What is exact outcome of AOW courses?

[tursiops]

Is Thinking Like A Diver a book or rather information spread across the specialties?

It is like 18 dense pages in the front of the PADI AOW manual, meant to be lectured/read and discussed, and then applied during each of the five sampler dives. For example, gas management is different for the Deep dive and the Navigation dive (shallower, much more swimming, task-loading) but the principles ae the same. Get the principles down, and then practice them on each of the five dives. It can be really good, but I doubt all instructors treat it seriously. Too bad; shame on them.

 

[AsherN]

In my mind, this is what SCUBA training should look like:

Basic OW = Basic Dive Skills + Nitrox + Navigation + DSMB + Boat + Shore Entry + Night + Wreck + Rescue

Advanced OW = Twinset + Advanced Nitrox + Deco Procedures + Advanced Wreck + DAN Diving Emergency Management Provider

Technical 1 = Normoxic 21/35 to 16/55 - 35m to 75m

Technical 2 = Hypoxic 15/55 to10/70 - 76m to 130m

Specialty courses available after Basic OW:

- DPV​

- Gas Blending​

- Survey​

- Photogrammetry​

- Sea Life Identification (taught only by marine biologists)​

- Scientific​

- DS​

- Ice diving​

​

I know some hearts are going to wilt and cry out in anguish over taking diving back to the 1960s and 1970s but I think the above training rubric would put a lot of meaning back into becoming a SCUBA diver and serious clout in earning an Advanced SCUBA certification. Also, I acknowledge the above rubric would probably force portions of the SCUBA industry in its current condition to go into convulsions but I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

I certified with ACUC in 1979. It was part of a college course, so we had a lot of time for both classwork and pool, but the actual skills tested were the equivalent of today's OW and Rescue. Made much better divers out of all of us. The current OW, AOW and Deep is, to me, nothing but a cash grab. Especially Deep. Deep should be part of AOW. And unless you add a minimum dive requirement between OW and AOW, what is the point other than $$$.

 

[tursiops]

I certified with ACUC in 1979. It was part of a college course, so we had a lot of time for both classwork and pool, but the actual skills tested were the equivalent of today's OW and Rescue. Made much better divers out of all of us. The current OW, AOW and Deep is, to me, nothing but a cash grab. Especially Deep. Deep should be part of AOW. And unless you add a minimum dive requirement between OW and AOW, what is the point other than $$$.

As said many times before, the point of AOW is NOT to make you an advanced diver, but rather to give you some skills and knowledge and training that advances you beyond OW and helps you to see what interests you, so you can continue to advance along a path that suits you. Maybe the Deep dive seems really cool, take the Deep course learn a lot more about gas management, narcosis, and emergency actions. Maybe the Navigation dive excites you to really get good at following a course in all conditions, like a sideways current. Maybe (say) Underwater Naturalist piques your interest to learn more about the underwater environment. Etc.