Should I Do My Advanced O/W?

[goodluck99]

I appologise if this question has already been answered.

Im new to diving and i've now logged 9 dives. I'm only jr. O/W certified; which means I can only dive to 12m/40ft and allot of the wrecks in England are at about 20m.

I want to upgrade my depth rating but not sure if I should do the advanced course with only 9 dives under my belt.

I feel comfotable in the water and as far as I know, everything seems fine with my diving. It' just the "advanced status" that i'm worried about.

Any opinions would be highly appreciated.:cool2:

 

[micklock]

I did my AOW right after my OW class, we did a deep dive (60'), night dive, nav dive, a search and recovery dive and a multi level dive.

 

[livewire]

I think you have nothing to fear by doing your Advanced. In Advanced there isn't a list of skills you have to perform to get the card, you simply dive more, and with purpose. The best part is that you'll get to experience diving deeper with the supervision and assistance of an instructor, so you'll be in great shape to continue your diving adventures to some of these wrecks you mention. I say go for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

[Winterpeg]

I am preparing for my AOW now (have done all the reading) and only have 17 logged dives. I found just the reading alone was of benefit. The trick is to understand that taking your AOW will not (in spite of the title of the course) make you an "Advanced" diver. Only experience will do that. Instead, think of it as "OW Part 2". Another way to think of it is "introduction to specialties", like night or wreck or altitude diving. You can use it as a way to find out what you really like and want to do more of. As the previous post said, the main benefit of AOW is that you get more varied experience under the supervision of an instructor. I would say, go for it!

 

[WVMike]

I appologise if this question has already been answered.

Im new to diving and i've now logged 9 dives. I'm only jr. O/W certified; which means I can only dive to 12m/40ft and allot of the wrecks in England are at about 20m.

I want to upgrade my depth rating but not sure if I should do the advanced course with only 9 dives under my belt.

I feel comfotable in the water and as far as I know, everything seems fine with my diving. It' just the "advanced status" that i'm worried about.

Any opinions would be highly appreciated.:cool2:

Get about 20 dives first, the more experience you have, the more you will get out of the course. Work on your bouyancy control and finning techniques. As others stated it is not really "advanced". But it is a chance to learn more skills under supervision.

 

[don Francisco]

It's probably best to take AOW fairly soon, but not immediately after completing OW. I always tell folks to wait for between 10 and 20 dives until they feel comfortable in the water, and have somewhat mastered the basic techniques such as bouyancy and trim.

You should feel ready to go the the next level and maybe discovered some gaps in your knowledge and have a few questions. From your post, it seems you might be about ready.

Don't worry about the "advanced" in the name, think of it as Dving-102, as a sequel to Dving-101 which was OW. You'll learn most of the same stuff, only fleshed out more completely, and be exposed to a few other situations such as night diving.

One reason to put off the AOW is to have enough experience to choose more wisely among the electives offered, and maximize the learning opportunity. The more you know going in the more you'll advance duting the course.

Lastly, if you're concerned that an AOW card might cause you to have more rigorous dives than you're ready for, don't be. Regardless of you training level, you can always opt out of dives you're not comfortable with. It's like skiing - there's no rule that olympic champions can't ski the bunny slopes if they want to.

 

[Colliam7]

Get about 20 dives first, the more experience you have, the more you will get out of the course.

I always tell folks to wait for between 10 and 20 dives until they feel comfortable in the water, and have somewhat mastered the basic techniques such as bouyancy and trim.

Very good advice. The advantage of AOW is getting additional, supervised diving experience, that begins to expand your limits. As several have said, don't worry about, or be misled by, the term 'Advanced'. Some like to call it 'Additional Open Water', and I think that is a good description. Now, for some, taking AOW is the best / only way for them to get in the water soon after finishing OW, and that alone is a reason to take it if necessary. But, if you can get a little experience, as Mike and Don have indicated, you will get more out of the course.

 

[ligersandtions]

I feel a little torn on this. I just finished my AOW on Saturday and I was absolutely appalled at the level of diving I saw there. Coming in with a bit less than 20 dives, I expected that I would be one of the people who needed more work on things like trim and buoyancy than the divers who had been diving for multiple years but never made it around to taking the AOW class....boy, was I wrong!

I felt that I got a lot out of the reading (the course material was worth the money as we only did five dives, but when I go on one of the dives covered in the AOW material in the future, I will familiarize myself with it by reading the chapter, if I haven't done so already), but the dives almost felt like a waste of time. On the deep dive, one of the divers panicked and we ended up calling the dive before we even started the task at depth. On all of the remaining dives, there were multiple divers who were essentially "walking" along the bottom with the tops of their fins because their buoyancy and trim were so bad. Visibility was reduced to zero on every single dive....

So would I recommend doing it when you have a bit more experience under your belt? Not necessarily....especially if all you're doing up to that point is ingraining bad habits. Unfortunately, if you're a fairly competent diver and get put into a group with people who have less than stellar air consumption and diving skills, you may be disappointed at that time as well. I don't know, I guess I'm am little bitter right now, and just hope that others have better experiences than I did.

However, I do not think that your skills are "not good enough", and if you think you'll get something out of the class, then you should definitely take it. But try not to be the person who silts everyone else out...

 

[Standingbear56]

Most AOW courses are designed to be taken as soon as you complete your OW course. As stated above, they build on the foundational skills and knowledge you acquired in you OW course. I personally do not like the name "Advanced Diver" as it gives the wrong impression. To me personally, to call someone an advanced diver they should have 100+ dives/dive hours under their weight system. The true meaning however is that you have taken training in addition to your OW course, hence the term "Advanced" That said, having some diving experience between courses never hurts anything, and adds to your experiences. Take your advanced course as soon as you can, but don't stop diving while you are waiting to take it.
Safe Diving,
George

 

[Cichlidgoob]

My wife and I got certified two weeks ago and we have 8 dives so far. We are primarily interested in wrecks but we are practicing in the quarries to get a level of comfort with the basics before our first ocean dive on the Indra next week. It seems to make more sense for us to take the deep and wreck specialty courses where we would actually learn something useful and get qualified to do what we truly desire. I'm sure some folks learn something in AOW class, but I see minimal benefits other than five more supervised dives.
"
So, what is your recommendation - the AOW class or the deep and wreck classes? "Both" is an option, but I don't see much benefit in the AOW class.