Wait to take advanced open water? Or not?

[seeker242]

So I'm a new diver and I am wanting to advance my skills more. I've mentioned to some people that I want to take the PADI AOW training to help do that.

Some people say "That's great, go for it!" Other people have said "No, don't do that. You really should wait until you have more experience to do that. Just dive more now and do that later" Essentially, they are saying "You're not really experienced enough to take more training classes"

But isn't the point of taking the classes to gain more experience to begin with? If I want to advance my skills then why should I not take more training classes? Why would I need to wait until later? It's not like I'm lacking in the skills I learned in open water. I can do them all just fine. Of course it's still appropriate to practice them to become better and better, but why wait to take more instruction?

 

[shmuggy]

It sounds like you really want to take the course but I would wait. With less than 100 dives the course will have less relevance to real life experience and will IMO be a more book learning than actual skill improvement. I think you will get more knowledge from the course if you wait. You are lucky you live where you can get a lot of experience right where you live- Florida diving is great and the dive community there is too.

Full disclosure- I would not get AOW at all but am finding I am going to be forced to if I want to go on some Liveaboards. But so far, I have not missed having it in over 20 years and 750 dives.

 

[tbone1004]

you have to look backwards from your end goal of diving to figure out what makes sense because that will determine the route that you take to go forward with both training and gear choices. AOW is a waste of money for most people actually wanting to learn how to dive better, it is a necessary evil that you have to give someone money for to allow you on most dive boats and as a whole, you will not actually learn anything new about diving by taking PADI's AOW through a normal shop, I can almost guarantee that.

Now, there are better ways to go about this but only you can determine what it is that you want to do with your diving and when you figure that out, you will have to go backwards from there. I.e. if you want to stay in backmount and have any interest in cave or technical diving, instead of AOW, I would recommend that you drive up to cave country and take Fundamentals with a GUE instructor. You only need the rec pass which for most counts as AOW for the boats, and is basically scuba boot camp. You will basically throw everything you learned in OW out the window except for inhale, exhale, repeat as necessary, and you will be an infinitely better diver after that. If you are interested in sidemount, then I would recommend doing basically the same thing except this time I'd recommend making the trek up to Marianna and get your butt whipped by Cave Adventurers in their OW Sidemount course.

Either of these options are significantly better money, though a bit more, spent than PADI AOW at a normal dive shop, and it would be better to do them sooner rather than later so you don't ingrain bad habits.

 

[Neilwood]

I am in a similar boat as a new diver and I decided to wait a while, get my gear squared away (so I am diving in what I will be in the future rather than rental gear) and then take it with a few more dives under my belt.

I am being careful in making sure I am not picking up bad habits though.

 

[tbone1004]

problem is you don't know what you don't know, and the bad habits that are inevitably created by short and non-intensive OW courses don't allow you to actually develop the good habits in the beginning. I.e. flutter kicking, using your hands, diving in head up trim, etc etc

 

[PaloPinto]

It certainly wouldn't hurt to get a few dives under your belt, you will become more comfortable and likely get more out of the class. If you see TEC/Cave in your future the as tbone mentioned GUE fundies would be a great alternative to PADI AOW.

You are lucky that you are in a part of the country with great diving and lots of good instructors.

 

[CptTightPants21]

you have to look backwards from your end goal of diving to figure out what makes sense because that will determine the route that you take to go forward with both training and gear choices. AOW is a waste of money for most people actually wanting to learn how to dive better, it is a necessary evil that you have to give someone money for to allow you on most dive boats and as a whole, you will not actually learn anything new about diving by taking PADI's AOW through a normal shop, I can almost guarantee that.

Now, there are better ways to go about this but only you can determine what it is that you want to do with your diving and when you figure that out, you will have to go backwards from there. I.e. if you want to stay in backmount and have any interest in cave or technical diving, instead of AOW, I would recommend that you drive up to cave country and take Fundamentals with a GUE instructor. You only need the rec pass which for most counts as AOW for the boats, and is basically scuba boot camp. You will basically throw everything you learned in OW out the window except for inhale, exhale, repeat as necessary, and you will be an infinitely better diver after that. If you are interested in sidemount, then I would recommend doing basically the same thing except this time I'd recommend making the trek up to Marianna and get your butt whipped by Cave Adventurers in their OW Sidemount course.

Either of these options are significantly better money, though a bit more, spent than PADI AOW at a normal dive shop, and it would be better to do them sooner rather than later so you don't ingrain bad habits.

My suggestion as well. I would recommend Doug Mudry in High Springs, he does a 5 day course instead of the normal 4. There are also some some GUE instructors out of Pompano, but I am not sure if they are full time residents or use it for training and travel a lot (Like Gideon Liew). Fundies will guarantee high quality instruction and teach you more about diving than 100 OW dives. You might be able to pass if all you are going for is a Rec pass, but I wouldn't take the class with an eye on passing and more as a concentrated 5 day learning experience.

As for people telling you to wait, there are certain classes where you should have strong fundamental dive skill (see where the name fundies comes from ) such as advanced nitrox/deco procedures, solo diving, etc, but PADI AOW generally isn't that type of class. I haven't seen you dive, how many dives do the people who are telling you to wait have and have they seen you dive? It may be that you don't have the control and skill that would make a class that involves shooting lift bags, running line, and doing navigation worthwhile (yet). A fundies class is fundamentally focused on buoyancy, trim, kicks, creating control in the water. There are a lot of class reports for Fundies--look for ones from Doug Mudry or Bob Sherwood to get a sense of what a fundies class is like.

 

[uncfnp]

If you want it, take it! Eric and I took our AOW with Jeff at the Force-e WPB location. Great class. We had about 12 post certification dives at that time. Learned a lot, discovered we still had a lot to learn and yet it was a great confidence builder. AOW is really just a continuation of OW so when you feel ready why not do it. I don't understand waiting until the class is just a review for you.

 

[KeithG]

There is no need to wait to take AOW. Per PADI, it is not an "advanced" course, it is a course designed to advance your basic skills. It is designed to be taken right after OW.

There are other more advanced courses that would benefit from (and require?) having more dive experience before you take them.

It will also give you the magic AOW ticky box that some dive operations desire.

 

[johnnya1966]

My wife and I did our OW and AOW all in the same summer and don't regret it. We will going on our first dive trip to Cozumel in a month, and if we had not taken the AOW course we would not be able to dive all there is too see in Cozumel. Take it when you want to...not when someone feels that you are ready. Only you know if you are ready for more challenging dives.