when to do AOW class?

[Wendy]

When I was just ow certified I never did dives below 60', never did dives at night, never did any penetration, until I was trained to do dives of that nature. Am I among a group of few that actually follow the 'rules'? I could never imagine getting ow cert then heading for a vacation and doing a 100' wreck and then gee, let's just swim inside of it. But I see this all the time, especially with ow divers that think they can cave dive without training, but I usually see them when we are recovering their bodies.

When and if I ever become an ow instructor I will spend some time on accident analysis. Some folks may think that telling new divers that they could die will deter them from enjoying diving or going on in their diving education, but I don't think I could handle it if someone I trained to dive did something stupid to get themselves killed. I know this is alittle off from my original subject, but its just one of those say what I think moments I'm having.

 

[NJdiver85]

It is quite common for OW divers to do dives deeper than 60 feet or night dives in the Carribean. The wreck of the Rhone in the BVI is a perfect example. The typical profile for the most popular wreck dive in the Virgin Islands is first dive to 80 feet, 1.5 hour surface interval, then dive on other half of the wreck to a max of 50 feet. During the deep dive, a wreck penetration is often made, though there is plenty of sunlight with multiple large exits. However, the Rhone is NOT considered by many to be an "advanced" dive and probably the majority of those diving on it are only OW certified.

Disclaimer: I am not advocating that OW or AOW is a license to do wreck penetrations. At the very least, a PADI Wreck Specialty should be taken.

 

[JustAddWater]

I think continuing one's education in diving by participating in AOW classes is a good thing. It should be noted that passing an advanced course doesn't make one an advanced diver. This comes through experience in implementing the things learned in the AOW classes.

 

[waterdogs]

Thanks Wendy for the question, because it's something we are thinking about in the future and was brought up two weeks ago while visiting another lDS closer to our house.

We are preparing to complete our OW (as soon as my ear clears) and while talking to an Instructor at our local LDS (who is not teaching us now, not yet) he mentioned that we should continue our education by taking our AOW class once certified.

Now I had the same ideas' that a majority of these post, take about 10-15 dives before we go into our AOW class. But since reading some of these post I agree with the point we are continuing our skills from our OW classes, not really BEING ADVANCED, but honing in and perfecting our skills before we do those dives.

Our big trip is our honeymoon in July to St.John 10 day's of diving, I hope, and I think the more education, skill perfection we can master before we end up being one of those OW newbies diving the Rhone is probably the best idea.

Wendy, thanks for your question, and the boards opinions.

waterdogs.

 

[ebbtide]

I think
i my own opnion that the diver him/her self will feal comfortable enuf to go on to annother cert ,
saying that ive done almost a years diving on OW and going for my AOW only beacuse the course wasent held until the spring and $ wasent there at the time so AOW here i come and looking foreward to it . and i dont plan on stopping there i want to learn more and more about diving i will be diving for seaurchants in the late summer to fall and i think i would find the AOW and rescue and first aid helpfull .
enjoy the dives ! i do

 

[Zept]

I did my AOW in bits: buoyancy and nav not longer after my OW, deep and multilevel a bit later, and drift when I was on holiday in an area with strong currents. Next week I'm adding the night dive.

For me, spreading the dives out was better value than cramming them all into a weekend. I got to learn something, and then practise it a bit, and then learn something else, and so on. Some of the dives are ideal for beginners, such as the buoyancy one. OTOH, I didn't want to tackle the night dive until I'd mastered stopping and turning, within the range of a dive light.

I guess it's easier for instructors if people do everything at once, but I'm not sure it's the best option for a new diver.


Zept

 

[socaldiver]

We pounded this subject into the ground last year and like now, there are differences of opinions.

Wendy, I agree with a lot of what you say and will commend you in advance for when you become an instructor to discuss accidents and how they happened.

My personal take is that a person should have a required # of dives "logged" before they can get into an "advanced" class. Granted, some divers were born divers and adapt to the water a lot quicker than others. But people only fool themselves when they push the envelope past their training.

I also feel that the certifying agencies should get involved and change the certification names, say for instance OW2 instead of advanced. Or, change the courses to where they are truly advanced. Courses like photography, underwater naturalists and a few others as advanced classes is insane, these should be just specialized classes that you can earn a "merit badge" not a certification.

 

[ScubyDoo]

Originally posted by Wendy
When I was just ow certified I never did dives below 60', never did dives at night, never did any penetration, until I was trained to do dives of that nature. Am I among a group of few that actually follow the 'rules'?

As an OW diver I would never dive beyond my training or experience either. I think you just made a good case for those who do go ahead and take thier AOW fairly soon after thier OW. Since a large percentage of chartered dives today are to depths of 80fsw or more, and since many dive charters are beginning to require an AOW, it just makes good sense to go ahead and receive the additional training.

A large percentage of OW divers only dive 2-3 times a year while on vacation in the Carribean, and very likely never take any refresher courses. They probably dive beyond thier training and take excessive risks due to lack of said training. I dont like that any better than you, but its the sad truth. Many if not most recreational divers today do not take diving as seriously as the majority of those on this forum do.

That said, when an individual does come along that just cant get enough of scuba...who eats, sleeps, and drinks it, IMHO it is unfair to criticize them for trying to learn and absorb as much of it as he or she can.

Like I said before Wendy, which diver would you rather be buddied up with? The OW diver who sheepishly follows the pack to 100fsw because thats what everyone else is doing, or the diver who took diving seriously enough to go ahead and get the proper training first?

 

[AliKat]

I see no reason to complete 25 (or any number of dives) before moving on to AOW. I had a really bad OW instructor. I did AOW primarily because that was the only way I was getting back in the water...I needed more instruction!

 

[JamesK]

Alikat, you have confused me. You say yo usee no reason to complete 25 dives before going on to advanced, yet you continue to say that you would only get back in he water after doing AOW. So, if you would not get back in the water, how would you do your AOW?