shop or boat.
3. One possibility is Ocean Concepts on Oahu. Your comments?
4. Any other tips would be appreciated.

My wife OK'd the solo trip so I have to act fast before she changes her mind...you guys understand!

Mahalo for all of your help, Ed

 

[makomike]

Maui, but I am biased! What about continuing with your OW insrtuctor?

 

[kidspot]

one of the best deals available on Maui is getting your AOW through B&B Scuba - IIR it was around $259 and included all boat trips except one 1 (which I did as a scooter dive from shore) they are a reputable/good company to deal with - http://www.bbscuba.com

 

[Eduardo]

Makomike: I did the OW at a hotel dive shop (shore dives) and would prefer some boat dives.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check out B&B.

 

[KrisB]

Maui Dreams will do at least 2 of the five required dives off a boat as well. $295, and extremely high-quality instruction (they're only one of two places on Maui that can teach PADI instructors, IIRC). AFAIK, there's no extra charge to do scooter dives, etc. as the other dives. And honestly... I'd rather do navigation as a shore dive anyways -- it gets you to navigate something where you can't get badly lost, but you can have the freedom to mess up (rather than accidentally drifting around the edge of the crater...)

Close by, cheap and nice? Maui Vista is relatively convenient to everything down there, and is clean, though some units may be a little "dated". Paradise Vacation Rentals (http://www.mauiparadisevacations.com/MauiVista.htm) was *AWESOME* to deal with... FAR better than AA Oceanfront.

 

[Wildcard]

one of the best deals available on Maui is getting your AOW through B&B Scuba - IIR it was around $259 and included all boat trips except one 1 (which I did as a scooter dive from shore) they are a reputable/good company to deal with - http://www.bbscuba.com

That is a great price! Also look in teh Maui newspaper under vacation rentals for some great deals.

 

[makomike]

i believe maui dive shop is about the same price as others(my employer) you can do aow with me. 2 boat dives and other 3 boat or shore. must do deep and nav and i will let you chose the other 3. B&B and maui dreams are good shops also. so is shaka doug(can be located on this site). if i had a choice i would choose(well me first of course) one of those 3. any way good luck have fun and tell us how it goes.

aloha

 

[KrisB]

I'd agree with Mike's statement. All I can say is that I've met a number of Maui Dive Shop instructors and Mike is by far the friendliest and most cheerful of the bunch -- make sure you ask for him specifically!

Hey Mike: what options are there for the AOW adventure dives with you? Does MDS do scooters?

 

[makomike]

Aloha kris,
Haven't seen you around the beach lately. No scooter. I probably wouldnt recommend them for advanced... well maybe so. I like a lot of meat in my classes, but i guess you could put some meat in the scooter dive. search & recovery, peak performance buoyancy, night, enriched air nitrox are great classes. naturalist is really good, although it sounds wimpy, your much more aware and it is fun to try to find specific examples of things. wreck was great when i taught it in Ft Lauderdale. tons of wrecks there. not so much here and the ones we have are a little sterile. boat is what my fellow mds like to teach, but i find it boring and easily obtained info/skill elsewhere. photo is ok. fish identification is ok. i add a little more info to it that the book leaves out. scooter does sound like a blast(pun intended) though, but i like more skill oriented. thats just me though. the best AOW class in my opinion would be deep, nav, peak buoyancy, night(if it is new to you), and naturalist.

I whole heartedly agree with kris that nav and some others just work better from shore. my previous instructor position in florida it was all boat diving. having done thing both way, i would agree some from shore work much better. a little mix of both is great way to do it.

get a good instructor and they will make sure it is filled with valuable info/skills

kris: are you finished with divemaster? if so i would like to hear how your FINAL dive went. it can be nerve racking, but makes you a better DM. I have seen maui dreams dm dive. they do a great job with it and make it fun!

Aloha

 

[KrisB]

Hey Mike,

Yeah, I was on Lanai for the weekend, then did Makena & Marty's Reef yesterday.

I agree with you on the "Boat" Adventure Dive... to me it has no more content than just going on a boat dive and getting the briefing has.

I suppose you could do the Carthaginian if you wanted a decent wreck, but then you'd have "deep" and "scooter" in that same dive, too.

You'd be surprised the skills involved in scootering... there's all the maintenance stuff to start with, then you go through all the in-water skills, too. Honestly, I'd put it at least as "meaty" as Night or PPB.

Have you been on a scooter?

Around here, I think you'll be hard pressed to find a shop that wouldn't first suggest a boat dive for the "Deep" adventure dive -- if you don't go off a boat, you'll either have a LONG surface swim, or do it by scooter. So, you'll have that one and then one other dive to pick from the boat, as they'll usually do a 2-tank boat trip.

I'm 8 days until my final dive, Mike -- next Thursday's the day! AND they're auctioning tickets to individuals that want to come along... well, not quite, but there's was a bit of a rush to get their names on that list. With how much interest there is, and how much ribbing I've been getting over it already, I'm just going to go into it completely relaxed. I've seen what stress does to others doing their final dives (I've already been on one, and will be going on someone else's tomorrow), and it is completely counter-productive. The perceptual narrowing is actually quite incredible!

Anyways, I digress. I'm probably going to be at Ulua tomorrow to tag along on the start of a referral, and I'll be in the water again on Saturday for the Scubaboard Maui Monthly -- are you working then, Mike? If not, do you want to join us for 9am?

To come back on topic -- I really like the list Mike picked, too -- I'm not sure what Naturalist entails... I've done Fish ID, and it was pretty intense, at least the way Teri from Maui Dreams does it. PPB is *superb*. Night diving here is *incredible*.

I think for me, it's a tossup. My AOW was Deep, Nav, PPB, Scooter and UW Photog. I did my EAN specialty at the same time. I've added National Geographic, Scooter, PPB, and AWARE Fish ID specialties, as well.