What AOW courses did you find the most helpful?

[pt40fathoms]

Deep is a requirement in the PADI AOW course, the following are what most people ask for and is very useful. Likewise the order they are conducted in is important, as one skill works as a building block for the next one. If it is at all possible, ask the instructor to follow a similar order, if they are not already doing so. Many instructors will have adopted this, or a similar order of instruction already because it just makes sense.

Peak Performance Buoyancy: An obvious choice. This is key to completing the other skills, and is the one skill that needs the most practice by most new divers.

Navigation: Obviously it is a key skill. You need to know where you are, where you are going, and how to get back. It is also needed most in the next set of skills.

Night: The most fun dive of the AOW, and one you will always remember. You may think you know a dive site, but when the sun goes down, it's a whole new world! Watch your compass, and keep track of your distance traveled. When you surface be honest with yourself and see if you really did know where you were the whole time.

Deep: This is a required element, and when done right it is a real eye opener.

Search and Recovery: A practical skill that really helps build confidence. In this module you will surprise yourself at just how hard finding something under water can be. As well as how easy it can be if you are organized and have a workable plan suited to the terrain and environment.

Have Fun and Dive Safe

 

[simbrooks]

Deep: This is a required element, and when done right it is a real eye opener.
Have Fun and Dive Safe

To be an eye opener, what kind of things do you (as instructor) put into this dive to get it done right?

 

[pt40fathoms]

To be an eye opener, what kind of things do you (as instructor) put into this dive to get it done right?

It's really not very hard to make it interesting. We follow the guidelines set out by PADI, but we take our time and have a very conservative student to instructor/divemaster ratio.

It's important to have a DM or AI (Assistant Instructor) along when 2 or more students are going deep. We keep the ratio at 2:1 throughout for the deep dives, simply because of the added risks involved. If we have 5 students we will have an instructor and 2 Dive Masters along. We also make sure that the math problem is not too easy, having the student timed while solving the problem before the dive. Then a similar problem at depth is solved and timed. The discussion and debriefing afterwards as to what was felt, how they felt, and how well the student felt their though process were effected, is important in realizing how narcosis can affect a diver without them knowing.

Quite often the difference between a good instructional dive and one that can be improved upon, is merely how well the students are prepped just prior to the dive, and how well the debriefing is conducted. Once under the water what happens is really very routine, and is that way for safety reasons. Most students don’t realize what has happened until they surface and begin to talk about it. That’s why the debriefing is so very important, it makes them think about the dive and it’s then that they realize what happened. That’s when most have the eye opening experience, although some can come to that point while under the water.

So don’t be afraid to ask questions, and be sure to have fun.

 

[Scubaguy62]

Navigation: Obviously it is a key skill. You need to know where you are, where you are going, and how to get back. It is also needed most in the next set of skills.

Advanced navigation, or as PADI calls it, "underwater navigator" is also a requirement.
http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/rec/continue/aow.asp

Semper Safe,

Rick

 

[simbrooks]

PT40fathoms,

i was wondering if you did it any different to the others to give the eye opening experience and gave anything more than what i had heard about these courses from others instructors. I understand the relevance of the narcosis testing/proving to the student. I think your order of diving adventures is a good one too. We are getting the PPB out of the way before the AOW starts, i think the nav s&r and night ones are going to be our first set and then deep and wreck last on the second day.

 

[hantzu701]

I think the PADI AOW courses give you a framework to continue your dive education. Dive and dive often.

It's been said before, but I'll say it again. Get a good instructor. How do you know what a good instructor is? Interview him/her. Ask him/her questions about the kind of diving he does, how often he goes diving, and what classes that he teaches. For example, I had an instructor who said he had over 5000 dives in 17 years of teaching. I was impressed until I learned that the bulk of his dives are certification dives which are 30 minutes at 30ft.

At the risk of drawing some fire, I think that some PADI best practices - such as head up, fin down ascents/descents can cause some problems. In the Midwest, the fin down descent kicks up so much silt (in quarries), that AOW students can descend into the bottom because they can't see the bottom. I can understand why this practice might be more comfortable for the diver, but I think a horizontal descent is safer.

I'd also like to emphasis basic skills, such as good buddy skills are just as important as underwater navigation or peak buoyancy skills.

 

[verona]

We follow the guidelines set out by PADI,

PT - what is the minimum depth for the deep dive in PADI guidelines? I thought the deep dive was meant to be to around 30m but I was speaking with someone who only went to 22m. This was something to do with the conditions on the day and maybe understandable in that context but I think there is quite a difference between 22m and 30m, particularly the potential degree of narcosis. Also pyschologically and for confidence building. My AOW deep dive registered 29.9m on my computer!

 

[mania]

PT - what is the minimum depth for the deep dive in PADI guidelines?

It's 40m. In fact I did a bit more but was having fun and doing all maths without any problem (and my education is literature -nothing to do with math)
Mania

 

[paolov]

AOW courses most usefull would be

Navigation
Deep dive
Search and recovery
night diving

 

[NickR]

Get your instructor to show take an empty 2 litre plastic bottle down on the deep dive. It's fascinating seeing it squashed at depth and then "normal" at the surface.

We also did a timed puzzle, which was tricky enough at the surface and even harder at depth - I think this might be a requirement for the course.

Our instructor also had us breathe off the spare tank at the safety stop just for the practice of doing it not because we needed to. It's a good practice to be able to change regs mid water without sitting on the bottom.

BTW, we went down to 32m (105') on that particular dive.

Take it easy,
NickR