Signed up to AOW!

[Arete]

I just signed up to do AOW. I was going to do it with the uni dive safety officer, but our personalities aren't a good mix. I mostly dive with a DM at uni who I get on well with and had limited contact with the DSO until I asked to do the course with him...

I simply don't like his way of talking down to students and discounting anything I had to say (e.g. he said that when he asked my air he wanted to see my guage, not just a hand signal. I then got out my spg/computer and said ok, well this is what it looks like, just so you know. He refused to look at it and said "I know what an SPG looks like" - I decided that's not the attitude I wanted in an instructor).

As such I signed up with a local shop. After reading about how useless AOW usually seems to be as a course, I was impressed when I found this course offered at a local shop: 10 dives, He's allowing me to include nitrox as one of my 4 specialties, $500 AUD (about $375 USD). Got my first night dive on Wednesday.

This is what they had to say on their website:

"Our divers are qualified in 4 specialties upon completion unlike common advanced courses which only offer a try out dive from 4 or 5 specialty courses.- Upon completion of our program the diver will have far superior skills and knowledge compared to other advanced courses.- Beware of trainers who promote becoming an advanced diver immediately following the beginner course, this is simply ridiculous."


I'm excited. Now to blow some cash on a slate, compass and torch...

 

[Mark_J]

AOW is not a useless course, it is an introduction to many different facets of diving and is much more effective at helping people find aspects of diving that really appeal to them. Not sure 'Advanced' is the best name for it but it is certainly a helpful course to take.

It sounds like you found a good match to your expectations and I wish you all the best in continuing your diving education!

 

[Felon_Monk]

That sounds real nice.. but maybe im reading too much into it but i have 2 questions:
1. is this padi, im only asking because the second question may be null because other certifying companies have different rules.

2. Do they mean you actually get 4 specialties. I can see deep, 4 deep dives and you get a specialty but then you only have 6 dives left. and for AOW(padi at least) i know you gotta do 5 dives which in include a night and nav dive. that leaves 4 dives.. Now they have Nitrox so thats 2 specialties with 4 dives left.. how do you get 2 more specialites with only 4 dives left? Just a question because i dont understand how they are doing this with out double dipping each dive which i thought was against the rules. Im curious.

 

[all4scuba05]

I for one was not required by TDI to complete dives for the Nitrox Cert. Doesn't that allow him to use those 4 for the other specialty?

 

[Scububbs]

That sounds real nice.. but maybe im reading too much into it but i have 2 questions:
1. is this padi, im only asking because the second question may be null because other certifying companies have different rules.

2. Do they mean you actually get 4 specialties. I can see deep, 4 deep dives and you get a specialty but then you only have 6 dives left. and for AOW(padi at least) i know you gotta do 5 dives which in include a night and nav dive. that leaves 4 dives.. Now they have Nitrox so thats 2 specialties with 4 dives left.. how do you get 2 more specialites with only 4 dives left? Just a question because i dont understand how they are doing this with out double dipping each dive which i thought was against the rules. Im curious.

I'm curious about that also. If this is PADI, which it certainly sounds like, than I don't think he will be getting actual specialty cards out of the deal, he would need more dives. But, AOW is only 5 dives in itself, and PADI has now eliminated the two dives previously required for Nitrox, so who knows.
The "double dipping" isn't allowed by PADI, but we have a local shop affilliated with SSI that does do that on occasion.

 

[Arete]

The agency is SSI.

"The available specialties are: Navigation, Boat/Deeper diving, Night Diving, Marine Identification, Nitrox, Digital Photography, Wreck Diving, Waves Tides and Currents.

On completion of any 4 of the above specialties and having logged a minimum of 24 dives the diver is awarded an Advanced certification (compare this to other agencies which offer advanced certification in only 9 dives and no rating in any specialties, only sample dives)"

I rang them up today to confirm the Night Dive for wednesday and asked about the whole "need 24 dives, paid for a course of 10" thing and he stated that the minimum requirement was 10 dives, but I was welcome to complete more dives with them for the inclusive price if I needed to. The difference was that equipment hire and boat fees were only included for the first 10.

That's fine, cause I have my own gear and am happy to get more experience, but on the other hand it is a bit misleading in that I probably will have to pay them more money in the long run to dive on their boat.

http://www.sydneydive.com.au/content/view/13/29/

 

[Felon_Monk]

That makes more since.. its basically still an advertisment hook.. but thats not bad at all. Good luck with your AOW course.. keep us posted.

 

[pwwm]

Just to clarify, above someone has stated you have to do a night dive for the AOW this is not the case and has been so for some time. The reason for this is that some countries do not have any "night" for part of the year.

If you look at what is required for AOW it says Deep and Navigation plus 3 other selected dives. Night is now optional.

pwwm

 

[Arete]

Did my first night dive last night, apart from a little bit of inital bearing loss, getting cold later in the dive and descending right on top of a Port Jackson shark, it was great.

There was heaps of small cuttlefish about the size of my thumbnail that were attracted to my torch, which would shoot off leaving a small puff of ink when touched with a fingertip, some stingarees a weedy sea dragon (those things look so much cooler under torchlight than during the day)...

Speaking of torches, I bought a small Princeton Tec 4 C cell torch thinking that it was inexpensive enough to warrant using it infrequently and if I decided to night dive more it would make a pretty solid backup light.

I was quite happy with the amount of light I had underwater, and noticed that even my fairly diminuative torch was scaring off a lot of marine life... Vis was about 6m and for general diving conditions around here not many people would bother getting in the water if it was less.

So I was wondering, for recreational purposes (I understand canister lights for tech diving - you generally aren't worried about scaring the fish off and more concerned with seeing I'm guessing) I might even like less illumination... or am I missing something? (like being sucked into marketing hype and spending more money to see less fish... )

 

[spectrum]

For catching sights in decent water less (light) is ofen more. I have that same PT light as my back-up and have had it on dives as my primary and it was enough.

Congratulations on your introduction to night diving, a favorite of mine.

Pete