Should I Do My Advanced O/W?

[Prostar]

Hi everybody,
90% of you seem to be towards the idea of me taking my AOW soon; so I've booked on to a course next week, which by then I'll hve 11 dives. Thanks!

Good! Then mush on and get your Rescue Diver card. That one is well worth having.

 

[Bob Vincent]

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

I'd take it as soon as possible. The wording advanced is wrong maybe OWII is better. I agree with Standingbear ... The OW cert is your ticket to start learning how to be a good diver. It allows you to gain additional skills and time underwater with an Instructor to make sure your safe and don't learn any bad habits by yourself.

I hate to hear of a story like I heard here ... students in an advance class hitting the bottom with poor bouyancy skills ... and other problems ... I have to put the blame on their Instructor ... he didn't get them there ...

I might sound hard to you but an advanced diver to me is a Master Scuba Diver, and/or a divemaster. By this time you can expect a diver. We all want to be the best we can be ... right? So, take the class and keep diving as much as you can. Ever play sports? Why did we practice?

By the way, Hi ...

& Welcome to ...
:sblogo: ... :colours::colours:...

 

[Tigerman]

Being a good (rec) diver has nothing to do with certs, its got to do with attitude..

 

[ScubaSteve]

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

I cannot agree more. I am of the firm belief that the Advanced certification should not be allowed until the diver can display a level of competency. I know this is an open and unreachable goal because we would first need to define and be able to measure skills such as buoyancy and trim.

I took my advanced course around about dive #30 was appalled at the level of instruction on certain dives. The "Peak Performance Buoyancy" was an absolute joke. As one other poster has said, most of the people in my class were just as capable of maintaining neutral buoyancy as they were landing the spaceshuttle while intoxicated. And trim?? If that means how a diver is only able to maintain a horizontal appearance while speeding around in the water with their arms flailing around wildly, then they had it mastered. Does this seem like the person that you want to be buddied up with on a dive to 120'? They may not have been unsafe divers but they were not, sure as I am sitting here passing judgment, ADVANCED divers. Even after the classes and dives. The other courses, were OK but as with everything, I have learned a lot more since. They were the foundation.

The above description is exactly why I believe there should be a number of recent dives or hours underwater (not 30 years ago) before the next level can be obtained. It does not guarantee anything but would hopefully weed out some of the bottom scrubbers.

I view it as comparable to a surgeon skipping the whole pesky internship period and jumping straight to solo surgeries. I do not want to be on the table for that.

 

[Standingbear56]

Personally I would like to be able to combine OW, AOW (along with the full Specialties started in this course) and Rescue diver courses into one comprehensive course. Then I feel that they would be a good OW diver. If they want advanced, again IMHO their training should have at least Divemaster level diving knowledge and skills, along with a minimum of 100 dives/dive hours. Many would say that I'm preaching "Old School" but today's courses have taken the "Old School" course and broken them up into sub courses. I would just like to recombine them again.
Safe Diving,
George

 

[katdiver]

It could be said that it's trying to get holiday divers back into the water and giving them the courses in those "bite size" pieces that broke up your "old school" classes. That's all they can cope with when on vacation. Any time these guys are back in the water and brushing up on skills or "advancing" has to be a good thing. The committed divers will take all these courses in their stride as they move on to gain more experience and improve.