I did my Nitrox with PADI about a year after my OW.
I haven’t quite decided yet but right now I’m leaning towards getting the SDI AOW since it’s basically free. I’m still open to doing the GUE AOW later down the road.
Has anyone here taken another agencies AOW and GUE’s Rec 2/AOW? I would be interested in hearing about the experience and what they think about the quality of training.
Taking AOW with SDI or PADI won't make you a worse diver, but it might not make you much better either. I took AOW after fundies, and it was basically just doing a few dives with an instructor. It was nice to have an instructor present the first time I went to 30m/100ft, and the dives were a nice experience, but not tremendously helpful in terms of improving my skills.
I haven't taken REC2 personally, but from talking to divers that have, and instructors teaching the class combined with my experience of GUE classes I expect this class to be much better in terms of teaching you to be a better diver, with all the elements of teamwork, task loading, awareness,buoyancy, trim and fin techniques - on top of the navigation and rescue skills.
So, if you want to take AOW for fun, or to expand your depth limit with an instructor, go ahead. It won't hurt. But definitely try GUE performance diver, and if you like it, consider the REC2 class anyway.
Edit:
REC2 is the only class I regret not taking. The gap from Fundies rec pass to Tech1 and Cave1 is substantial, and while I did manage to get there, it required a lot of training dives and good training partners/mentors. I'm sure it would have been a smoother progression that could have filled some of the gaps I felt I had, if I could have taken REC2 at some point.
