Question about PADI AOW dives

[RTee]

As a minimum, I would strive for Deep, Nav, Night and Peak Buoyancy. The fifth one could be anything, really, that turn your crank but I would probably recomment Search and Recovery. With regard to boat and drift dives, you should be able to educate yourself just by reading the book followed by a trip to Cozumel.

On my course I had the first four and the LDS added boat, which I found pretty much useless since I already had conducted boat dives previously(local, Dominican Republic and a week in Cozumel).

 

[iluvtheocean]

When I did my PADI AOW the instructor started in a parking lot with a towel over my head so I could only see the compass having me doing squares and triangles 100 feet on each side.
At the dive site he stretched a 100 foot tape measure on the bottom at about 30 foot depth. Then he had me swim from one end to the other keeping track of my kick cycles, time and PSI used.
I had to do a 100 foot square starting at one end of the tape measure and ending at the other end, then two 50 foot triangles returning to the tape measure at the 50 foot and 100 foot marks.
The visibility was 8 to 10 feet at the time but very little current.

they did the same with us for the nav portion -- viz was better at about 15 feet (was stirred up by a recent storm) -- what helped too though was adding natural navigation to help keep you on track and the fact that it was a beach dive so the compass directions were easy. although it was funny watching the puffer fish attacking the weight where the tape reel was attached.

I've done the Nav, Night, Deep, and Boat with Bouyancy hopefully on Sat. (ended up with boat instead of wreck since the deep dive was on a wreck at night and the 2nd dive of the night was an artificial reef (neptune memorial) at about 40' which wouldn't qualify for deep and i don't think it would count as a wreck so compromised with boat)
I have noticed that compass navigation is different with a computer compass vs liquid filled. computer is touchier and slight delay on reading (Aeris a300AI). I felt comfortable doing the deep at night due to confidence in myself & the instructor and the other divers with us. Being a full moon didn't hurt!

 

[Dive the World]

Ideally it should be something that would help with your local dive sites.

for me it was

Deep
Wreck
Night
Navigation
Bouyancy

 

[o2dependant]

We did,
Peak performance buoyancy
Underwater navigation
Deep
Drift
Night

In that order. I felt that i really benefited from the peak performance and the drift dive. Our instructor showed us how to position ourselves in the current. This really helped us with our control. In the area where we were we had already done about 20 dives or so with them prior to taking up the AOW so the instructor had a good grasp of our experience. there was often current and many dives ended being drift any way. But the beauty of having the instructor with us was that he gave us the advice and demonstrations that really helped out. He brought 2 divemasters with him and we hit a pretty strong current. Its good to know how to handle the currents and how to make lighter work of them.

I feel that the other options like underwater photography and fish ID are just a waste of time and should not determine your level of ability as a diver or conform part of the AOW course in any form. I see it like an easy ride. After all why do people want to be certified as AOW in the frst place? Its not to take pictures or ID fish is it?

Wreck, deep, drift, night, UW Nav all have valuable skills and experience attached to them. All advanced open water divers who are considering any of them would be wise to have at least done them once under supervision.

 

[Mr. Willoughby]

I share the sentiment regarding getting a few dives in before doing your AOW. It will make you more relaxed and capable of focusing on the skills you are learning.

I also suggest going to a field or park and practising navigating with a compass, firstly just standard navigation to familiarise yourself with a compass to a higher degree than in your OW dives, assuming navigation is new to you, and then using the towel over the head method to limit your vision and counting strides as you would kick cycles. If you do this the UW portions will be a peace of cake. When I did my OW and AOW some of the shop's compasses were for the southern hemisphere and had 180 at the top of the compass where 0 would normally be for those of us in the north. This confused some of the students quite a bit but being military at the time I helped the instructor explain compasses more in depth and explained how the numbers don't really matter, rather the markings, such as the lubber line, and the bezel are what matters.

To sum up my rambling tales of yore, a little practise goes a long way...

 

[Jaydubya]

I try not to have a pre-set pattern of dives for students. I leave the choice up to them, after all, it should be areas they are interested in. I only suggest alternatives if what they choose in impractical (it's hard to do ice diving in the Middle East)

Our group classes are always set up with the same adventure dives and in the same order: Day 1: PPB, Nav, Night. Day 2: Deep, Wreck. This makes a lot of sense for our dive environment. Of course private classes can be tailored to the students wishes as long as they include Nav and Deep. We always recommend Night be one of the chosen adventure dives.

 

[harleyrider18]

Thank you all again for your advice! I just returned from my vacation and I passed with flying colors! I am officially a PADI AOW DIVER! I completed the dives with DRESSEL DIVERS in punta cana. The sea was pretty rough but it added to the adventure. The highlight of the trip was an excursion to Saona Island. A totally different environment, I saw all kinds of life. The water was crystal clear and the visibility was 100+ feet. Now I can plan my next trip and do some wreck diving!

 

[NYCNaiad]

I did Fish ID, Drift Diving, Night Diving, Enriched Air Diver (aka Nitrox), & Underwater Naturalist. I picked ones that I thought I benefit the most from, ones I found interesting &, in one case, something to make me feel safer. I have to say that Nitrox has been very helpful, Night Diving made me feeler safer & made it then easier for me to go diving at night for the first time, Underwater Naturalist helped me to notice so much more cool stuff underwater and Drift Diving made me a pro during my dives in Cozumel.

 

[Fatterboy]

If you haven't done a night ocean dive, I would recommend it. It wasn't one of ours (my wife and I), but it was an excellent adventure. Lots of different things at night.

 

[Mustard Dave]

I did Fish ID, Drift Diving, Night Diving, Enriched Air Diver (aka Nitrox), & Underwater Naturalist. I picked ones that I thought I benefit the most from, ones I found interesting &, in one case, something to make me feel safer. I have to say that Nitrox has been very helpful, Night Diving made me feeler safer & made it then easier for me to go diving at night for the first time, Underwater Naturalist helped me to notice so much more cool stuff underwater and Drift Diving made me a pro during my dives in Cozumel.

I'm not sure why nitrox would be a benefit? Did you just do an 'adventurer dive' on nitrox or did you do the full nitrox course in addition to the AOW? The reason I do not see the point in a nitrox adventure dive is it does not teach you any skills in the water and does not qualify you to obtain nitrox fills.