What AOW courses did you find the most helpful?

[love2godeep]

I'm thinking seriously about getting my AOW, and now I see I have to make some choices.

Which of the elective courses did you find the most useful? I think I should take Peak Performance Buoyancy, but that still leaves two electives.

I'd really appreciate your input.

Thanks!

 

[XJae]

I think the ppb is a good advanced elective.

I'm a big fan of night dives.

If you ever plan on doing any, advanced would be a good place to start.
IMO, it should have been left as a core requirement dive.

 

[nkw5]

When I took AOW, I took the night dive elective. I (like XJAE) think it should've remained a core requirement. Night diving is fabulous, and I understand now why some people like it even better than day diving. It was really hard for me to decide to do a night dive, but even the first one was very enjoyable.

And if you haven't done any boat diving, I'd recommend that.

 

[ABQdiver]

Since I'm SSI, they don't have PPB. However, buoyancy control is "THE" best thing to have under control. I thought night and navigation were very helpful.

 

[in_cavediver]

I'm thinking seriously about getting my AOW, and now I see I have to make some choices.

Which of the elective courses did you find the most useful? I think I should take Peak Performance Buoyancy, but that still leaves two electives.

I'd really appreciate your input.

Thanks!

Find a really good instructor and take the peak preformance bouyancy equivalent for SSI. U/W navigation if it's not required would be good replacement/supplement.

Mike

 

[verona]

Which of the elective courses did you find the most useful?
Thanks!

I did PPB, Wreck and Drift. Choose them because they most suited the diving I hoped to be doing. I had already done a night dive so didn't do that but it would be a good one to do if you are interested in trying night diving. I'd suggest you think about the type of diving you're most likely to be doing and pick the ones that will give you the most. In my view, some are better than others for enhancing your dive skills.

 

[ScubaRon]

I found Search and Recovery to be the one where I learned the most. The fact that I was able to drop an item in 30' of water, swim around the lake and then locate and recover it in a few minutes still impresses me after 15 years.

 

[NickR]

I did the night dive, search and recovery and underwater naturalist on my AOW. The night dive was one of the most relaxing dives I have ever been on and not at all scary (for me anyway). The SAR was really good fun, learning how to find an old anchor and use a lift bag to get it to the surface. The underwater naturalist wasn't really a dive were we learnt anything, but it gave our instructor a chance to see what our in water skills were like - it was our first dive on the course - before doing the night and deep dives.

When you do your navigation dive - pay attention. I am amazed how many divers I meet now who are AOW and way more experienced than I am, but they have no idea how to use a compass underwater. You will learn about different methods to judge distances underwater, and combining those with compass skills mean that you can navigate squares and triangular patterns underwater.

I wasn't given the choice of doing PPB, but I would have taken it if I could.

Whatever electives you pick, enjoy the class.

 

[Diver0001]

I'm thinking seriously about getting my AOW, and now I see I have to make some choices.

Which of the elective courses did you find the most useful? I think I should take Peak Performance Buoyancy, but that still leaves two electives.

I'd really appreciate your input.

Thanks!

When I took AOW they did a very thorough job of navigation. I use that every time I get in the water.....

I also really enjoyed the night dives.

R..

 

[grazie42]

Navigation is key, IMO you shouldn´t dive unless you know how to navigate...
To me that´s like trying to drive a car to a distant city without knowing its name or location...

just my 2 cents...