PADI AOW: A total ripoff?

[Walter]

Is it a rip off? That depends on how it's marketed. If it was sold to you as an advanced class, then yes, you were ripped off. If it was sold to you as 5 dives in which you might learn something, you got what you paid for.

It seems PADI are more interested in selling a lifestyle than teaching a course on how to dive properly.

PADI does know how to teach people to dive properly, they are a marketing organization, not a training organization.

I realize PADI are a great organisation

Why would you think that?

1. Everyone knows AOW doesn't make someone an advanced diver,

Not everyone.

2. The book is definately silly, probably why NAUI doesn't even use a book

That's ridiculous. NAUI certainly does not make decisions based on the silliness of PADI's books.

3. But I don't think PADI AOW is a rip-off, your class may have been a rip-off, but a good instructor motivated enough can teach to the level of the student, and diving with a good instructor giving tips is definately worth it.

So PADI writes standards that outline the requirements of a class. Most instructors follow those standards to the letter. A rare few instructors write their own class and actually teach people things they need to know and suddenly the majority of instructors are to blame because they teach the piss poor class outlined in PADI's standards? Sorry, but while the credit for those excellent classes clearly goes to those excellent instructors, the blame for those poor classes clearly is PADI's.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

2. The book is definately silly, probably why NAUI doesn't even use a book

NAUI does, in fact, use an AOW book. It comes as part of the student kit that all NAUI instructors are supposed to provide their AOW students ... and the NAUI AOW written exam is based on the material that's in the book.

To my concern, the NAUI book isn't any different than the PADI one ... in both cases, it's more or less a reiteration of material that was covered in your OW class. In other words, if the instructor teaches strictly from this material you are unlikely to learn anything new.

That's why I wrote my own materials for the AOW class I teach.

Go out and solo dive and you will see that you can teach yourself every part of diving if you want , cause waiting on a dive buddy will eventually make you quit diving. ask all the questions on here and decide what answer you want to use, these boards have shot con ed into the bottom of the drum.

This is really poor advice to be giving a new diver. I would NEVER counsel a new diver to go solo diving ... there are just too many things a solo diver has to consider that a new diver couldn't possibly be able to plan for. You also can't really learn how to dive on the Internet. Among other things, it's difficult for the new diver to know who's giving good advice and who's giving bad ... and I read things on here all the time that just make me cringe.

A better suggestion would be to hook up with an experienced diver ... either through a local forum, dive club, or your LDS ... who is willing to take you diving. Gain some practical experience, practice the skills you were introduced to in your classes, learn how to relax in the water ... and most importantly, learn what it MEANS to be a dive buddy. There's far more to it than just being in the proximity of another diver.

Once you're comfortable with the skills and knowledge you gained from your last class, THEN seek further education ... you'll get more out of it that way. Also, consider that in addition to regular classes, there are workshops and seminars out there that help you focus on specific skills. Often times those will be of far more value to someone who wants to dig a little deeper into a particular aspect of diving than a traditional class.

YOU felt like you got robbed, congradulations your now a diver.

It doesn't have to be that way ... really depends on the approach your instructor takes to teaching you skills, and making sure that you get your money's worth out of the class. Generally speaking, independent instructors will be focused more on the student than shop instructors ... because they are not trying to use their diving instruction as a means to sell you gear. There are exceptions, of course ... and independent instruction generally costs more ... but as with all things in life, you get what you pay for.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Hank49]

How am I responsible for not learning more about the flora and fauna of our local ecosystems through my course if the information was never provided?

How much did you expect to learn in one dive on a two or three day class? I think the advice you were given about protecting the environment and not riding turtles is about as deep as one could expect to go in that time frame. People study their whole lives on this subject. Fish ID alone, never mind coral, soft coral, sponges, nudis etc etc... would take you a year to master, in tropical areas at least, if you really studied.

 

[diver 85]

To the OP, did you smile & raise your hands when they robbed you???........seriously, not a complete ripoff but approaching it........& I wonder why some dive operators ONLY let you go on some dives they offer if you are a card holding AOW diver or 'higher'???......hmmmmm......There's something to 'on the job training' & experience, I guess some are not of that belief............GEAUX TIGERS.........

 

[spectrum]

Thrillhouse, you didn't do your homework.

There is a parade of threads here on ScubaBoard about AOW expectations and pitfalls.

1. The name is a misnomer. It will not make you an advanced diver. It should be more like OW phase 2.

2. What you get from it is largely instructor dependent.

3. Believe it or not by hanging around here you probably already absorbed most of the content. This is not true for the population as a whole. The content still needs to be there.

4. Yes part of it is marketing with smiling faces, healthy looking people and magical settings.

5. Take AOW for skills, not to become an underwater naturalist. Search and Recovery may have been a better choice. In my experience AOW content is more of a herd mentality. The delusion of YOU picking your electives often is not the case.

6. The reason for expounding on the reasons for going deep is that many newer divers are enamored with going deep for all of the wrong reasons. Going deep for the sake of going deep and nothing more is the road to short dives, terror and maybe death. It's good that they put it into perspective.

7. Navigation as a skill is something that some divers bring to the sport. For others it is something all together new. What is unique in diving is that you have a whole different set of references, especially in low visibility. When you are 100s of yards from your origin you have to be able to trust your compass and yourself. You cannot see things at long distance like on the surface. This was a training course and did you not expect to be evaluated?

Being so well prepared going into the course you must have been a great mentor/buddy to to whomever you partnered with and I'm sure they were great full for having you at their side.

By the way my AOW experience was no watershed experience either but I did learn a few things and had a good time for the most part.

Congratulations.

Pete

 

[Garrobo]

AOW, in my estimation, is a way to advance the bank accounts of the different agencies. They make it a requirement to go on to other more important levels. Just a way to stuff another slice of your hard-earned in their pockets with nothing in return.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

AOW, in my estimation, is a way to advance the bank accounts of the different agencies.

An interesting ... but uninformed ... estimation.

The only money my agency sees from my classes is what I pay them for student kits and certification cards. While I'm sure there's some profit there (duh!), it ain't enough to advance their bank accounts very far.

The rest of what you pay for your class goes directly to the instructor and/or the shop that they work for ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Lottie375]

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your AOW course. As others have mentioned, its all down to the instructor.

I did my AOW for two reasons - 1) to eventually go on and do my rescue and 2) with only have 12 dives at the time, i wanted to do the wreck dive and night dive (i also did the peak buoyancy), but didn't feel comfortable about doing them before i did my AOW and felt less anxious about doing them when I had a 1-to-1 with my instructor while doing the course.

Just my 2cents worth.

Lottie )

 

[D_B]

Like many, I thought that AOW was an advanced course, but after taking the class, it is just exactly what it says it is on the book ... Adventures in Diving ... to expose you to different conditions and dives, to see if any of them spark your interest in any of those areas, that you may want to pursue further

I took mine right from OW and enjoyed it, I learned things about navigation, and the hazards to look for around wrecks, and why deep diving is different than others ... and I got to do more dives in unfamiliar conditions, with supervision of an instructor that I liked, in very cool place like Catalina ... was money well spent for me

Pete (spectrum) and Bob's (NWGratefulDiver) posts are right on the money

 

[Hawkwood]

My wife, son and I have all taken PADI’s AOW, each of us at different times and with different instructors. My son and I did ours locally through the shop we usually deal with and my wife just finished hers while we were in Cozumel. We dive in very different circumstances - my wife restricts her diving only in the Caribbean, whereas my son and I do the cold water, dry suit, low visibility stuff also.

Even though we took them at various times, we each had maybe a dozen or so dives beyond our OW before we took AOW.

My son and I both did the same “electives”, and it was very interesting to compare and contrast the experiences - very different approaches. Who got the “better” instruction? Who knows, we are both different and learn differently.

My AOW ended up with only two of us at the end of the weekend (we started with six of us, but attrition due to illness, etc. dropped the numbers). My son’s class had about 10 people. The electives we both did were useful for where we do most of our diving.

The electives my wife did were certainly suitable for where she likes to do her diving - she did her AOW by herself. For each of us, there seemed to be one “adventure dive” that stood out where we were able to pass on something to each other. The peak performance buoyancy that my wife did was outstanding in her eyes and the instructor did some interesting exercises, beyond the “basics” that really drove home using your lungs for control.

The costs for each were roughly the same in the $200 to $250 range. Economics? That certainly depends on how you look at it. In my wife’s case, she had the five required dives, which equates to two “two-tank” dives and one “one tank” dive. With the operator we used, those dives would have cost approximately $165 anyway. For the additional cost, she learned something. She also saw a heck of a lot more than we did with her “private” dives.

Personally I found the book to be informative - I hadn’t experienced much before hand, so I found the basic information presented interesting and useful. When reading the chapters, some of the information seemed pretty simplistic and obvious, other information not so. Reviewing the book now after all my “vast“ experience (all 80 dives), it all seems very simplistic, but hindsight is an unfair assessment. Don’t forget the demographics of the student(s). Taken a standard first aid course lately - by necessity those courses are also based on the lowest end of the demographic scale.