Padi AOW by default?

[CPrincess]

The idea really just came up because we had the opportunity to extend a vacation in Nassau by a few days in October and was looking at changing the current scuba reservation, but the wrecks all looked 65ft+ so I was considering doing the Deep Water to then get that out of the way so it wouldnt be an issue in future. Then I started thinking why not do Nav while I was there if I could.
We already have Nitrox, Fish ID and Aware.
This is on top of Bouyancy and photography I was planning to sign up in December because if anyone has teens they know someone else telling them their photo skills need help is better than their parents trying to tell them...... but I'm tired of looking straight down at their fish spines!

 

[CPrincess]

@rsingler thank you! I have trouble getting to local classes, but I find ways to go away on vacation every few months and frankly I need to leave my house/business/dogs/horses or I won't relax! I can get it done in the required timeline if I knew that I wanted to do it!
Add on that I have family and friends with boats on the Treasure Coast if I can find time to get away I know they can refer me to their instructors who would be helpful to get this done who already have me in the computer when I have bought fills from them, but my original intent was to find out if there would just be an automatic trigger when the correct specialties were registered in Padi's system.

 

[rsingler]

Well, since you've got three specialties already (I think, from what you just wrote), then all you have to do is pay for the Adventure Diver Certification.
That will allow you do to at least one Deep dive on your vacation, as part of enrolling in the PADI Deep Diver Specialty Course, or as part of enrolling in AOW. Do an U/W Nav dive too, and you'd be done (after the requisite knowledge reviews.)

Cost?
Crewpak for AOW which includes manual with info for the Deep Dive and U/W Nav dive.
PIC card (for certification) as Adventure Diver
PIC card for certification as AOW after you do two more dives on vacation
Instructor cost for those two dives and review of AOW knowledge reviews. You should be discounted at least a little.

If you really wanted Deep Specialty cert, add one more crewpak and one more PIC

But get your Adventure cert process going quickly. I can help if you like.
And if you get your fifth specialty cert (U/W Nav or Photo or whatever), then it's just a matter of paying ANOTHER PIC cost to be certified as a Master Scuba Diver if you have fifty logged dives, and if that's important to you. Much as people gripe about PADI's incremental system and its associated costs, there is a whole 'nother group who are very proud of the Specialty Certifications they hold. And of course, Deep gets you on boat dives denied to others in today's legal climate.

 

[MichaelMc]

@Cprincess,You are allowed to apply the first dive of (approved) specialties to AOW, like Nitrox, Fish Id, and Aware. So ask the shop there if you can do AOW with just doing the first Nav and the first Deep, in Nassau.

 

[rsingler]

@Cprincess,You are allowed to apply the first dive of (approved) specialties to AOW, like Nitrox, Fish Id, and Aware. So ask the shop there if you can do AOW with just doing the first Nav and the first Deep, in Nassau.

Yep, that'd be easier than my approach. You wouldn't need Adventure Cert, but just enrollment as AOW. The question is whether they'd give you a break on price since you've got 3 out of 5 done already.

Good plan. But get going on the Knowledge Development piece as soon as they say they'll cooperate. You don't want to do that part on vacation.

 

[pconsidine]

@Cprincess,You are allowed to apply the first dive of (approved) specialties to AOW, like Nitrox, Fish Id, and Aware. So ask the shop there if you can do AOW with just doing the first Nav and the first Deep, in Nassau.

Problem with that is that Aware does not require a dive and for Nitrox specialty a dive is optional-would have to prove that you did a dive as part of cert.

 

[rsingler]

Oh, good point. I wasn't paying attention.
Sounds like best option is to just enroll in AOW, and find one or two vacations to complete the five dives (or four if you dove for nitrox). You have a year.

 

[Cap335]

You can buy the book (you need to complete each knowledge review) and do the adventure dives randomly. the Instructor that does the last dive would be the certifying instructor. If you went the route described above you would just need to do deep last. To get the AOW you would need to pay for the certification fee. So if you only wanted to do your deep dive for AOW while in warm clear waters and you could finish it at home.

 

[Steve_C]

So why are you set on doing it with PADI when some other agencies, like SDI, are much more accomodating with you doing some of the specialties with other agencies?

 

[pconsidine]

You can buy the book (you need to complete each knowledge review) and do the adventure dives randomly. the Instructor that does the last dive would be the certifying instructor. If you went the route described above you would just need to do deep last. To get the AOW you would need to pay for the certification fee. So if you only wanted to do your deep dive for AOW while in warm clear waters and you could finish it at home.

No Padi Instructor is going to sign you off for adventure dives which they did not participate in and their are skills that must be performed on each Adventure dive...