When to start Advanced Open Water Classes

[doctorwhodiver]

Hi Guys,

I just completed my open water classes a few weekends ago and was thinking of starting my advanced open water classes. I was wondering what everyone's opinion was on this. I completed my 4 cert dives and an extra dive with my instructor through a very tiny boat wreck (My first wreck dive! Woo! hahaha). I have pretty good buoyancy skills (they're not perfect obviously because I'm still a newb) I can get myself to streamline and hover pretty quickly and know when I'm not neutrally buoyant to fix it. I also completed all my certification skills with ease and was kind of bored with them by the time I was doing them in the certification dives.

My main reason for taking the course would to make myself more "wanted" as a buddy. Most of the people around where I dive are pretty great at diving and I figured if I was at least better at navigating and could go up to 100ft I might find more people that want to dive with me even though I'm still new.

What do you guys think- should I have a few more OW dives under my belt before starting advanced open water or will I be able to move straight to advanced open water from just OW classes.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[BVickery]

I think it depends on where you live and as such there is a great debate. I am going for AOW as soon as I get refreshed, at which time I'll have about 20 or so post Cert dives.

As far as being 'wanted' the best thing is to be a safe and competent diver. To get there is to get the basics down such as bouyancy and trim, to the point one of my AOW dives is going to focus on just that.

 

[UWRCN]

Did your instructor give you that "your ready for advanced class" sales pitch right after your 4 checkout dive? If it was me I would wait get some good dives in with good teammates that would mentor you for what kind of diving you want to do. Your lack of perfect skills will only come with practice. Go dive in my opinion AOW is just experience dive anyway not much in the way of training but that also will greatly depend on the instructor you choose. Happy diving.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Scubanoobi]

Ill have about 80 dives before starting AOW - at this point I don't think I'll be getting much out of it other than a card.

 

[BDSC]

My main reason for taking the course would to make myself more "wanted" as a buddy.

I would much rather have an OW buddy with say 30 to 40 dives than an AOW buddy who has completed the minimum requirements for the card. But it's really up to you. I don't know that there is a right or wrong way to do it. I did my AOW course about a year and maybe 40 or so dives after my OW. To be honest, I pretty much got nothing out of it but I was told you needed the card to do certain dives or go out with certain operators so I took the course. And you don't need to take the course to dive deeper if that's what you want to do.

 

[smokin3000gt]

I can only speak for myself personally but when I did OW, it was the same as you. Blew through it with no problems. So much so that one of the divers helping with the class (he was going for his DM card) refused to believe that this was my first time(s) being underwater with gear. Even so I didn't feel that I would benefit as much from AOW had I jumped right in to do it.

After about 10 dives I feel that when I do my AOW (my next trip) I will get a lot more out of it and be able to focus more on the Advanced part and less on the OW part. To each their own but keep in mind that experienced divers know more then anyone the certs you have are pretty much meaningless. Have fun and be safe!

 

[abyss_scuba]

It really depends on you and what you think your instructor will be able to teach you. I think you gain the most from AOW when you have done a few dives - how many is up to you and you only. I can tell you that as an instructor when I see someone fresh out of Open Water go right into Advanced they do not have enough experience to connect theory with actual practise. Having said that I would not wait until you have established bad habits - this is hard to see in yourself. The Advanced should be 5 dives in which we work on 5 specific skills, even though they can be incorporated in each successive dive. What I mean is if we decide to do a bouyancy class you continue to perfect those skills on each dive. Why not have a talk with your instructor and see what they think, also are you working with a shop or independant, the reason I ask is you might learn something new if you pick a different instructor for Advanced.

 

[doctorwhodiver]

Why not have a talk with your instructor and see what they think, also are you working with a shop or independant, the reason I ask is you might learn something new if you pick a different instructor for Advanced.

I've done all my stuff with the same shop. My in class/in pool instructor was different than the person who certified me during my OW dives but they were both instructors from the same shop. Would you suggest going to another shop for my Advanced classes? I like my LDS a lot and want to stick loyal to them to develop a relationship and have someone I feel comfortable with when buying gear/have questions- that doesn't sound too crazy does it?

 

[BDSC]

If you are satisfied with the shop and its instructors, no reason to change as long as they can provide the course you want to take.

 

[supergaijin]

And you don't need to take the course to dive deeper if that's what you want to do.

Yes and no- many, many dive centers will not allow you on certain deep dives without an AOW card- there is much debate about the justification, but it is reality in many foreign countries.IMO you should take the AOW when you feel capable of the extra task loading involved in deeper dives. Your skills and buoyancy in the top 10 feet should be excellent as after diving deep, the gas exhanges in shallow water make all the difference in your health.