Question AOW

[Alvin Slovinsky]

Yeah I thought we already went down this road.. I swear there's been an echo around here lately, LOL.

OP, do the drysuit during AOW. Both classes are "try me" or "experience" dives, they're not "I'll be perfect when I'm done this class" ... and Advanced shouldn't really be in the title. I personally had 9 dives and AOW... do you think I was advanced anything? I was just with less spending $$, lol.. I'm still not advanced anything.

After either, both, or neither class you'll still need practice.. hell we all do.

It’s about gaining knowledge and experience along the way and networking with others that can share their past experiences with new divers that’s how many learn. I will never be an expert but if I can gain the knowledge to be a safer diver that’s all I can ask for and will allow me to enjoying diving even more.

 

[Alvin Slovinsky]

You’re worrying at the issue like a dog with a bone. Take the class.

I probably over think things at times thats why I ask questions from others that have already done both these skills. We learn from each other. Thank you

 

[Lorenzoid]

I would appreciate some advice from other divers I’m taking my Advanced open water course this spring. As one of the speciality courses I can use a Drysuit but I’m not certified in one yet, I have talked to the Instructor who said if I get pool time beforehand and know the emergency procedures I can use it for the 5 dives.

The PADI AOW course involves five "specialty" dives, two of which are required--a Navigation dive and a Deep dive, if I understand correctly--and three of which may be of your choosing from among the PADI specialty dives, such as Night diving, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Enriched Air Nitrox, the ever-ridiculed Fish ID, etc. The idea is to give the student a taste of different kinds of diving, in the safety of an instructor's tutelage. If I also understand correctly, your instructor said that of those three elective dives you could choose Drysuit diving. If that's correct, then my recommendation is to DO IT. The AOW dives are not intended to be challenging/difficult but rather mainly to give you a taste of a variety of things--"it's like a sampler platter," says PADI's webpage (see link above). I see no reason why you can't get a taste of drysuit diving while you're getting a taste of the others. It isn't as though the course is asking you to perform difficult skills while in a drysuit. You won't be "task-loaded," as we say. In AOW you're not going to be asked, for example, to repeat the more difficult skills you learned in the OW course, like donating a regulator to an out-of-air buddy, while in the drysuit. Choose Drysuit and Peak Performance Buoyancy as two of your elective dives and you should be in a good position.

All of us who took our basic scuba courses in a wetsuit and have since then, through continual practice, gotten pretty good at doing all the required basic skills in a wetsuit will need to re-learn to do those same skills in a drysuit if we want to get just as good at doing them. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say everything is more difficult to do in a drysuit than a wetsuit. But for now, if what I said above about my understanding of the AOW course is correct, I see no reason not to take it in a drysuit.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

It’s about gaining knowledge and experience along the way and networking with others that can share their past experiences with new divers that’s how many learn. I will never be an expert but if I can gain the knowledge to be a safer diver that’s all I can ask for and will allow me to enjoying diving even more.

From 1 to 10 the skills you're looking for are maybe a 2... on a bad day.. you're reading way too much into all this.

Both AOW and ds could be learned in a pool in an afternoon.. they just aren't worth that much. It's what you do on your own time after the class that makes a difference (same as OW)...

Which when you really think about it, how did divers manage to learn back in the day without all these certs? Makes one wonder.. did they just try it until they got the hang of it? I just couldn't imagine such a thing!!

 

[AfterDark]

From 1 to 10 the skills you're looking for are maybe a 2... on a bad day.. you're reading way too much into all this.

Both AOW and ds could be learned in a pool in an afternoon.. they just aren't worth that much. It's what you do on your own time after the class that makes a difference (same as OW)...

Which when you really think about it how did divers manage to learn back in the day without all these certs? Makes one wonder.. did they just try it until they got the hang of it? I just couldn't imagine such a thing!!

As long as one understands Boyel's Law and Archimède's Principle, it's just a matter of a little OJT.

 

[Centrals]

Include the dry suit as one of the three selected dive in AOW.

 

[Alvin Slovinsky]

The PADI AOW course involves five "specialty" dives, two of which are required--a Navigation dive and a Deep dive, if I understand correctly--and three of which may be of your choosing from among the PADI specialty dives, such as Night diving, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Enriched Air Nitrox, the ever-ridiculed Fish ID, etc. The idea is to give the student a taste of different kinds of diving, in the safety of an instructor's tutelage. If I also understand correctly, your instructor said that of those three elective dives you could choose Drysuit diving. If that's correct, then my recommendation is to DO IT. The AOW dives are not intended to be challenging/difficult but rather mainly to give you a taste of a variety of things--"it's like a sampler platter," says PADI's webpage (see link above). I see no reason why you can't get a taste of drysuit diving while you're getting a taste of the others. It isn't as though the course is asking you to perform difficult skills while in a drysuit. You won't be "task-loaded," as we say. In AOW you're not going to be asked, for example, to repeat the more difficult skills you learned in the OW course, like donating a regulator to an out-of-air buddy, while in the drysuit. Choose Drysuit and Peak Performance Buoyancy as two of your elective dives and you should be in a good position.

All of us who took our basic scuba courses in a wetsuit and have since then, through continual practice, gotten pretty good at doing all the required basic skills in a wetsuit will need to re-learn to do those same skills in a drysuit if we want to get just as good at doing them. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say everything is more difficult to do in a drysuit than a wetsuit. But for now, if what I said above about my understanding of the AOW course is correct, I see no reason not to take it in a drysuit.

Thank you for your opinion in this matter I believe it’s a learning curve that’s why we take courses to better ourselves.

Include the dry suit as one of the three selected dive in AOW.

Thank you for your opinion I’m probably over thinking it.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Thank you for your opinion I’m probably way, way, way, way, way over thinking it.

There, fixed!... now go have fun and dive a ds and stop worrying!

 

[Lorenzoid]

There, fixed!... now go have fun and dive a ds and stop worrying!

Rather, go have fun and dive a drysuit in your AOW course, and then come back to SB and start worrying again If you have a tendency to over-think things, you're in good company.

 

[rick00001967]

if you do a couple of pool sessions with someone to help you, you should easily be able to sort out your weighting and trim.
if for some reason you are not comfortable, then you can always decide to do it wet.
i would argue (depending how cold the water actually is) that diving wet may be more of a problem than the drysuit would ever be.