Recommendations on which AOW adventure dives to take

[Stu S.]

Night Diving.

 

[dwhthediver]

When I did my advanced, I did wreck, nght, and photography, in hindsight at the time I did it, should have done PPB, but now as an instructor, I stiil enjoy teaching the 3 I did, and I add some bouyancy skills to photography, as it is critical to getting good pics. I love teaching S&R and tell students it is a good precursor to rescue. Multilevel is good, but what you choose depends on your comfort level with some of your skills, and what specialities do feel like learning more about. Just remember, diving is supposed to be fun, and the electives you take make sure you have fun while learning the skills involved.

 

[ligersandtions]

OK, I do go beyond the actual standards because I do a pool dive in addition to the OW dive. Here is the minimum that is required for the PPB OW dive:

1. You are supposed to work on proper weighting and especially the proper distribution of weight to achieve good trim.

2. You are supposed to work on proper visualization and breathing patterns to affect buoyancy and graceful movement.

3. Make a controlled descent using the BCD inflator to maintain buoyancy and reach neutral buoyancy.

4. Hover motionless for at least one minute.

5. Swim horizontally with proper trim and without disturbing the bottom. (This can be a giveaway, but the way I do it requires the diver to stay very close to the bottom (nothing fragile) without disturbing it. This really requires good trim and kicking technique.

6. Make depth adjustments using breath control. This, too, can be a giveaway for some instructors, but I make it a focus. I make the divers descend into an area using only breath, hold their positions with trim, and then ascend back to the starting point.

7. Demonstrate efficient fin kicks. (This can be a course in itself.)

8. Navigate an obstacle course without touching obstacles. (That would probably be your hoops.)

9. Adjust weights (trim) and practice hovering in different positions--vertical, horizontal, feet elevated, and head elevated.​

For search and recovery, you are supposed to learn a variety of search techniques, some of which use a compass. It thus becomes an extension and practice of the navigation dive. You do need to do two searches, one of an area about 2,500 square feet and the second of an area about 10,000 square feet. You should use two different search methods. You have to demonstrate tying three knots while underwater (bowline, two half hitches, and sheet bend). You have to lift an object of no more than 25 pounds negatively buoyant.

Thanks so much for that info!

For those of you thinking about or planning to take your AOW class, I would strongly suggest talking to your instructor before and seeing what kind of standards he/she'll e using to measure your performance. What was outlined above is fantatic....and if you can learn all of that in your AOW dive, you will be much better off. It's very nice to be able to learn from an instructor and get instant feedback....otherwise, you'll end up having to ask other divers (hopefully more experienced than you) what you can do to improve, and while it can work to do it that way, you may get bad feedback if your mentor/buddy/whoever is not as experienced as you think....

 

[Cairns]

The night dive was the best out of all of them. A kelp forest at night is just awesome.

 

[AndrewA]

I did Deep, Navigation (I actually did the full Navigation Speciality),Boat,Wreck and Night. These were my Instructors recomendations based on local situation. I think that having a formal introduction to boat diving is useful in order to learn how to behave on boats and not inconvenience other divers.

 

[Delta74]

having just done my Aow not long ago, we did PPB first day, followed by Nav then night the second, then deep and wreck on the third, day two were the same site for both so we had an idea what was around us. these choices were the shops choices as to dive sites near by and truth be told i enjoyed all but the deep, gota work on the SAC rates.

Best advise I can offer is if you have an interest in any of the specialties try to do those as one of the 4 adventure dives to start you off, on the other hand if you want quick and easy pick the easiest courses, otherwise choose ones to challenge you and will let you actually learn something.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[PrISM]

So I might be ignorant here, but why take the PPB on one of your AOW dives when you can take the full class?

 

[Delta74]

well Prism i guess it would all depend on what the diver is after, their goals, and most of all their current skill set, if the person still bouncing around all over in the water maybe a full course is right for that person, and they will need the full 4 dives to at least hover somewhere, on the other hand maybe the diver is not bad at there buoyancy but a little extra work would help them out, learn a few new tricks, kicks whatever, and would stop the diver from silting up the wreck your diving on for your other dive, and should the diver say Hey i want to take the rest of the PPB they have 1 dive down already and only need to take 3 more adventure dives lowering there cost, and helping to justify the AOW course that felt a lot like a guided tour to me.

 

[boulderjohn]

So I might be ignorant here, but why take the PPB on one of your AOW dives when you can take the full class?

The same thing is true for all the potential dives. You can also take the full class and have your AOW dive be a part of it.

 

[PrISM]

The same thing is true for all the potential dives. You can also take the full class and have your AOW dive be a part of it.

But aren't the other dives (cave, wreck, night, etc...) designed to give people an introduction to help them decide if they'd be interested in pursuing those kinds of things further? I thought the point of PPB was to improve overall diving skill. Again, I'm brand new so I'm just trying to understand this.