AOW does not certify you to deeper depths than OW. AOW trains for deeper depths.
OW is already certified to the recreational depth limit which is 130 feet or 40m
Dive shops and dive ops or guides can say they will limit any diver to depths. I've been on dives where the guides tell all the divers regardless of certification they do not want divers exceeding 100ft.
60ft for OW and 100ft for AOW only apply to the limits an instructor may take a student doing the course.
Navigation is good to do. Nitrox is a separate certification and there are OW divers who are nitrox certified. Depending on the gas mix Nitrox can also be used to 130ft
Think of the diving you may want to do and choose specialties from that. Photography course may also teach you more about buoyancy control. When doing super macro video or photography you need as little movement as possible.
True. But the problem is that divecenters often make the 20m or 30m as a strickt limit. And sometimes it is because they want to sell cards.
I have seen such a lot of strange things in my life. A normoxic ex-student (was certified by me for normoxic, so 60m) called me from Malta that he needed: a deep diver cert, and a boatdiver cert. If I could sign this off for him. I just laughed and said: Your normoxic is more than a deep diver cert. And a boatdiver cert is never required. He did not have a deep diver cert as you can also accept students at the instructors discretion, he had done before the course a lot of deep dives.
I have had another friend who entered a padi diveclub. He was a cmas 3*/dm diver, I certified him. He needed: night diving, deep diving and diving in currents. But all these things are part of the divemaster course. You need to GUIDE a night dive, you need to guide in a place with current. And the cmas 3* is a 60m on air cert. So all is covered in this cert. CMAS has no night diving or deep diving as specialty here, it is in the 2* and 3*. So you cannot get a card for it.
I have had a diver who did a full cave course with me in a drysuit (like all divers do). The diver went for work to Iceland and wanted to dive the Sifra. Diver came with his own drysuit. But needed a drysuit cert or a proof signed by an instructor that at least 20 dives were done in a drysuit. So I answered the mail with pictures of the diver diving in a drysuit in a cave during the cave course and wrote that there were more than 20 dives done in a drysuit. This was not accepted because it was electronically and not on paper in a logbook. This means the divecenter just wanted to sell a course and has nothing to do with safety.
I needed for something a nightdivercert while I was already a full cave diver (and cmas 3*). I just laughed very loudly and said that there is no more darkness than in caves. Then paying for just the plastic card was enough, 100 bucks. I refused and walked a door further.
So a lot of things or rules have nothing to do with safety, just with wanting to earn more money.
I don't say that nightdiving courses or drysuit courses are ********, but they are not for every diver needed. Same with sidemount.
So do your aow, don't do the 5 specialties completely (that costs more money than needed), and some doors will open without discussion. Do the AOW course as soons as possible after OW is my advice. I see too often that open water divers are not seen as real divers. Navigation, and deep are required, the rest is up to you and maybe the divecenter. So see it as 5 experience divers where you can build experience and then build the experience on your own further. Photography or biology are options, you are in the water for another dive (I hope at least 60 minutes), so build experience by just being in the water. A good instructor will help you with bouyancy and trim during all dives of the course.
And a lot of divecenters have to learn that also the open water diver must be a diver that can dive without guide with another open water diver as buddy. Here the biggest problem starts. A lot of divers after their open water cert are afraid of diving on their own. Same with AOW divers. I have seen divers with over 300 dives that only have learned to follow a guide and survive under water, but never learned diving.
The industry has to change here in my opinion.
And before you start a DM course, you need to have done some solodives. Not that you need to be a real solodiver, but if you start guiding, you are solodiving for up to 9 people. If you don't trust yourself alone under water, why do you think you can help others?
