What do you think about Advanced Open Water Diver Certification?

[fire_diver]

AOW is a useless course from 99% of instructors. The only reason anyone "needs" an AOW card is to be allowed to go on certain dives from dive charters because they require it and it's a case of "thier boat, thier rules".

If you have a good instructor, AOW can shorten the learning curve to becoming a more rounded diver, but you can learn everything yourself just from diving. Frankly, any shop that acted all high and mighty about you not having AOW would be a shop I never set foot in again.

Lastly, you didn't violate your training. Your OW card says you are ready to plan and execute dives up to 130 foot.

 

[HowardE]

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?

For anyone who doesn't have the experience... Training of any kind can offer the tools to put in your toolbox as a diver.

PADI's Advanced Open Water offers you the chance to taste 5 different specialty courses with adventure dives, to open your eyes to these topics. (Really, there are 3 elective topics and 2 required topics).

You the diver can choose which specialties you want to taste. If you find them enlightening, you can pursue additional training in that field, or maybe that's all you need to have the tools to dive those kinds of dives.

If you're just taking AOW to get a card, and are already an experienced boat diver, and do the boat diving adventure dive, then you will probably learn nothing, but you can get a card and then you have it... If you are interested in Wreck diving, and do the wreck adventure dive, then you CAN learn something, and ultimately, your AOW card will have more meaning to you.

Like anything... education is what you make of it. Get tools in your toolbox, so that you CAN use those tools.

 

[spectrum]

TRM,

First off I am reading that this "student" is a certified diver, not one in the midst of OW training.

With all you have done in ~50 dives you have not said enough about your technical understanding in lieu of class work to inspire confidence. You could be an adrenaline junkie or splendidly mentored and way beyond most AOW card holders, there's no way of knowing.

I'm suspecting the instructor suspects the former and is keeping distance between you and the student.

For the record I agree that AOW is a very low bar to clear and represents a very shallow body of knowledge but it is a baseline when done to standards.

Pete

 

[KeithTheSnake]

I was suffering some anxiety whether or not to take my AOW just last week, but now I've decided that I really long for the training at this point from another good instructor. I'll have an opportunity to try different kinds of dives that I otherwise wouldn't. It gets me involved with my local dive shop and other local divers. That's good enough for me. I personally don't much care whether I have further credential, as I'm of the belief that experience matters as much as credential. I've seen AOW divers that I don't consider particularly skilled or experienced, but then maybe they know something that I don't know and I just haven't had the opportunity to see what they know.

One concern that I have, though, is whether I should continue on with PADI. I've read some threads that cause concern. Looking back these many years, my PADI instructor was really top drawer. I guess it really goes instructor by instructor, not really the organization.

 

[DiveMaven]

IMO Rescue should be a required class for every diver, and you can't take rescue without AOW. Also, there are some worthwhile specialties in AOW such as: peak performance bouyancy, nitrox, digital photographer (if you're interested in taking pictures), Emergency O2 provider, equipment specialist, to name a few. Of course whether or not the courses are really valuable depends on the instructor.

 

[fire_diver]

I was suffering some anxiety whether or not to take my AOW just last week, but now I've decided that I really long for the training at this point. I'll have an opportunity to try different kinds of dives that I otherwise wouldn't. That's good enough for me.

One concern that I have, though, is whether I should continue on with PADI. I've read some threads that cause concern. Looking back these many years, my PADI instructor was really top drawer. I guess it really goes instructor by instructor, not really the organization.

Yes, find instructors who excel at teaching the courses you want to learn. The agency on the card means very little. Over time you will probably wind up with many agency's cards in your wallet.

 

[Insta-Gator]

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?

I totally agree. Experience far exceeds 'card count' in my opinion. I can't believe an instructor would blindly consider hooking up a 'student' with someone he didn't know, regardless of cert. AOW is a great re-enforcing tool for OW, but doesn't prove anything. I've seen some divers with certs that I considered beyond their knowledge/skill or at least beyond their common sense. A cert card is not a license to be a hot dog, know-it-all.

 

[faze]

You should avoid like the proverbial plague any insurance that seeks to limit cover based on certification. You get that with a typical family travel insurance.

These policies usually do not include certain essentials like search and rescue cover, low flight repatriation, etc. My dive insurance is based on my logged dives (another nod to those who have "given" up logging dives) and not my certification.

As for the AOW - to me it's more about encouraging divers to keep diving, the introduction of a little bit of task loading and - most importantly - it allowed my daughter to return to a dive centre four months after her OW as a "student" again which gave her a huge amount of confidence walking through the door.

 

[spectrum]

IMO Rescue should be a required class for every diver, and you can't take rescue without AOW. Also, there are some worthwhile specialties in AOW such as: peak performance bouyancy, nitrox, digital photographer (if you're interested in taking pictures), Emergency O2 provider, equipment specialist, to name a few. Of course whether or not the courses are really valuable depends on the instructor.

NAUI and I believe 1 other agency offer rescue diver irrespective of AOW. I agree, it's the rest of OW and is a must have course. If a diver wants to stop there then fine but go that far.

Be sure to do your homework and find a class that will do active in water emergency scenarios. Don't assume that the marathon events you read about on ScubaBoard are a given.

Pete

---------- Post Merged at 10:05 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:04 AM ----------

One concern that I have, though, is whether I should continue on with PADI. I've read some threads that cause concern. Looking back these many years, my PADI instructor was really top drawer. I guess it really goes instructor by instructor, not really the organization.

Find one that will challenge you regardless of agency.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I don't need to see an AOW card before offering rescue to a diver. IMO a rescue course would be better for the OP given the information he has so far. In fact my own belief is that rescue before AOW is a better route in general. I have had students that had zero interest in deep or night/low viz dives. These are two of the three required dives for SEI. But they were still going to dive as buddies and with others in various locations. To deny them a rescue class because they did not have AOW would have been stupid and possibly dangerous as they increased their limits of places and conditions.

All I need to offer someone a rescue class is an OW card and 10 dives post cert. Frankly I'd recommend if the OP came to me to do rescue, get another 10 or 15 dives in, and then take a good AOW class. One that will challenge him and impart real new skills that would be valuable on "advanced dives". If he's already been to 100 ft he doesn't need to go there for the sake of going there. He needs to go there and do some real task loaded skills and some detailed info on planning dives like that. Including emergency deco procedures and gas management. If he is already finding his way out and back with some skills and confidence then he needs to have an AOW that will take those skills to the next level. Maybe one that says ok you can do a square, triangle, etc.. Here's a multileg with 4 course changes and on the last you need to use this reel and natural features.

In a perfect world my ideal student would do the following path:

Basic Open Water
10 -15 dives
Underwater Navigation
10 -15 dives
Rescue
10 - 15 dives
A kick ass AOW
25 - 50 dives then decide on a direction or new specialty like deep or wreck. Or if they wanted to get into say UW photo do that with an instructor that actually sells photos, and it doesn't have to be a photographer that is also a scuba instructor.

If they want to get into DM or Instructor after the 50 dives after AOW then they should get some level of tech training and do a few tech dives.

Then start DM.