What gear were you required to buy for AOW
- Thread starter Wheeler925
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
?? in what world ?
most diver who do the advance have very little dive in between their qualification. it’s fine by my book; it means they want someone to help them learn faster rather than slugging through tirel and error. It doesn’t replace experience, but i do hope it helps them. Asking this guys to buy equipment they know not much about before the course is a money grab imo.
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
There are a lot of people from all over the world responding to this thread. Not all locations have the same customs and practices when it comes to owning vs renting or borrowing or even having the class provide it for free. Here in the US nothing is free. Many places even make OW students buy all their own gear before the class starts, or ends.
The way I see it, if you’re going to dive locally and do a lot of diving then buy your stuff and learn to use it well. If you’re a vacation only diver and only plan to rent gear where ever you go, then insist on renting for the class. If they don’t want to do that then find another shop that will.
The way I see it, if you’re going to dive locally and do a lot of diving then buy your stuff and learn to use it well. If you’re a vacation only diver and only plan to rent gear where ever you go, then insist on renting for the class. If they don’t want to do that then find another shop that will.
Although not ever "required"......when I taught any con-ed past OW......I so strongly pushed the importance of having a cutting tool (knife, EMT SHears, Trilobite, etc) that I think the students considered it an "implied" requirement.
pauldw
Contributor
If you don't dive on clear, light, open reefs, you'll need a compass for going in straight lines, and knowing which way is back, in low visibility waters. Thankfully, your dive computer will have one.
If you want to see what's in crevices and whatnot when you're diving, you'll want a light.
If you want to see what's in crevices and whatnot when you're diving, you'll want a light.
I did not require students to buy gear.
They were responsible for providing everything except the primary reel we used, lift bags, and the stage bottle and reg.
I didn't care where they got it. I had suggestions for rental options.
I didn't rent anything to them except the stage bottles and regs. Those I did because I had enough of them.
They were given a list of gear they should have. Up to them to find it.
That said, 99% of the people who took con-ed from me had their gear. They had already proven to be serious about diving, and most even had their own cylinders.
I did not put on a class designed to get someone a card they could show to an op to get on a boat.
I was told by more than one student that my AOW was more like an intro to tech on steroids.
We used my 2nd book as the primary text with the agency materials as a supplement.
I had minimum skill requirements to even start the class. And it was possible to fail it.
No one did. But it sometimes involved extra sessions in open water and the pool. Attached is the outline for the course I taught.
They were responsible for providing everything except the primary reel we used, lift bags, and the stage bottle and reg.
I didn't care where they got it. I had suggestions for rental options.
I didn't rent anything to them except the stage bottles and regs. Those I did because I had enough of them.
They were given a list of gear they should have. Up to them to find it.
That said, 99% of the people who took con-ed from me had their gear. They had already proven to be serious about diving, and most even had their own cylinders.
I did not put on a class designed to get someone a card they could show to an op to get on a boat.
I was told by more than one student that my AOW was more like an intro to tech on steroids.
We used my 2nd book as the primary text with the agency materials as a supplement.
I had minimum skill requirements to even start the class. And it was possible to fail it.
No one did. But it sometimes involved extra sessions in open water and the pool. Attached is the outline for the course I taught.
Still Kicking
Contributor
Wow - excellent class, Jim.
Can i ask what you charged and if you charged additional if students needed extra sessions?
Scubagermany
Contributor
That's your opinion. And based on that I would not have accepted you as a student to begin with.
For my students, it was. The people coming to me were mostly going to be diving the Great Lakes or North Atlantic or had plans to go into cave or wreck tech diving.
Therefore, using a stage bottle was needed.
I had zero interest in those who wanted a card just so they could get on a boat in the Keys for certain dives.
I turned away a few people who wanted a cert for that. They were not worth my time.
My AOW class was $475 per person for two people. And I never took more than two at a time.
Most were private one-on-one classes, and the cost was $650.
That's just for tuition, the books, and the certification card.
Did not include quarry entry, boat fees, gas, etc.
The site I used was a 4 to 5-hour drive one way, and that meant an overnight was always needed. So I priced to cover the money I needed to shell out for food and a hotel.
With private students I often would split a room to save them some cash.
If we needed an extra day for skills, then I could do that closer to home, and the charge for the extra day would be 125-200 depending on how long we needed to work and how many dives.
This is why I had minimum skill requirements to start the course.
If a person's buoyancy and trim were crap, they would not pass the course in two days. I wasn't remediating what should have been basic Open Water skills.
They needed a solid foundation to learn new skills and techniques.
People that took my class showed up in single cylinders, doubles, and even sidemount that they had "learned" or in which they had gotten a card from other instructors.
One class I had was a NAUI Instructor and his DM. They took my class after hearing from students coming to them for classes I did not offer and seeing their skills. They wanted to know what I was doing and how they could incorporate it into their classes. They were from another state, so they were not competing with me, and I was happy to show them what I was doing.
I gave them a break on cost because they fronted my room and meals. And I didn't have to work as hard;=).
They weren't the only instructors I had for students for things like AOW, UW Nav, and I had a PADI instructor who was teaching scuba at a university take my Basic Open Water class so she could learn how to teach neutral and horizontal from the first pool session.
Similar threads
