I totally disagree. DS is a good start in a pool, but needs depth and associated buoyancy-control issues you can't do in a pool. AOW must have Deep and Navigation, neither of which you even begin with in a pool. Not to mention Fish ID!
Question AOW
- Thread starter Alvin Slovinsky
- Start date
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Actually, it is the perfect time to do it. You will get more training and experience doing various other skills while using the drysuit and practicing its use all under the watchful eye of an instructor.
Maybe you should try the Novice (first level) REEF.org Fish test...and see if it is serious learning or just a joke and a merit badge? For those who are interested in the ocean and its life, Fish ID is an important 9and not easy, if taught well) offering. For those who view the ocean as a egocentric place to improve their own skills, perhaps not.And I forgot about the fishes... lord knows you need the fish ID merit badge
Personally I would not allow a student to take aow in a drysuit without the drysuit course or drysuit experience.
Drysuits have the potential to seriously injure a diver if they don't know what they are doing and at the same time task loaded with other things.
Pool or confined water is necessary for the introduction to a drysuit and the basic skills. You don't need more than 8 to 10 feet of depth to work on those skills including inflating and deflating the suit if you get creative with weighting.
There are those of us who teach aow courses that are absolutely not about an introduction to new dives but are about introducing a new set of skills that require a basic level of comfort in the gear the student will use.
Those new skills don't allow for learning how to use a drysuit for the first time.
In fact I can say the performance requirements for the aow card in some of our classes would be impossible for the vast majority of people trying a drysuit for the first time.
Drysuits have the potential to seriously injure a diver if they don't know what they are doing and at the same time task loaded with other things.
Pool or confined water is necessary for the introduction to a drysuit and the basic skills. You don't need more than 8 to 10 feet of depth to work on those skills including inflating and deflating the suit if you get creative with weighting.
There are those of us who teach aow courses that are absolutely not about an introduction to new dives but are about introducing a new set of skills that require a basic level of comfort in the gear the student will use.
Those new skills don't allow for learning how to use a drysuit for the first time.
In fact I can say the performance requirements for the aow card in some of our classes would be impossible for the vast majority of people trying a drysuit for the first time.
Maybe you should try the Novice (first level) REEF.org Fish test...and see if it is serious learning or just a joke and a merit badge? For those who are interested in the ocean and its life, Fish ID is an important 9and not easy, if taught well) offering. For those who view the ocean as a egocentric place to improve their own skills, perhaps not.
Now why would I try something that we both know I would fail?... and probably horribly
... I only use the term merit badge because I feel like the internet could teach me everything I ever wanted to know about the fishes. I don't personally do well in a class setting and I like to figure things out on my own.Obviously I'm just razzing you about the merit badges I get it. You're 100% correct, I don't know my fish... we were talking about DS's and AOW, both of which I don't think you need a cert. for. If someone could choose between 20 dives out of OW @ a benign dive site or AOW I think just about everyone would feel better hitting dive #20 then they would dive #5 in AOW. That's been my experience.
Just my 2 cents, I am by no means an expert on anything!! And my experience is for sure not the only way or even right for everyone.
Your classes have always sounded top notch,... but that's not the norm. We see it on SB all the time. AOW was merely 5 more measly dives with an instructor. I don't know of anyone I've met (which is somewhat limited) that got anything out of AOW. You (among others) are the exception, not the norm.
OP
Alvin Slovinsky
Contributor
I’m spending minimum of 2 hours in a deep pool to get some experience using it and practicing the emergency procedures and buoyancy. If I’m able to book more pool time I definitely will before doing my AOW course in June. I’m not intending on jumping into the lake and expect to know how to use fully that’s a learning curve I will get in time I’m looking forward to improving my skills and making my diving more enjoyable. Thank you so much for your response to my question it’s much appreciate.
I often teach AOW/Dry Suit in combination. Students can, with one more dive and a extra bucks get the dry suit certification if they so choose.
The dry suit course on its own is a minimum of 1 pool session (first) and 2 open water dives. I'll typically do 3 OW dives the first day with folks wanting both certifications: Dive 1 is the Dry Suit dive for AOW and also counts as the first OW dive for Dry Suit. Dive 2 is usually navigation. The only real complication the dry suit adds here is on your final ascent: Do you remember how and when to vent air from the suit? Dive 3 is the second dry suit dive and doesn't count toward AOW. I then go home and issue the Dry Suit certification.
The second day we do the deep dive first, then usually Search and Recovery. The deep dive adds a bit of complication with the dry suit: There is more air in your suit that has to be dumped on the ascent because you're coming up from depth. No different than dumping air from your BCD on an ascent in that respect, just a different way of dumping. Search and Recovery does add a lift bag exercise that requires a controlled ascent while controlling air in your BCD, your suit, and the lift bag. This sounds theoretically hard, but by the time my students have done 4 dives in a dry suit, this 5th dive is not problematic for them. The last dive is a night dive. We mostly go dive and play with seals that use our lights to hunt. (OK, there's a nav out and back involved, and altered techniques for night diving.) Again, by dive 6 the dry suit just isn't a problem for folks.
Now here are reasons NOT to do this:
1. It's more expensive. I'm all about saving money if you can. Maybe you'll never need the formal dry suit certification to do a tourist dive. (Does anybody know if, e.g., the folks in Scapa Flow require Dry Suit certification to rent a dry suit? )
2. You really haven't figured out buoyancy control with a BCD yet. In that case, you're really not ready to play with a dry suit. However, a pool session can usually figure out if you're ready or not.
3. It's making you nervous to the point it's a distraction. That makes the dive dangerous for everybody.
The dry suit course on its own is a minimum of 1 pool session (first) and 2 open water dives. I'll typically do 3 OW dives the first day with folks wanting both certifications: Dive 1 is the Dry Suit dive for AOW and also counts as the first OW dive for Dry Suit. Dive 2 is usually navigation. The only real complication the dry suit adds here is on your final ascent: Do you remember how and when to vent air from the suit? Dive 3 is the second dry suit dive and doesn't count toward AOW. I then go home and issue the Dry Suit certification.
The second day we do the deep dive first, then usually Search and Recovery. The deep dive adds a bit of complication with the dry suit: There is more air in your suit that has to be dumped on the ascent because you're coming up from depth. No different than dumping air from your BCD on an ascent in that respect, just a different way of dumping. Search and Recovery does add a lift bag exercise that requires a controlled ascent while controlling air in your BCD, your suit, and the lift bag. This sounds theoretically hard, but by the time my students have done 4 dives in a dry suit, this 5th dive is not problematic for them. The last dive is a night dive. We mostly go dive and play with seals that use our lights to hunt. (OK, there's a nav out and back involved, and altered techniques for night diving.) Again, by dive 6 the dry suit just isn't a problem for folks.
Now here are reasons NOT to do this:
1. It's more expensive. I'm all about saving money if you can. Maybe you'll never need the formal dry suit certification to do a tourist dive. (Does anybody know if, e.g., the folks in Scapa Flow require Dry Suit certification to rent a dry suit? )
2. You really haven't figured out buoyancy control with a BCD yet. In that case, you're really not ready to play with a dry suit. However, a pool session can usually figure out if you're ready or not.
3. It's making you nervous to the point it's a distraction. That makes the dive dangerous for everybody.
@rob.mwpropane
You think the drysuit cert is worthless? Try renting a drysuit without it. Won’t happen.
You think the drysuit cert is worthless? Try renting a drysuit without it. Won’t happen.
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