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Can the AOW course include Nitrox? Or does that have to be a stand a lone cert?
That is true, just doing the dives as part of the Advanced Adventure would not qualify you to do a nitrox dive after the course. Although, as long as all of the Nitrox theory was covered, and the diver passed the exam and then showed they could analyse and mark up the gas, they would have met all the requirements for the nitrox course and so you could issue an Advanced Adventure and a Nitrox certification. So for a very small amount of additional theory they could get 2 certifications providing a very useful combination.To emphasize what @wetb4igetinthewater said, you could have a nitrox dive in SDI's Advanced Adventure course (which is the equivalent to PADI's AOW), but having that dive would not qualify you to do a nitrox dive after the course. The same is true for PADI.