When to start Advanced Open Water Classes

[TSandM]

This question comes up quite frequently, and the answer depends a great deal on the AOW class that your paticular instructor offers. The standard PADI or NAUI advanced open water class is designed to be taken shortly after OW -- it's not particularly demanding and introduces only a few new skills or ideas. It's basically a way to get introduced to some different diving environments and activities with an instructor, and to get a little more work on your navigation skills.

Some instructors beef up the AOW class significantly. My friend, NW Grateful Diver, teaches an AOW you definitely would NOT want to attempt until you had a bunch of dives under your belt and had your buoyancy largely under solid control. But these classes are definitely the exception, rather than the rule.

I'm not sure having your AOW will make a big difference in your desirability as a dive buddy. You will still be a new diver after the class. Some of us enjoy diving with novices, and others don't, and whether they've had the additional five instructed dives or not doesn't really matter.

 

[spectrum]

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.

Ability or desirability as a buddy as you suggest is a combination of experience and training. There is only one way to get experience.

If I accept that you are "a natural" based on your description AOW right now will probably not be a disaster and in fact should be fun. However it's inescapable that you are still on information overload while diving and that any task loading will be significant.

You don't want to wait too long since eventually you will be mentored along and learn through osmosis and the class will ultimately be below your level. However it' my advice to get 1-2 dozen dives in your comfort/training zone under your belt. The AOW course however minimalist will be more meaningful and you will have more questions and be observing the instructor with open eyes.

Put another way, if you went ahead and came to me with a total of ~10 dives, all training there is no way I'd consider you a capable buddy or even someone I would want to take to 100 feet. It sounds like you are off to a good start and have diving opportunities. Take it in measured steps and you will do great.

Pete

 

[phoenix31tt]

This question comes up quite frequently, and the answer depends a great deal on the AOW class that your paticular instructor offers. The standard PADI or NAUI advanced open water class is designed to be taken shortly after OW -- it's not particularly demanding and introduces only a few new skills or ideas. It's basically a way to get introduced to some different diving environments and activities with an instructor, and to get a little more work on your navigation skills.

This was the case for me... even though i breezed through the OWD cert I just wanted more time with an instructor in a class environment doing different things that weren't totally covered in OW... our AOW was the standard padi stuff... so it really the depends on the level of the course offered

 

[abyss_scuba]

To the op, I don't mean a new dive shop per se, but a different instructor. If you are lucky enough to be doing training with a shop that has several instrucor's on board then pick every ones brains. I own a shop and when divers come in looking for advanced classes and above I usually try to assign someone they have not worked with before, it exposes them to new ways of thinking and different ways of doing the same thing. You will need to do deep and navigation in the padi system so why not ask them what you might be doing for the other 3 dives. Also consider what kind of diver you want to be, ship wreck, Caribbean reef, maybe drift diving in Cozumel is more to your liking. Once you has an idea of the kind of diving you want to do then you can pick dives that are geared towards those goals.

 

[herbdb]

My personal opinion is that you should get 20-30 dives before AOW. Too soon and you are not ready, too late and you will probably have learned most it elsewhere. Being a more desirable buddy should not enter into it.

I think you will find that most avid divers just want a buddy that can make and dive a plan, and is always interested in learning. Its not about the cards. I will dive once with just about anyone. Beyond that, I want someone who shares my enthusiasm, and is fun to be around and chat with during surface intervals.

If we need to limit the diving to 60 ft, no big deal. If he has the training and equipment to do something deeper, I am up for that too if there is something worth seeing. Don't think going deeper is a big deal. Most of the good stuff is less than 60' anyway. I looked over my dive log statistices and my average max depth was 52 feet.

 

[TMHeimer]

In general, if your buoyancy is good and you are comfortable diving now is the time. I think I was fine doing AOW after 2 post OW cert. dives. Of course my buoyancy and skills improved a lot after AOW, but I think there is always room for improvement with those things.

 

[ScubaNoey]

Tomorrow I finish my Advanced; dives 74 & 75 for me...

 

[DevonDiver]

To the OP:

You might want to check out these recent threads:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/453354-aow-right-after-owd.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ad...54818-should-padi-ow-called-resort-diver.html


The AOW course can be very variable in delivery. The difference lies entirely with the professionalism, experience, motivation and personal philosophy of the individual instructor. There are three main approaches:

1) 5 "Glorified Fun Dives" Approach. Not valuable at any stage or experience level. It doesn't matter when or where you take it. Results in much cynicism about the benefits of AOW training from disillusioned students.

2) Core Skills Development/Refinement. Aims to tailor AOW course requirements to develop and refine the existing Open Water skill-set. Viewed as an extension to Open Water - the emphasis is on the words Open Water, not 'Advanced'. Could otherwise be called "Open Water #2". Best taken soon after completion of OW.

3) Intro To Advanced Diving Activities. Aims to introduce the diver to a more advanced skill-set and familiarize them with specific future activities they may wish to involve themselves in. Requires a strong base-line foundation in OW skills - so is best taken after a period of post-OW experience-building.

A 'good' instructor can supply either (2) or (3) depending on the capabilities of the student. i.e. they supply what best benefits the student as dictated by the student's confidence and competence. Some instructors may counsel towards (3) and suggest deferring the course until a strong base-line skill is obtained. Others see (2) as a prime means of developing that base-line skill at an early stage.

No 'good' instructor will deliver (1). That is the most common approach to AOW however, especially in high-volume tourist areas. Be warned...

 

[Doomnova]

I think I was at 25 dives when I did mine. now this is not tropical waters where i dive so tossing in a drysuit can take a bit of time to get used to on top of all the other particulars of diving that you have just learned. I think taking a bit of time to let diving "settle in" would not be a bad thing depending on location and type of diving in the area and how often you are going to be diving. He were have quite a bit of current dives along with deep dives(all the wrecks around the island between Victoria and Nanimo there are 5 wrecks that are artificial reefs) so getting drift and deep experience is need if you want to get to join the dives which many rave about, at the same time there are also plenty of easy shore dives so it really comes down to you but I would make sure your at least semi what comfortable for your AOW and if you can one of the best adventure dives would be more of a skills based bouyancy dive which can help many divers shave both weight and time off learning buoyancy skills if the person teaching it half competent(which mine more than was and well even after that I still am working hard at improving though its not anywhere near as major amounts of tuning now).

So biggest things to consider is the following.
1) comfort. Are you comfortable in the water. do you have semi decent buoyancy control which can be hampered via exposure suits(mainly drysuits).
2) kind of diving your interested in local and not local.
3) just for another cert.

I did mine and well #3 was not even in my head but both of the other two were yes I want to do this because I was comfortable (and loved to dive I think by the time this summer will be done I'll have racked up about 50ish dives) and the dives I want o do where some are definately drift dives catch 10 mile point(shore dive) at the wrong time and well you'll either be 40min away from where you jumped in at or being picked up by the US coast guard as another "swimming illegal immigrant". Great site that I love just has one hell of a current going through it when its not on slack.

 

[RJP]

My personal opinion is that you should get 20-30 dives before AOW. Too soon and you are not ready, too late and you will probably have learned most it elsewhere. .

That old chestnut again, huh?

AOW = "Advanced Open Water" which is merely the next level of "Open Water" is not advanced diving in any way. Sure, it's the next level of certification, but saying you shouldn't take AOW too soon after OW, and instead "go get 20-30 dives first" is like saying that after taking Algebra I you should not go directly into Algebra II, but instead you should "go do some math first."

You don't HAVE to take AOW right after OW if you don't WANT to. But that's not the same as "not being ready" for AOW. If a diver is "not ready" for AOW right out of OW, then there was a problem with their OW class.