OW almost complete. Some advice please..... :)

[Darkprincze]

Hi folks,

i have completed the confined sessions of my OW course. Just waiting for the sea here to warm up a little before we do our open water dives. Our instructor is letting us continue with pool dives every week for basically the cost of a tank of air for practice in the mean time. I'm getting a lot out of these sessions as I can practice buoyancy control etc at my leisure and will hopefully prepare me for the open water and give me a little more confidence.

So I am travelling to Malta this summer, one of the reasons I am learning to dive, and would like some advice on AOW. The dive school in Malta offers a 6 dive pack but for a few euros more I can take my AOW there. I understand that PADI AOW is basically 5 'try' dives. My questions are:

- Will I get to enjoy diving in Malta if I spend my time doing my AOW, or will my time be taken up with training etc? I want to experience diving in Malta and make the most of my holiday.

- As a relatively inexperienced diver, should I get more dives under my belt before I progress to this?

- What are people's thoughts on AOW as it technically isn't 'advanced' just 5 dives.

- my partner and son won't be diving. I'll be solo. Will I find the circumstances intimidating, I.e finding a buddy or being paired with someone who is more experienced and I hold them back? If you know what I mean.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated as to how I should progress in my training. And especially how I should handle my first dive trip. So many questions!

Thanks for reading,

Paul

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

While I have never dove in Malta, I did do my OW checkout and AOW during a one week vacation in Hawaii, I still got to enjoy my dives while training. If at all possible buy your book and have the knowledge base done when you get there. Now just remember just because you get your advance cert doesn't make you and advanced diver, you still need to dive dive dive. Most of the time being paired with other divers isn't a problem, most experienced diver love to give advice to an eager new diver. If at all possible try to get in as many dives, or as much pool practice as possible before you go on your trip.

 

[PinkInkScuba]

You should enjoy your vacation and get some dives under your belt before taking your AOW course. In fact, with most agencies, this is a requirement to have "X" number of dives before taking your AOW course.

 

[TSandM]

Given that you are diving on your own, booking a class will give you a built-in dive buddy, and the overall cost might be the same as hiring a DM to dive with you.

If AOW is taught to minimum standards, it's not much more than five supervised dives and hopefully some feedback. I don't think you will need a lot of additional experience to take the class. Do you know through which school you are booking your dives?

 

[spectrum]

Where you are travelling alone as a new diver the notion of hooking up with instabuddies is not too appealing. That leaves AOW or hiring a DM as the options.

You aready recogize the limited content you are likely to find in your AOW course so if your agency will allow it given your dive count it's not a bad way to go. Remember though that you will be spending some vacation time distracted with exercises and should have a more relaxing and tourist experience just enjoying dives under the supervision of a DM.

To rewind, my general advice is to have 1 or 2 dozen dives before considering AOW if you think you are a "natural" at scuba diving and things have come easy to you fast tracking into AOW may not be the end of the world. If you have been working hard to matser stuff this may not be the time to get hauled into the deep, dark or to undertake other task loading.

Pete

 

[Nick A]

Enjoy Malta, just dive. I don't know, but maybe some charters require an AOW cert to dive? Not suee who your certifying agency is, but PADI only requires 5 open water dives. But like was stated earlier, just because you are AOW certified, doesn't mean your an advanced diver, just that you did a few dives with an instructor. I say enjoy your dives in Malta. If your not comfortable with a dive, there is no shame in not doing it or thumbing the dive. If you can't find a buddy, hire a divemaster. They should be able to take you to some sweet spots that you may never see. Enjoy your vacation.

 

[LowDrag]

Well being one of the ones that is going into AOW without 2 dozen dives yet I would say do what you feel is right for you. Here is a thread in another section about this exact subject. If you read it, I think you will get a good idea of other peeps opinions of your question. In the end it all boils down to how you want to advance your diving experience. I know when I complete AOW I won't be an advanced diver yet either but I still want the class time, the dives and the overall experience. Remember this above all else...opinions are like butt holes...everyone has one...:cool2: LOL!!!

Check out this thread...

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/453354-aow-right-after-owd.html

 

[Frosty]

dasrkprinze Ive seen BOTH extremes with regards to AOW. Yes it can be exactly as you describe. OR it can be a fantastic way to improve your diving to the point you are a competent diver.-Beyond being a "l plate" diver.
What you get out of the course will depend on what YOU are prepared to take out of it and how good the instructor is.
No disrespect to you intended but with your OW cert you really have only been taught the bare basics to stay safe.
If you come away from your AOW able to control your boyancy really well,Be able to navigate back to the boat and your weighting sorted then yes you'll have a padi AOW ticket but you will be a decent diver to go with it.
I must say in my personal opinion padi OW really should include theirOW anyway.

 

[Scuba Cat Diving]

You can learn a lot with the advanced course, but it does depend on the instructor and student too. The whole point of the advanced course is to learn to adapt the basics you have practiced during the open water course to a different style of diving. So for example you can dive deeper, in a drift, navigate better, all skills are talked about and may have been practiced during the initial course but are developed to a greater understanding during the advanced.

As others have said, it does not mean you are an advanced diver, but you have undergone more training in these area's, you still need to dive more and practice.

Also as you will have no dive buddy it is a great way to gain more experience with an instructor to guide you.

 

[tamas970]

I am also doing my AOW right after OW and don't feel anything wrong about it. The reason I am doing so, that in Europe, they declare all dive sites deeper than 25m suitable only for "advanced divers". Anyway, our certification says we (OWDs) are allowed to dive no deeper than 18m/60'. Thus you miss a lot from the show.

I'd say you can still enjoy diving while doing your AOWD if the dives are in a nice place. Especially if you take the underwater photography and underwater naturalist courses.

If you perfect your bouyancy and finning technique in the pool, use your gear (compass, computer) naturally, then you don't "have to" add a dozen dives and wait until you are allowed to sit in the "advanced" boat. How much time are you spending in Malta? How much did you assign for diving? A sweet spot would be to do the AOW plus 2-4 fun dives.