Good thread ... and already some good thoughts covered. Would like to add my 20 psi ...
mweitz:
I was "sold" the AOW class as the "rest" of the OW class. If the OW class is indeed lacking as so many of you claim, then new students should be enrolled in a AOW class as soon as they can. They (we) get another 6 supervised dives, some book reading (not great, but better than nothing) and some additional classroom and pool time. We also get 4 specialty classes that are geared to our local conditions.
The AOW class also gets new students back into the water, most likely increasing their confidence. From my understanding a lot of people get their cards then never dive again.
So, why not go straight to AOW?
Mark
Mark ... I would say it all depends on what you want to get out of an AOW class. If all you want is more bottom time with an instructor's supervision, then I'd say it's OK to go straight into the AOW class from OW. However, I counsel my students to work on basic skills and acquire a modest level of comfort in the water before taking the AOW class.
I try to focus my time and attention in AOW class on teaching new skills, rather than just reinforcing the ones you learned in OW.
I start with how to plan a dive. From there we go into gas management ... how to determine your SAC and RMV rates, how to use them to figure out how much air you would need for a given dive plan, and how to calculate turnaround pressure and rock bottom pressure. After gas management we cover buddy skills, and techniques for not just keeping track of your buddy but also working together to plan and execute a dive. From there we go into buoyancy control, trim, and weighting. Next comes navigation techniques and skills, then techniques for diving in limited visibility, and finally search and recovery techniques. This is all taught workshop style, so we're going through actual diving scenarios while we're covering the material ... planning dives, calculating air consumption, role-playing, and constantly looking at "what if" situations where things might not go according to plan.
And that's just the classroom stuff.
Our first dive starts out with a weight check, followed by a series of navigation patterns that require you and your buddy to both work together ... you can't achieve the goals of the dive unless you constantly communicate and share information during the dive ... all while maintaining a depth of 20 feet for the entire dive. This is followed by a second weight check with your cylinder nearly empty. Then we do a second navigation dive, using both natural and compass techniques. Since you're learning how to be self-sufficient, I lead you around for a while, then when I give the signal you lead us back ... using the techniques you learned in the classroom.
Before we do our deep dive, you'll do a dive that requires you to record your air consumption while swimming hard (for 5 minutes) and while hovering (for 10 minutes) ... and during the surface interval you'll use those measurements to calculate your air consumption rates and tell me how much gas you'll need for your deep dive. You'd be surprised how many divers discover they can't safely go to 100 feet on the cylinder they're diving. While doing your deep dive, you'll practice OOA drills while hovering ... at 90 to 100 feet. On the way in you will shoot a surface marker buoy and do a free ascent to 15 feet, do your safety stop mid-water, then ascend. This is a very useful skill if you plan to dive off a boat. Your night dive will also include navigation skills ... just to see if you've retained the stuff you learned during the first couple of dives and could really get yourself back to shore under less than optimal conditions ... I lead you out, you lead me back. Finally, the search and rescue dive ... you'll find an object I manage to "lose" ... planning the search pattern with your dive buddy and executing the plan. Once you locate the object, you'll use a lift back to rig it and bring it to the surface.
So ... think you could manage all that with just the experience of your OW dives? Most people couldn't. But with 20 dives worth of practice first, you'd not just manage it but you'd come away from it with a great deal more skill and confidence.
The moral of the story is, whether or not you should pursue AOW straight out of OW depends on what you want to take away from it. If all you want is six more supervised dives, then go with the shop that encourages you to go straight from OW to AOW ... but don't expect to take a lot of new skills out of the class. But if you want a real education, then find an instructor who wants you to get some practice with your basic skills first. Take their advice and work on adding some proficiency to the skills you learned in OW. Then you'll have something we can work with to teach you some real skills that you were never introduced to in OW. We'll also have the opportunity to answer "why" you were taught certain things in OW that were never adequately explained ... because at the time you lacked the experiential context to understand the explanation.
When you walk away from that kind of class, you will have actually learned something worthwhile ... something that will make you competent to feel you've actually earned the "A" on the AOW card.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
