Question on Form - How many logged dives since certified?

[boulderjohn]

i certainly don't unless it means that a wet-behind-the-ears holder of an AOW card gets to go on a dive that I cannot after 25+ years diving and 1000 dives. If there were a test out option for AOW like there is in many parts of academia I might do it, but I doubt there is much if anything in an AOW course that I haven't already figured out and/or experienced on my own. These days I do virtually all my diving around Cozumel with ops who know me and my skills/experience and will take me anywhere I want to go, so it really is a non-issue for me.

I did my AOW course with Dive with Martin about a quarter century ago. I did 3 shore dives from their shop on the beach next to what was then called the International Pier. I did two boat dives, including Columbia Deep for the deep dive. Later on, it occurred to me that by taking the AOW course and paying the standard fee for it, I paid roughly the same amount of money that I would have paid as a customer doing 5 dives.

I am sure someone like you does "virtually all my diving around Cozumel with ops who know me and my skills/experience and will take me anywhere I want to go" can easily make a similar arrangement with one of those ops who know you so well. You might need to do a shore dive for the navigation dive, but you can easily do the rest on normal boat dives for normal boat dive prices.

So you can get rid of that problem with very little effort and cost and be able to do those kinds of dives around the world with operators who don't know you and your experience level.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Something else to think about.

When I am in South Florida and doing a simple NDL dive to about 100 feet, the shop is crowded with customers signing waivers, paying for the dive, getting the gear they are renting, analyzing nitrox tanks, etc. The dive crew is setting up for the dive rapidly, doing a final cleaning of the boat, loading it with supplies, etc. The boat has 20 divers champing at the bit, ready to go. The staff are working as fast as they can.

Let's say you are the shop owner, and you want to make sure the divers meet the minimum requirements for that 100 foot dive. Screw the simple AOW card! So you will have staff members interview all 20 customers, one at a time, review their logbooks, and make a decision on each one as to whether or not they are qualified for the dive. How long do you think that will take? How much will it cost you for employee pay during that time? How many more staff will have to be hired?

Well sure, from a production standpoint, needing to get the cattle off the boat in a timely fashion makes sense. Time’s a wastin’
But just looking at AOW cards as a guarantee of competency is pretty weak. But it is what it is, better than nothing right?
However, I see it as one of the holes in the system.

If it was a dive to some triple diamond site in cold water, deep, walls, with limited vis and currents then just flashing an AOW card wouldn’t cut it, I’d need to see more than that.
But maybe in SoFla it’s different.

 

[ggunn]

I did my AOW course with Dive with Martin about a quarter century ago. I did 3 shore dives from their shop on the beach next to what was then called the International Pier. I did two boat dives, including Columbia Deep for the deep dive. Later on, it occurred to me that by taking the AOW course and paying the standard fee for it, I paid roughly the same amount of money that I would have paid as a customer doing 5 dives.

I am sure someone like you does "virtually all my diving around Cozumel with ops who know me and my skills/experience and will take me anywhere I want to go" can easily make a similar arrangement with one of those ops who know you so well. You might need to do a shore dive for the navigation dive, but you can easily do the rest on normal boat dives for normal boat dive prices.

So you can get rid of that problem with very little effort and cost and be able to do those kinds of dives around the world with operators who don't know you and your experience level.

Point taken, but for now it isn't a problem for me.

 

[boulderjohn]

If it was a dive to some triple diamond site in cold water, deep, walls, with limited vis and currents then just flashing an AOW card wouldn’t cut it, I’d need to see more than that.
But maybe in SoFla it’s different.

The closest thing to that in South Florida would be technical dives, and you need to show appropriate technical certification for those dives.

 

[Gene]

I worked at Frank's in the mid and late 80's ..He had 1 heck of a fill tank 10-12 whips that were quick release type ..The Fill tank had refrigerated water so when you took the tank out it was so cold it GAINED pressure just sitting around.... We used to chill our beer in there when filling tons of tanks at the end of the day .. Frank was always freaking that we had the "Banks" (submarine air tanks) at to high a pressure ..Just lucky the whole block never blew up ...

Frank's shop was classic Florida. He was a character as were his sons. Every time I drive by there now while visiting my aunt and uncle, I look over and think about going in there. I do the same thing while driving over the bridge and looking at Peanut. Thinking back to going there in the 70s and 80s on my grandparent's houseboat. Anchoring and staying there most of the day swimming and exploring Kennedy's bunker. Back when you had to sneak into the bunker, and it was a real kid adventure. We were/are blessed....

 

[Bazzathemammoth]

I don't feel I learned that much from my AOW course. Perhaps a little about scuba-compasses? There wasn't really a lot I didn't already know, or could have just looked up.

I'm sure there are plenty of other classes where I'd learn something, such as leading into more technical-dive courses.

Yea, at the end of my aow the instructor said “I hope you’ve learnt as much from me as I have from you”. The stuff that I was teaching her was from one of my other hobbies, but still it was a bit of a waste of time as a learning experience. I should have done it at ~20 dives imo

I did my AOW course with Dive with Martin about a quarter century ago. I did 3 shore dives from their shop on the beach next to what was then called the International Pier. I did two boat dives, including Columbia Deep for the deep dive. Later on, it occurred to me that by taking the AOW course and paying the standard fee for it, I paid roughly the same amount of money that I would have paid as a customer doing 5 dives.

I am sure someone like you does "virtually all my diving around Cozumel with ops who know me and my skills/experience and will take me anywhere I want to go" can easily make a similar arrangement with one of those ops who know you so well. You might need to do a shore dive for the navigation dive, but you can easily do the rest on normal boat dives for normal boat dive prices.

So you can get rid of that problem with very little effort and cost and be able to do those kinds of dives around the world with operators who don't know you and your experience level.

This. I was getting wet with gear on around other enthusiastic divers. Beats cleaning the house or watching Netflix.

It was a pretty good group too. Something about doing it in the middle of winter I reckon. You have to be enthusiastic to do that!

 

[boulderjohn]

In my 18 years on ScubaBoard, I think the following two opinions may be the most common:

1. You should not do AOW until you have accumulated enough total dives to make it meaningful.
2. AOW is really for beginning divers, and if you wait too long to take it, it will not be meaningful.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The closest thing to that in South Florida would be technical dives, and you need to show appropriate technical certification for those dives.

I would sure hope so!
I did TDI AN/DP deep air down to 150’. That was back in 2002 in Monterey, deep dark cold.
I could maybe show proper certification to the operator (depending on the depth) for those dives and lie about my technical experience, but I would never do that. It’s been too long since I’ve done any of those dives, and I didn’t even feel back then that my training was complete enough to build any confidence to do those types of dives safely.
I know better when it comes to something that critical.

 

[MR12111]

Frank's shop was classic Florida. He was a character as were his sons. Every time I drive by there now while visiting my aunt and uncle, I look over and think about going in there. I do the same thing while driving over the bridge and looking at Peanut. Thinking back to going there in the 70s and 80s on my grandparent's houseboat. Anchoring and staying there most of the day swimming and exploring Kennedy's bunker. Back when you had to sneak into the bunker, and it was a real kid adventure. We were/are blessed....

I kinda don't think their open any longer ..I live in Jupiter now and don't get down there much ... I was there when Frank was trying to get his Live Aboard Boat "Island Fantasy" going .. So we didn't see him much ... We called it "Dee's Fantasy" (Frank's Wife) and Real Boss .. the 1 kid had no interest and had a good job somewhere ... The other kid was banned from the shop before I worked there .."For some Reason"???

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

In my 18 years on ScubaBoard, I think the following two opinions may be the most common:

1. You should not do AOW until you have accumulated enough total dives to make it meaningful.
2. AOW is really for beginning divers, and if you wait too long to take it, it will not be meaningful.

I thought the two most common opinions in your 18 years here was that OW should include nitrox, rescue, PPB, deep, and AOW.
And the other is it should be free and instructors shouldn’t be paid.

I think people should get AOW out of the way right after OW so they CAN do something meaningful.