Should I take an AOW course while on a liveaboard?

[under water]

Hi,
My wife & I are heading out to the Coral Sea with Mike Ball near the end of the year. 14 dives probable in 4 days. We have about 100 dives each so far.. warm & cold water.
I was wondering if taking the AOW course while on the trip would enhance the experience or take away from it. Do you think we will miss out on stuff if we were .. say doing a navigation dive?
For what it's worth I am doing this because I would like to proceed towards Rescue and I am pretty sure we have a handle on most of the course material already. Done plenty of night dives, plenty of dives by ourselves using compass and terrain for navigation, own all the fish books and DVDs, been below 60 more than a few times, already equipped with extra safety equip, dove from a boat before.. (can't believe that one is a course), usually dive with a camera, Nitrox & Dry suit certified, etc
And I spend too much time on Scubaboard.

So, should we sign up for AOW while on the boat?
Love to hear your opinions.

 

[300bar]

IMO by al means do,...BUT don't let the "boatdive" be one of the optional dives.

edit: you already found out that one.

 

[Teamcasa]

If I was spending huge money for a live aboard trip, I sure would not want to spend the time doing any class (in or out of the water) time. As for enhancing the experience to have AOW before you go, It sure couldn’t hurt. Many charters have strict (and sometimes unreasonable) restrictions they employ depending on the certification level.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I'd not take a course while on a liveaboard, I'd prefer to just enjoy the dives without worries. I really enjoy liveaboard vacations, it's dive, dive, dive without having to lug stuff and I enjoy the help of the staff. Just my humble opinion, but when I do a training class that's all I want to concentrate on.

 

[under water]

If I was spending huge money for a live aboard trip, I sure would not want to spend the time doing any class (in or out of the water) time. ..

Yeh.. but..

• 4-5 dives a day = 6 hrs
• meals = 3 hrs
• sleep = 6 hrs .. maybe 8
• playing with the pictures I took during the day = 3 hrs

that leaves 4+ hours for more socializing and/or learning stuff.. (I have actually already read all the course material)
I like learning stuff.
I was wondering if those folks who did it (took AOW on a liveaboard) found it as an incremental experience or did it cut into your diving enjoyment?

 

[scubadobadoo]

I think it's the perfect time to take an aow course. AOW is probably the least time intensive and you will likely be doing all the things you would learn in an aow class anyway while on your liveaboard at your current level so what's the big deal about doing it under some supervision for a few of the 2000 dives you will be doing on this trip. Have fun!

Practicing buoyancy, deep dives, navigating, taking pics, drifting, etc...your gonna do all these any way. Now if you wanted to take rescue during vacation I would say so. That's a bit more time restrictive.

 

[Rudebob]

I ended up doing my AOW on a liveabord trip. But I decided to do it the day we set sail after meeting the instructor, whom I liked, and mainly because I found out that I would be the only student. The price was good and to have personal instruction for 5 dives was a great opportunity to really focus on skills that would not have been available had there been more students.

The bookwork was kind of a pain as I spent quite a bit of time alone trying to focus when I would rather be socializing with other divers. However, I usually worked on it when the boat was motoring between dive sites-time I may likely have spent reading anyway. Because I did 19 dives that week I didn't really feel like I was shortchanging myself by compromising the available dives. Actually, I would much rather have done it this way than say over a weekend dive trip where my total dive count may only be 6 - 7 dives in the first place. In the past it was these types of trips that kept me from getting my AOW in the first place. I did not want to give up all my diving for instruction.

In short I would say go for it. Definately, have all your bookworked finished ahead of time if you have the opportunity.

mg

 

[Diver Lori]

I'd say no, but I'm only speaking from my own experience. I took AOW while on Blackbeard's and found it very "watered-down" (pun intended!:blinking compared to the AOW class I now teach as an instructor, and the class also taught by my DM mentor.

 

[Stu S.]

I'd like that personal instruction for five days.

Can you get a feel for who your classmates might be? The pace of the class is set by the slowest student. I've seen folks in AOW classes that should have been in SCUBA Refresher class.

If the other students have abilities similar to yours, all of you could have a good time and learn. If you are in with a slow-poke group, it might become tedious and "anti-vacation".

Good luck,

Stu.

 

[Coelacanth]

Just finished my AOW on a liveaboard, although it was in the markedly less exotic Channel Islands, which is only a 6 hour drive for me, as opposed to going to a different country. If it was somewhere farther away and therefore more expensive, I'm not sure I would want to allow losing any dives to practicing skills for an instructor.

But overall I had fun on the AOW dives and they are relatively short and (except for the deep dive) shallow, so they shouldn't take up too much of your time.