So, what is the point of AOW???

[jd950]

i too have been looking into getting the AOW only because here in southern california there are a few dive sites where the DM requires it such as diving the oil rigs and diving the drop offs. I kno that most of the time is is only required because the currents are way too strong and you need to be trained to handle them, or because u need excellent bouyancy control, like with the oil rigs where there is no sea floor for 300 ft.

Hmmm, I don't know how much AOW teaches one about currents. I suppose the drift diving component might help with the currents, but I doubt that riding the current is what you want to do at an oil rig? I would think buoyancy would be LESS critical if the sea bed is that deep and that buoyancy skills are more critical when you want to hover a couple feet above the fire coral or sea urchins, or stay still while getting that photo of something in a crevice in the wall, or while trying not to kill off a bunch of tiny creatures while going through a swim-through.

Maybe for the oil rigs the issue is depth? I suppose to the extent the oil rig becomes an artificial reef, the issues are similar to any other fragile environment. I don't know, as I have never dived an oil rig.

Since many people seem to immediately do AOW after OW and one can obtain the certification without ever putting a fin in seawater, it doesn't seem like it should mean much to a captain or dive master on a boat somewhere in the ocean, but it obviously does.

I have decided it is worth getting. With luck, one will get a good instructor and actually benefit from the class, but even if not, the card is worthwhile.

 

[TSandM]

You need buoyancy control and situational awareness when you are diving where there's effectively no bottom. If you tend to dive negative and fin up, it's easy to get deeper than you intend. Where you have a hard bottom, at least you can't get into any more trouble than that.

Currents in the oil rigs are a PITA, because you need to stay inside the structure, and you get banged off the sea life on the struts. But I don't know what somebody could teach you to deal with it better. There's no real place to get shelter from the current out there, and I don't believe those currents are tidal, or particularly predictable.

 

[jd950]

Thanks for the clarification. It doesn't sound like AOW would help him with the currents, just one of those things you have to learn or adjust to. I hadn't thought about the diving negative & finning up issue. Is that common? I mean, a reef is a hard bottom, but you don't want to touch it, and what if you want to just float a bit above some critter and watch it for a few minutes? Other than for some very limited applications, why would one want to dive negative and rely on finning?

Sometimes I will stay vertical for awhile along a wall and its kind of fun to be upright for a bit, and in that situation I can see that finning to maintain depth would be easier than when horizontal, but it still seems like a lot of unnecessary effort.

Am I missing something here?

You know, now that I think of it, I don't think I have ever been on a dive where there is no bottom visible (except at night). Maybe it is more difficult than I would think?

 

[Pearldiver07]

I had a dive op in Maui refuse me service once because I didn't have the right C-card.

When asked, I produced my YMCA AOW card. He said they didn't recognize that one. So I produced my NAUI Instructor's card. He said they didn't recognize that one either. I asked him what cards he did recognize, and he said only PADI cards.

We laughed all the way across the street ... where we signed up for a charter with his competitor ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

More proof that people exist at ALL points on the bell curve!

Was this person able to breathe without an instruction manual?