Question about Advanced Open Water

[Vincent Lin]

So I want to advance my diving knowledge and go for the advanced open water diver program. I understand that it requires deep and navigation diving and three electives. My question is this: do I get a C-card for each of those electives or is it just like an introductory dive and to actually get the C-card you have to take further classes?

For example: if I choose to take Nitrox as an elective, would I actually need to take an ADDITIONAL nitrox "course" on top of the AOW course before actually being certified to dive with nitrox or do you get certified in using nitrox, acquire a c-card, which that then goes towards your AOW c-card?

 

[KatieMac]

One C-card. And I would do Nitrox as a separate specialty

 

[Addicted2H2O]

You get one C-card for the AOW course. For additional specialty certifications, I think you need a certain number of dives for that specialty (5 maybe?) plus maybe some academic knowledge/e-learning to earn the certification. So for the AOW, I'd pick some elective dives you're interested in so you can enjoy the course. When I did my NAUI AOW in May 2015, it actually required 6 dives. Nav, Deep, and Night were required and then three electives. I did a photography dive, a search & recovery dive (lift bag) and a DPV dive, which was a lot of fun.

 

[Vincent Lin]

Awesome! Thanks for the responses!

I definitely want to get nitrox certified which is why I wanted to see if it made sense to do it as an elective, but if there is no certification associated with it then I'd be better off choosing another elective. Again, thanks you guys!

 

[oly5050user]

Advance requires 2 core dives, deep and navigation. Additional 3 dives are electives. Electives usually chosen are what works in geographic area due to logistics of local area. Advance course is just to add experience beyond the 4 dives completed for open water. To earn any speciality certification need to complete academics , meet speciality course objectives, and complete any additional dives, which can be 2 or as many as 4 , depends on which speciality it is. Nitrox,enriched air, requires no dives.

 

[Scubatude]

The Advanced course is actually the first of several different specialty course, including Deep and Navigation. Since you are doing a the first dive as part of the Advanced course, you only need to complete the academics and additional dives to earn the specialty. For example, it is not uncommon for us to do a Peak Performance Buoyancy dice as one of the Advanced course dives. Since the PPB specialty is only 2 dives total, only one additional dive is required to earn that specialty.

 

[Nick Steele]

What most have said is correct no c cards besides AOW. But if there are specialty coruses you know you want to take maybe just do the specialties and when you finish 5 you get AOW card along with it. This is the route I’ll be taking as I don’t see the AOW really helping much.

I plan to take (already have nitrox)
Peak performance buoyancy
Navigation
Deep
Drift diver/night
Intro to tech (if I can)

This will give me more dives with an instructor over time and in my mind will be well worth it over AOW which is usually in a weekend or two class.

 

[Bob DBF]

But if there are specialty coruses you know you want to take maybe just do the specialties and when you finish 5 you get AOW card along with it. This is the route I’ll be taking as I don’t see the AOW really helping much.

AOW will help if you want to go out with a dive op and find they require AOW in order for you to make the dives.


Bob

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Something else to consider....I don't think you'd want to attempt an EAN (Nitrox) dive without first having a course on it anyway. There are certain precautions to take and things you need to know to safely make EAN dives and different tables associated with them. Also know which EAN blend to use for what depths and the tables associated with each. It's a lot more than just filling your tank with additional Oxygen and making a dive. That said I certainly wouldn't want to choose that as an elective dive for an AOW course without having the knowledge to go along with it.

 

[tursiops]

What's nice about doing Nitrox as one of your AOW specialty courses is that you don't need a separate card for the Nitrox certification, it will be listed on your AOW card so you only need to carry the one card with you when you travel. That's what I did.

This is no longer true, at least for PADI. No more listing of Nitrox along with the certification level.
Also, the single Nitrox dive you'd do as part of the AOW will not provide the certification. If you are doing Nitrox dives, you need two for the certification. Better to do Nitrox as a separate class, using the no-dives option, and use the five AOW dives for topics that actually require skills in the water.