SCUBA shop that will issue be an AOW card after a few days diving?

[Angelo Farina]

FWIW course went exactly as I expected. Just a PADI shakedown scam. Did a couple days of decent diving but I’m going to be honest, AOW teaches exactly zero useful skills. Can’t wait for the Super Advanced Open Water card we all have to pay 400 bucks for in ten years to keep diving. Without your Turtle Identification speciality, your Introduction to Bowline Knot speciality, or your Converting Between Metric and Imperial Units speciality you will be SOL.

That’s my opinion, feel free to your own. Decent dives so I’m not mad but I think it’s a PADI money grab scam YMMV. Sue me.

As I wrote, both my sons did AOW on a LOB in Cairns just after having been certified OW here in Italy.
I think AOW is simply the second, more practical part of the first diving course, as taught by Cmas, Bsac and other no-profit organisations. Padi divided it in two parts, issuing two cards, for grabbing more money.
It is actually quite useful for a novice: after OW only, one is not really an autonomous diver.
Doing AOW after years of experience, instead, is substantially useless, as you have found.
But you needed the card...

 

[happy-diver]

People breaking the ice ask if I've seen the hefty price of petrol, I say I don't care as I don't have to go anywhere

 

[scm007]

they should just change the course and make it more intensive to certify people so they can dive anywhere imo. Maybe NAUI does this.

 

[Allen-1]

Video (not sure if the original) here:

Scuba Diver Encounters The Elusive Brown Water Snake

“What has been seen cannot be unseen, what has been learned cannot be unknown. You cannot change the past, but you can learn from it. You can grow from it. You can be made stronger. You can use that strength to change your life, to change your future.” - C.A. Woolf​

 

[Still Kicking]

Nm

 

[Ez E]

they should just change the course and make it more intensive to certify people so they can dive anywhere imo. Maybe NAUI does this.

Ill be taking the NAUI AOW course next year. I would imagine its similar to PADI but wont know till I take it and report back.

 

[divezonescuba]

FWIW course went exactly as I expected. Just a PADI shakedown scam. Did a couple days of decent diving but I’m going to be honest, AOW teaches exactly zero useful skills. Can’t wait for the Super Advanced Open Water card we all have to pay 400 bucks for in ten years to keep diving. Without your Turtle Identification speciality, your Introduction to Bowline Knot speciality, or your Converting Between Metric and Imperial Units speciality you will be SOL.

That’s my opinion, feel free to your own. Decent dives so I’m not mad but I think it’s a PADI money grab scam YMMV. Sue me.

I have seen both ends of the spectrum in AOW course execution. The expectation is that the AOW certified diver is proficient. However, that is not necessarily the case.

There are a few limiting factors such a site conditions, visibility, etc., however the primary factor of the quality of the training is the instructor. If the instructor has you do or you insist on the lamest of the optional dives, your instruction is going to be lame. For example, you should have more practical knowledge from a properly conducted search and recovery dive than fish identification.

I have noticed as we started getting into technical diving, that we started incorporating many of those concepts in our advanced course. So, I think that the level of knowledge of the instructor also has something to do with the quality of the instruction.

 

[Edward3c]

If you really want to be an Advanced Diver take this Course. However, the entry level is EN 14153-3/ISO 24801-3 - 'Dive Leader'.

 

[Blackcrusader]

FWIW course went exactly as I expected. Just a PADI shakedown scam. Did a couple days of decent diving but I’m going to be honest, AOW teaches exactly zero useful skills. Can’t wait for the Super Advanced Open Water card we all have to pay 400 bucks for in ten years to keep diving. Without your Turtle Identification speciality, your Introduction to Bowline Knot speciality, or your Converting Between Metric and Imperial Units speciality you will be SOL.

That’s my opinion, feel free to your own. Decent dives so I’m not mad but I think it’s a PADI money grab scam YMMV. Sue me.

Of course it went as you expected. You came with a fixed mindset before you took the course. That's OK.

Your 200 dives in 20 years... well sfa really. Except covid years I was doing 200 - 250 dives a year. On a 10 diving day vacation of 30 dives last 6 dives of 30 to go.

Dive shops can have any policy they like. A wreck dive to 35m in Panglao Bohol I don't know one PADI op that requires anything other than AOW. Not even deep dive certificate. After all recreational depth for OW is 40m but PADI recommend you don't go beyond training or experience. Who decides what experience one has? Chatting with dive op owner today.. I ask which of your guides or instructors has the Deep certification? He thinks and replies dang none of them even he doesn't have one. We have a laugh. Yet we can go on a "deep dive"

Nitrox for you next maybe?

 

[Outbound]

FWIW course went exactly as I expected. Just a PADI shakedown scam. Did a couple days of decent diving but I’m going to be honest, AOW teaches exactly zero useful skills. Can’t wait for the Super Advanced Open Water card we all have to pay 400 bucks for in ten years to keep diving. Without your Turtle Identification speciality, your Introduction to Bowline Knot speciality, or your Converting Between Metric and Imperial Units speciality you will be SOL.

That’s my opinion, feel free to your own. Decent dives so I’m not mad but I think it’s a PADI money grab scam YMMV. Sue me.

I think you missed the several posts above that explicitly stated you didn't have to take your AOW through PADI. But if you had gone with SSI, NAUI, etc. you wouldn't get to complain about PADI. So at least you got that out of it.