PADI Advanced Open Water: Did you learn anything new?

[In2theabyss]

So was your AOW course similar to mine? No classroom time, basically supervised dives in different environment? Thanks

I had the required classroom time as well. The dives were in the same location however it was well suited for the requirements (Blue Grotto)

 

[NAM001]

Lol you totally remind me of my dad. Not completely a good thing ha! He was a Naui YMCA scuba instructor around 1962. was a young guy then obviously I think he is 77 years old now in nov 2018. Basically all you said is true, YMCA was a damn boot camp and many couldnt do it. You do have a lot of old man complaining in that post and ive heard it all from my dad also. Why did I wait most of my life to get certified at 51? When I love the water? Life man....life. Regret it and wish im 30 years experienced scuba. But im not im a newbie. 30 dives. That said Im the newer diver that will shadow you at 5 foot distance like a barracuda as it were....though they stay further away....and just stay within distance to be of aid if theres a malfunction and in case i get in trouble. Ill be nuetrally boyant and horizontal. I wont race ahead or get distracted.

Trying to learn how to stay alive safely underwater. Yea I too even with limited dives have seen complete idiots on liveaboards and local monterey dive boats. Had people steal brand new fins out of my dive bag and argue that the fins were their fins, a dive later they find their on worn fins and realize they were wrong.

totally empathize with you old man. but dang you talk just like my pop back in PA. lmao, and we get into some big ol rows arguing haha. Love that guy.

YMCA was the best for diving back in the day.

thanks for the memories lol and yea my dad is still kicking but not diving. just hunting

oh by the way I think my reply was just a random rant. You reminded me of my dad too much lol and i started typing.

thanks for reading it as it was intended. there are a few things that really push my buttons one is thinking that training from day one and today are the same. the otheris that IN the day when something went wrong the first thing you asked was what did i do wrong so i dont do it again. now its what did someone else do wrong and where is the number for my lawyer. I dont like diving with the latter. I dont know how many organizations there were in the 60's but the were few. my tank 50 bucks the reg 50 bucks 1/4 full wet suit 50 bucks training 40 bucks including the book and it lasted about 60 hours i would guess. pool sessions were completely different but so was the gear. we had no BCD's I hope no one takes this post as a poor me becasue it is not a poor me post. It is a a post to say 60 hours of training in a single coarse to go to the same certification as a master diver in the 60's is not the same as a few hours today in an OW class when the old class is now perhaps 7 different classes. todays OW's do not have the skills that the old courses sent you home with. you have to learn those things the hard way on each dive. thats ok becasue padi RECCOMMENDS you do not go past 60 ft with out further training. All the while the industry says an OW card is good to 132 ft. Oh the power of the dollar. those that are taught bare minimum are not equiped to go to 100 ft. period.

 

[NAM001]

I was hoping to experience this under supervision, but didn’t happen. How did you know you were narced? Deepest I’ve gone was about 118 feet but didn’t notice anything... but then again we weren’t there for too long at all. Thanks!

quite often the instructor will do something like have you open a combination look on the surface and time you. then have you do it again at say 90 ft. it takes longer becasue you are under the influence and you do not know it. You will probably not see any difference at 60 ft but just the same it is an eye opening dive to make yo aware of forces you do not know is there. If you did the compass you probably failed bad. I look at AOW as a class to knock the wind out of the sails of those OW divers that think they can do anything becase the recovered their reg and replaced their mask at 15 ft.. It is a class that makes you think more than just jump in and blow to the surface when something goes south. Normally i find people that take pictures,,,, and when they get on the boat they do not remember where or why they took the pictures. NARCED. All the exposure dives are not to make you qualified to do them but to expose you to the environment issues such as dark and loosing orientation. compass and swimmiing circles,, gaging distance . AOW done right is a valuable class expecially when the OW class was nothing more than bare minimum. Bottom l;ine is that whether it is the OW or AOW class it is the instructor that determines the quality.

 

[dmaziuk]

I was hoping to experience this under supervision, but didn’t happen. How did you know you were narced? Deepest I’ve gone was about 118 feet but didn’t notice anything... but then again we weren’t there for too long at all. Thanks!

That's one of the problems: some people are less prone to it, some dives are more conducive to it, and if the instructor makes you do the exact same math problems topside and at depth, some people rattle the answers out of short-term memory and "solve it" faster at depth.

 

[tursiops]

quite often the instructor will do something like have you open a combination look on the surface and time you. then have you do it again at say 90 ft.

That was back in the good old days that you love so much. It is not done today, nor for the last many years. There is no longer a "narc test" of any kind in AOW.

 

[pauldw]

I did OW a long time ago. Back then I looked at doing AOW but couldn't afford it. I did get the book, though. It looked to me then that AOW was a logical progression of OW, dealing with things people needed to know to dive, like navigation, but wouldn't have been able to get into in the much more basic OW course.

More recently, I actually took AOW. It was surprising to me that the program had completely changed. Pick your topics at random and do them, and ignore the rest. It's now like a collection of mini specialty courses, but you don't have to take ones that make you safer.

This new thing doesn't seem good to me. If people want to specialize, they can do so with a specialty course. But there's a lot of basic information OW leaves out, because it's busy teaching people to equalize and whatnot, and it seems like AOW should complete that basic training.

Rescue Diver was good. All three seem to me the foundation for being a prepared beginner.

 

[guahoo]

Never seen them but for years, I heard about the " Scuba Police ".

So I always dive with a spare handcuff key underwater just incase.......

Lol. I was thinking with boaters and jet skis... if something happens I don’t want it to fall on me

 

[boulderjohn]

I did OW a long time ago. ....

More recently, I actually took AOW. It was surprising to me that the program had completely changed.

How long ago did you take OW? The basic structure of the class is pretty much unchanged in the decades I know of.

 

[TMHeimer]

I did OW a long time ago. Back then I looked at doing AOW but couldn't afford it. I did get the book, though. It looked to me then that AOW was a logical progression of OW, dealing with things people needed to know to dive, like navigation, but wouldn't have been able to get into in the much more basic OW course.

More recently, I actually took AOW. It was surprising to me that the program had completely changed. Pick your topics at random and do them, and ignore the rest. It's now like a collection of mini specialty courses, but you don't have to take ones that make you safer.

This new thing doesn't seem good to me. If people want to specialize, they can do so with a specialty course. But there's a lot of basic information OW leaves out, because it's busy teaching people to equalize and whatnot, and it seems like AOW should complete that basic training.

Rescue Diver was good. All three seem to me the foundation for being a prepared beginner.

Exactly. Along the same lines as the 5 specialty certs. required for PADI Master Scuba Diver. They all should be courses/dives that either improve your overall diving or make you a safer diver.
I should point out that the shop may not offer some of the dives you choose (or not be able to offer them).

 

[NAM001]

That's one of the problems: some people are less prone to it, some dives are more conducive to it, and if the instructor makes you do the exact same math problems topside and at depth, some people rattle the answers out of short-term memory and "solve it" faster at depth.

yes that is true opening a lock is involves muscle coordination as opposed to answering a problem like what is 8x7. so it is a physical demonstration on top if a mental processing issue.