I've just completed my PADI AOW and all I can say is I feel terribly ripped off. Why? I'll explain.
For AOW 5 criteria need to be met, different specialties with "Navigation" and "Deep" as required, possibly "Night" as well. Anyway, I got my drysuit specialty done with my OW, did a night-dive at the cost of $50 extra with an instructor to have it count towards my AOW, then paid $200 to be taken down deep, to be trained in navigation, and to get my naturalist specialty.
Anyway, I read through the book and did the knowledge reviews. There are 30 pages of info on the deep dive, all of which could be compacted into 3 pages, bullet-format. In fact, the book goes so far as to quiz the student on why people go deep, as if it's not obvious enough already. There's also something strangely patronizing about how the book is riddled with photos of grinning, over-enthusiastic people scuba-diving, as if the reader somehow benefits from the photos of high-fives and thumbs-up. It seems PADI are more interested in selling a lifestyle than teaching a course on how to dive properly.
Next, the dives themselves were tedious. I was in Scouts and know how to use a compass. Telling us how in a classroom then having us do it underwater is not worth $50, and even for those who weren't in Scouts it's still something that can be accomplished in thirty minutes. The "Naturalist" specialty was the worst; $50 to be told not to "ride" seaturtles, smash up reefs, poke fish, or do any of the other no-nos already outlined in the OW course. Furthermore, the PADI book only lists a narrow number of tropical species, completely useless to anyone outside that region. The course also only asks for 10 species to be named, rather than anything remotely as ambitious as making a "naturalist" out of the student. I could have easily gone to the reef without cracking the book open and named far more than 10 species, having only taken that specialty as someone interested in them to begin with! I hoped for my $50 I would get to learn more, but I was mistaken.
Ultimately I do not feel like an Advanced diver. 50$ for the information that two lights should be worn, a glowstick and/or (eco-friendly) tank lights, and a slashing beam means 'something wrong' while a circular one means 'okay'? Ridiculous. I repeated $50 worth of information in one sentence, making me feel like a victim of Scientology for having paid so much for such info. Again, the book is terribly long-winded and seems to take the approach that the student has been living under a rock and is certifying his or herself; why would someone who's been diving out of a club and clearly enrolled in a course need to know why people night-dive?? If anyone had spent even a slight bit of time in the diving community they'd immediately know why. Why would you need to explain in the book why people check out wrecks? Is it not self-evident enough already??
I realize PADI are a great organisation, but I feel terribly ripped off and patronized by their course. I paid $300 for my OW, worth every penny as it taught me to scuba-dive. I paid $200 for my advanced which has for the most part taught me nothing I didn't already know. In retrospect I'd say the AOW is worth $50 alone with a minimum of 15 dives, rather than $200 and some minimal information with lots of convoluted reading in a book written at a grade-3 level.
