What do you think about Advanced Open Water Diver Certification?

[TRM]

The reason I ask is because I currently don't have mine. I have 50+ dives in 7 months of diving. I was asking someone if they wanted to dive with me this week, he could not, but was going to send a student of his to me that I could dive with. To clarify, he is an dive instructor. We talked about where I had just dove resently and he ask me if I had my Advanced Cert, I told him no.

He refused to send me a dive student to dive with me as I was diving above my certification like I broke the law. I have done some deep dives, a few open wreck dives, the Cenotes in Cancun, and some shore diving which is considered Advanced.

A friend who has 30 dives and was Certified with me did her Advanced Cert when she had 10 dives, we are both about the same when it comes to diving. I can't see that doing 5 advanced dives out of 17 different possible types of dives you can do make you an advanced diver in any one dive type. It is sort of like being OW cert after 4 dives, that is not sufficient to make you a diver, not even close.

I guess some Instructors believe in instruction only, vs. experience, experience and then instruction and learning.

I am very safe and love to dive, I just felt offended by this incident and wanted to get some feedback?

 

[Scuba Cat Diving]

The instructor was right in saying you are diving beyond your certification.
When we book divers on our trips we look at the certification level, number of dives and most recent dive, we do not allow open water divers past 18m, this is because that is their training level AND also the level their insurance covers them to. You are only insured up to the certification depth.
It is not meant as offensive when you are kept to certification level, just practical and following guidelines. We have refused some open water divers who have more than 100 dives to go on deep shipwrecks and they understand our position and have agreed to sit out the dive.

It is true what you say in some open water divers have more experience than advanced divers, BUT they have gone through further training on navigation, deep diving and other types of diving both in theory and practice.

It is not about only believing in instruction not experience, it is ideally having both, but to gain experience you have to experience different types of diving and this is best done under supervision, with the correct information being given about that type of diving, such as in the advanced course.

 

[DevonDiver]

What is experience, without training?

Or training, without experience?

You need both, to be effective. Hence, a deficit was illustrated to you..

 

[Kilili]

What did you expect? Certification is, at least, a rough indicator of accomplishment. Not the best indicator, but better than nothing.
The claimed "experience" of an unknown diver is an indicator of nothing at all, except, perhaps, foolishness.
As for being a "very safe" diver, perhaps you are, or maybe you are simply deluding yourself. Without proper training, what is your guideline for such?

 

[Searcaigh]

Well I did not have my AOW until well over 100 dives, but at that point in my dive career I was logging roughly 5+ dives per week due to my location.

I am sure that if you live next to the sea you can probably do your AOW over a weekend, then it's done, and you might be surprised at what additional information you can pick up during the course too.

 

[DCBC]

[h=2]What do you think about Advanced Open Water Diver Certification? [/h]...I guess some Instructors believe in instruction only, vs. experience, experience and then instruction and learning. ...I just felt offended by this incident and wanted to get some feedback?

The value of any certification is the depth and breadth of the course completed. This will vary largely from agency to agency and instructor to instructor. The level of certification held can be an indicator, but today it just doesn't cut much weight with me. Personally, I review the log book. This gives me a better understanding of a person's experience than simply taking it carte blanche from a certification card. If the instructor is truly responsible (imo), he will review the log if s/he is considering your real readiness for a challenging dive. Simply put, a card that may be 15 years old doesn't say anything positive to me, unless it's backed-up by recent experience. I've dove with instructors which I wouldn't even certify as open water divers, but that's another issue...

 

[Rogersea]

This issue has been discussed several times recently,

recap: There is no universal law which states AOW is required for dives deeper than ......

Many folks/businesses use certification levels as an "easy way" to assess readiness to conduct a particular dive.

There are some very good divers who have never taken a course let alone an AOW Course, but in this day and age it is easy and relatively cheap to take the course which essentially punches the ticket to help ensure you are not denied access to some of the more challenging dives or in your case to a potential dive buddy...

I highly recommend joining a dive club (if you have access to one in your local area), this will obviously help with the dive buddy search...

Finally, depending on the exact wording the instructor you spoke with used, I would try not to feel too offended. He is just repeating what he believes to be fact...

Bottom Line I believe in a good combination of experience and training.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[AfterDark]

IMO the AWO is targeted directly at someone like you. Seven months 50 dives you will get something out of it and it is worth your time and money.
I started a thread when I took AOW to satisfiy the cert nazis at dive charters, I had 40 years of diving experience and over 1900 dives. I got nothing out of it at all. I could have taught if I had teaching skills. So take it from an old bold diver, go for it now don't wait or you'll wind up paying $300.00 for a course you could sleep thru and pass.

Nitrox same thing, could've read for 1/2 hour and got the same results.

 

[ajduplessis]

You don't know what you don't know. Simple as that. Training will help close some of these gaps, the instructor and practice should close the rest. Knowledge is a powerful thing.

 

[windapp]

this is because that is their training level AND also the level their insurance covers them to. You are only insured up to the certification depth.

What dive insurance requires aow to pay out if you have an accident at 100 ft? I believe dive operator insurance may have these clauses, but I haven't seen a personal policy with this.