Padi Course flow chart Question?

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canadianwingnut

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Hello all

I'm taking my OW in a couple weeks,Been hooked since Discover Scuba.
I am in no rush to dive below 60fsw, so could a person take PPB,Navigation,
Drift and maybe night specialties and then take the Advanced Open water.
(Then I could take my skills slowly into deeper water)
#1 Is this Crazy thinking??
#2 Would this effect my AOW Course if those were the specialties i wanted to take??
Would I just do my Deep Dive????

Any thoughts would be appreciated Wingnut
 
I personally don't think thats crazy at all. The advanced open water doesn't actually give you a certification in those specialty courses, just experience in each. When you take the actual "Deep Diver" specialty you get the cert to dive deeper (at least thats my understanding) but when you take the AOW you just get to do a deep dive. I think some dive ops will let you go a bit deeper because of this. When in Jamaica you could go to 80' if you were advanced rather than the 60'.

When you do you AOW you might overlap on a few things but thats ok I think, its just more training and experience. I'm not sure, but maybe if you do the specialties and do enough of them you could get the "advanced" rating because you've done them all, or maybe a higher rating and skip advanced all together.

I'm currently working on my SSI advanced open waters and I actually have to do coursework and dives for each specialty. When I finish, if I want to pay the extra $25, I get a physical cert card for that specialty. So it works a little different. I think SSI has an equivalent level called Adventrure diver. Where you try out 5 specialties. Not to be confused with PADI adventrue diver...i think thats lower than their AOW.

I hope this makes sense.
 
Hello all

I'm taking my OW in a couple weeks,Been hooked since Discover Scuba.
I am in no rush to dive below 60fsw, so could a person take PPB,Navigation,
Drift and maybe night specialties and then take the Advanced Open water.
(Then I could take my skills slowly into deeper water)
#1 Is this Crazy thinking??
#2 Would this effect my AOW Course if those were the specialties i wanted to take??
Would I just do my Deep Dive????

Any thoughts would be appreciated Wingnut

The Advanced Open Water is five adventure dives. Two are required, Deep and Navigation. The other three can be any you wish. You can take one adventure dive at a time until you have the requirements for AOW. Many shops will have a package price. They will give you all five adventure dives for less than if you take them individually. So you might want to consider saving some money and get your AOW.

Some shops will have a set five adventure dives because they feel they will serve you best for the environment. If you want the Drift adventure dive, you'll need a location with some current. For Ontario this is typically the St. Lawrence River near Rockport/Brockville.

If you do decide to get your adventure dives one at a time then once you have deep, navigation and three others you get your AOW. You'd have to pay a little more for the PADI processing fee but that would be it. Doing this isn't crazy but might cost you a little more in the long run.
 
If you do decide to get your adventure dives one at a time then once you have deep, navigation and three others you get your AOW. You'd have to pay a little more for the PADI processing fee but that would be it. Doing this isn't crazy but might cost you a little more in the long run.

Yes....This is what I'm getting at. If you take 5 specialty courses , two of which
are Deep and Navigation....!!!!

You Automatically receive your AOW?? Is this Correct???

Yes this would cost more but i would have 5 specialties lots more training
and I could save my deeper dives for later..!!

Thanks guys that is great
 
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The 5 Adventure Dives that form an AOW course, are actually just the first dives from corresponding Speciality Course. Those adventure dives can count towards completion of the speciality course... or, those speciality course dives could count towards your AOW.

If you took 3 speciality courses, it would only leave you with 2 dives to complete your AOW certification. (although you could opt to take new adventure dives on the AOW).

You can do a wide range of specialities at OW level and there is no need to feel obligated to move directly from OW to AOW. That said, the single deep dive on the AOW course is not a demanding experience - and you are also under no obligation to continue diving to that depth once you have completed that portion of the AOW. Your personal limits should be dictated by more factors than just what your certification cards states.
 
Yes....This is what I'm getting at. If you take 5 specialty courses , two of which
are Deep and Navigation....!!!!

You Automatically receive your AOW?? Is this Correct???

Yes this would cost more but i would have 5 specialties lots more training
and I could save my deeper dives for later..!!

Thanks guys that is great
Yes, that's correct. You would have to pay the certification fee for the AOW card, but you would not have to pay for the AOW course itself--just the five specialty courses. And yes, you can leave the Deep Specialty as the last one and do all of your others in shallower water. Peak Performance Buoyancy, Underwater Navigation, and Search and Recovery are all specialties conducted in very shallow water, for example. The instructor who conducts your last training dive qualifying you for the AOW cert would submit the AOW documentation. (BTW, this last training dive would be the first dive of the fifth specialty course.)
 
Thanks everyone..Im going to discuss my plan with my LDS and go from there,I think
that it is the best for me.
There are lots of thngs to see in Ontario Canada in less than 60fsw!!
I'll join the rest of you in the Abyss in a year or two.

Thanks Wingnut
 
Hi all

Just a fallow up to all of this......No You can Not do this!!!!!!

PADI in California E-mailed me and They suggested I take "AID" as the prerequisit for DEEP DIVER????

Im not sure of the theory that at 42 with OW,PPB,NAVIGATION,Drift,and Night Specialties Im less prepared
for The DEEP Diver Specialty
THan a 15 year old with OW, AOW and then into Deep Diver (That could be the 10th dive)


LOL Wingnut
 
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Oh, EDIT! I understand now--AID=Adventures in Diving. That is the AOW course

Standards state that the minimum pre-req for Deep Diver Spec is Adventure Diver, which is what you have when you've done the first dive of three different specs. So since you wanted to leave Deep for last, you could do, for example:
PPB spec
Nav spec
Night spec
Naturalist spec
Deep spec

The minimum pre-req for everything but Deep in that list is just OW, so once you have the first dive of Deep, you automatically qualify for the AOW cert, at which point you can go ahead and finish off the Deep spec.
 
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Sorry I that was suppose to be Adventure Diver...Quero you are very right,there could be a miss understanding here.
I Understand that by taking the Adventure Diver or Advanced Open Water Those Dives Go towards your Specialties.
So Why then would the Specialty dives not go towards your AOW?
I don't want anyone to thing I am PADI bashing, I chose Padi, there are other games in town.
and if i have to do one night,nav,drift,ppb training dive agian to do the the one Dive to 80fsw So be it.
The flow chart does say you have to have AD or AOW to do the Deep Specialty SO?

Thanks everyone
 

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