Recommendations for AOW electives

[*Floater*]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I'm going to Puerto Galera this weekend to check things out and do a few dives, and then I'll go there again with my girlfriend for a 5 day dive trip. I'm in Manila now, so Puerto Galera is fairly easy to reach from here and it's the cheap, which is good for taking courses.

For the AOW, I was looking at the courses from this site - I've used them before and I like the shop because they are well priced and the instructors are Scandinavians (I don't trust the locals, no offense to resident Philippinos here). The equipment is fairly run down though.

I'll talk to them before I decide whether to go with them, or even do the AOW, but from the site it appears to me that "Depth" and "Navigation" are the two required courses, but the you can elect to do "Underwater Navigation" and "Deep Diver," which I presume go beyond the similarly named required courses.

I'll talk to the the guys there to find out if they are skilled UW photographers. If yes, then maybe it's worth the course. I'll also mention the courses people here liked to get an idea of what areas this diveshop has the most to offer in.

 

[TheYellowSubmarine]

"If you only want to dive off tables, multilevel diver might be good. If you plan on using a computer, not much point."

No offense but who taught you to rely on your computer when you are diving? As far as i know no agency teaches this, you should always plan your dives on top of using the computer

No one *taught* me to rely on my computer. I've never even seen 'the wheel' around here, but I'm not diving off padi's tables for my rec diving when I know my computer takes into account multilevel diving.
A lot of the dives I do is pinnacles and such where we go to the bottom then start a slow accent for the rest of the dive going around the pinnacle, so I'm not diving a square profile. Even 'the wheel' would be overly conservative unless I entered a ridiculous number of levels. Most of my other dives are sites that I haven't been to before, where the depth of the site ranges quite a bit. I don't know what I want to look at or where I want to go till I get down there, so making a plan for these dives is close to impossible anyway. If my computer ever gives out, I'll go up, do my safety stop and cut the dive short. I have a backup timing device and my buddy, and I keep an eye on my depth and time throughout the dive too, so I can check on my tables if I have to. These are all no-deco dives. When I start doing technical diving, I'm going to be much more careful with a strict dive plan, using v-planner, making sure I only do these technical dives with buddies who have dived the site before.

 

[verybaddiver]

Floater, as far as i'm aware the is no such thing as a 'navigation' or a 'depth' dive, these would be the 'underwater navigation' and 'deep' dives. so you will do those two and three others.

TheYellowSubmarine,

As mentioned in so many places, COMPUTER CAN AND DO FAIL!
http://www.baue.org/library/bakerscomputers.html

Now don't get me wrong, i have absolutely no quarms of you diving the way you do, and i'm happy for you to continue this way, probably incredibly safely. What i do request though is not giving advice such as "If you only want to dive off tables, multilevel diver might be good. If you plan on using a computer, not much point." Simply put there is a point for learning to plan your dives!! I for one like to know a little behind the model that my computer is showing me and not to rely solely on blinded belief!

 

[alcina]

I'll talk to them before I decide whether to go with them, or even do the AOW, but from the site it appears to me that "Depth" and "Navigation" are the two required courses, but the you can elect to do "Underwater Navigation" and "Deep Diver," which I presume go beyond the similarly named required courses.
.

Underwater Navigation, Navigation, navigation Diver - the same module of the AOW
Depth, Deep, Deep Diver - again, the same module of the AOW
Just different names/references/slang.
Both of these are required for PADI AOW. There are three more dives (electives) to do for a total of five dives in the AOW certification process.

-Drift is great fun...and a good module should also teach you how to shoot a sausage from depth

The Advanced Course is NOT designed to go in depth in any of these areas - rather it's a sampler platter to introduce you to some different techniques, environments, skills, knowledge etc. In the AOW modules you will simply skim the surface of the chosen dives types.

 

[garyfotodiver]

Let's see now... I am taking an SSI AOW course this summer. I have my 24 required dives, and have already logged deep, night, boat, wreck, drift, shore, navigation, and cold water dives. I took the SSI Stress & Rescue course last summer.

So what specialty courses ame I taking? Things that I don't know much about.
1. Equipment. Among other things, my instructor is going to teach me how to rebuild my regulator.
2. Computer. I think it's about time I got a better understanding of them, and perhaps even purchase one.
3. Nitrox. I may bring my daughter to this one.

Classes with this instructor are always a lot of fun.

 

[tachyon]

As mentioned in so many places, COMPUTER CAN AND DO FAIL!
http://www.baue.org/library/bakerscomputers.html

Now don't get me wrong, i have absolutely no quarms of you diving the way you do, and i'm happy for you to continue this way, probably incredibly safely. What i do request though is not giving advice such as "If you only want to dive off tables, multilevel diver might be good. If you plan on using a computer, not much point." Simply put there is a point for learning to plan your dives!! I for one like to know a little behind the model that my computer is showing me and not to rely solely on blinded belief!

Dive computers are excellent tools, but like a calculator, you should know the process behind the machine so you're not totally dependent on it. As to the link, I found the reasoning on most of the points muddy or intentionally misleading; but then I saw the author and realized that that was to be expected. When you're allowed to use nothing but a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail...

Dive computers are a good fit for the majority of divers. Your specific diving type may not be appropriate for a recreational dive computer, just like a wreck reel, doubles and an 85 pound lift wing isn't appropriate for almost all beginners. Putting a new diver in a rig appropriate for a deep wreck dive isn't going to help them at all, and is likely to drive them away from the sport.

I've never had a dive computer fail on me. Since I don't believe in 'luck', I ascribe that to taking care of my equipment, diving within the profile that I use the computer to plan (Yes, computers do have a planning mode... As much of a shock as that may be to you). I too have seen dive computers fail, but all but one were due to user error, and the one that wasn't was a pressure transducer failure which was detected on the surface. I've personnally seen more depth gauges and dive watches fail than computers, so based on my experience, I could say that analog instruments are prone to failure, use a computer which is more reliable...

I have no qualms about you diving the way you do, you're probably a very safe diver, what I do request is that you stop your bashing of equipment that doesn't conform to your religion's template*.

Tachyon

(*My apologies if you're not a DIR Disciple(tm), but your choice of people to quote tends to point in that direction)

 

[Fishlips_1]

As far as the courses go, if you decide later to take a specialty course in one of the fields you've already started in AOW. You will already have the first of those classes done. As Alcina said, it is a sampler, where if you try something you like, it credits you for the trial run. Kinda cool.
All the courses are beneficial, it's just which ones interest you the most.
Dive safe,
Lips

 

[tachyon]

On the topic of the thread, it occurs to me that you might ask your instructor and some of the folks in your LDS what the most common elective dives are. Every area is different, and what is most appropriate to one area may not be in another.

Photography or REEF Fish ID probably won't be very useful if all your local diving is in quarries; and Night (Limited Visibility) diving could be very useful even if you never go in the water after dark. If the water near you is very cold, Dry Suit diving might be the ticket. Boat Diving is always useful if you'll be diving from boats from time to time.

And if you have a good instructor, Peak Performance Bouyancy can be a great class and improve your diving immensely.

Remember, though, that you're not going to be taking all of these classes for your Advanced Open Water Certification card, you'll just be doing some academic work and then doing a dive to demonstrate that you have the skills to do that type of dive safely.

The best piece of advice anyone can give you on the Advanced Open Water course is to relax and enjoy yourself. This is about increasing your knowledge and experience. If collecting cards is you bag, then that's just an added bonus.

Tachyon

 

[Fishlips_1]

What? I get another card? I'm in! how many different cards are there? LOL

 

[verybaddiver]

Ahem, i posted a website i had easy to hand, I'm sure if i looked a little harder i could find other posts of deaths resulting from computer failure (on none dir sites) ok this is a old link, but is on njscuba (a pretty anti-dir site)
(ok its on njscuba, and its got a bandwidth restrictor )
again the fact computers let you saw tooth and all manner of ill-advised things.

Anyways my main point is you shouldn't solely rely on a computer!!!!