PADI specialties and AOW

[parabuzzle]

Alright so I have a question that just popped in to my head thinking back on my Advanced cert training...

When I did my AOW I did some specialty dives. Deep, Navigation, Night, etc... It was back in 2002 when I did this stuff and I tend to have CRS so I am wondering if those dives count towards specialties in the PADI specialty ranking thingy.. Like, can I get the Deep Diver cert or Night Diver cert? Or are those dives just guided teasers for those coarses? Just curious.

-Mike

 

[AndyNZ]

They count, but they aren't enough. For example the Deep specialty is a total of four dives, the dive you did on your AOW would be the first of those dives. So if you wanted to to the Deep course, it would be three extra dives, plus some extra theory work.

 

[randykiw]

Yes they can count. But why would you want them to? The instructor of the speciality class is not giving you an discount for the one less dive, so why not take all the required dives for the speciality and gain the addition supervised experience.

 

[TMHeimer]

Yes they can count. But why would you want them to? The instructor of the speciality class is not giving you an discount for the one less dive, so why not take all the required dives for the speciality and gain the addition supervised experience.

I took "half" of the Nitrox course (1st Knowledge Review) and one dive (back when 2 actual dives were required) in Florida. Back home I took the course and had to do the whole thing over and the 2 dives (not that I didn't want to) which was good, but I got no discount for what I'd already done. This may well be the rule and not the exception...? I guess when they say it "counts", I was thinking more in terms of money than experience. Maybe it does "count" if you take the same specialty at the same LDS.

 

[DBailey]

Also, most dive shops won't discount the specialty price for the one dive you did during AOW. So if you are paying for four dives, why not do four dives?

The only real benefit is finishing the specialty in a single day of diving instead of two days. PADI allows up to three training dives in a single day. Since you have dive #1 done (from the adventure dive), you can do #2, #3, and #4 in a single day. It is a selling point for knocking out the specialties in a warm water location over a single day and fun dive on the second day.

 

[allistoy]

Take advantage of the extra dive and hopefully the extra knowledge the instructor will be presenting to you. You will get more out of the specialty if you take full advantage of all the dives and briefings.

 

[Damselfish]

unless you're very time constrained, like the vacation thing, or it is all mushed together as part of a package deal at around the same time, I don't see any advantage in taking advantage of the "credit."

(do they still count 8 years later or is that up to the instructor?)

 

[parabuzzle]

Thanks for all the info. I really don't care too much about it. Its just one of those thoughts that you get (maybe just me) in passing and curiosity abounds... I don't need them to count towards a specialty, I'm going to get all the dives I can when I'm in a class

-Mike

 

[knotical]

Also, whether the AOW dive counts toward the corresponding specialty is at the instructor's discretion. It's more likely to be counted when you do AOW and specialty in a near time frame (and especially if it's with the same instructor), than when AOW was years in the past.
Another consideration is what type of diving you've been doing in the meantime. You identify yourself as a Tech Diver. With those types of credentials, I suspect most instructors would be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Peregrinne]

It might depend on the dive centre.
I've seen a few dive centres around Ireland that don't have a fixed price for each of the specialty courses, most are priced on how many dives are involved. I imagine their courses would be cheaper if the initial dive has already been completed as part of the AOW course.