palmm
Guest
I just got my aow last weekend, I am thinking that I got my aow a little to soon, since I only have about 20 dives. All my dives were without incident and I felt great. Any opinions.
question about aow
- Thread starter palmm
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fisheater
Contributor
You've got the training. Now, put it to use and get more dive experience. Join a club that dives often and find good dive buddies/mentors.
Some say get the experience then training. Others say get the training and then experience.
It doesn't matter what any of us say, because you've already done the training.
Some say get the experience then training. Others say get the training and then experience.
It doesn't matter what any of us say, because you've already done the training.
It's advanced OPEN WATER. It's an extension of open water training. It's never to soon to keep on training, but also keep on diving, with a buddy outside of training dives, that will make you an actual ADVANCED diver. If you want to do more training, but not "go pro" consider rescue, efr, deep & nitrox. and dive dive dive!
AoW just opens more opportunities for more dives. You should dive within your ability, skill level and experience. If so inclined gradually increasing dive difficulty. In and of itself AoW doesn't offer anything other than opportunity so IMO it doesn't really matter when you take it. Now getting your AoW and immediately pushing the limits of the certification rather than yours is a very bad idea.
Doing AOW early gives you a couple of advantages - you don't have bad habits to break, and you get more "practice" at necessary skills before venturing out on your own. Do you feel like you are better prepared to dive now than you were before the class? If so, then it was time well spent. Now hopefully you will get to use those skills and get some real world experience. That will tell you what areas you need to continue to work on, and perhaps get additional training in.
Just don't mislead yourself into thinking you are now an "advanced diver", and make sure you dive according to your ability and comfort level.
Just don't mislead yourself into thinking you are now an "advanced diver", and make sure you dive according to your ability and comfort level.
In my opinion (and only mine) it is when you are confident and competent in a variety of environments. For example, you did a deep dive with your AOW class. Are you now confident based on that one experience to go to 100ft with a buddy and not a DM or instructor? Why? Do you know how to gas plan for that depth? Do you know if you narc? What about your buddy, is he/she more or less experienced than you? In other words, if something goes wrong, do you know what to do?
Sometimes it will depend on where you dive. Can you dive in both cold and warm water environments? Some very knowledgeable and proficient warm water divers have issues when then need 7 mils of neoprene and 25# of lead. Many have never seen kelp or 5 ft viz. So in their usual environment, they may be able to handle everything the see, but change locations and they need to be a bit more cautious of their dive plan.
Experience and additional training (formal or with a mentor/buddy) is the key. The real answer lies with you. It could take 30 more dives, or 300 more dives. But at some point you will know. I still learn on every dive.
Sometimes it will depend on where you dive. Can you dive in both cold and warm water environments? Some very knowledgeable and proficient warm water divers have issues when then need 7 mils of neoprene and 25# of lead. Many have never seen kelp or 5 ft viz. So in their usual environment, they may be able to handle everything the see, but change locations and they need to be a bit more cautious of their dive plan.
Experience and additional training (formal or with a mentor/buddy) is the key. The real answer lies with you. It could take 30 more dives, or 300 more dives. But at some point you will know. I still learn on every dive.
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