When to take Advanced O/W Training???

[halocline]

It makes sense to me to get some experience between OW and AOW, but my understanding is that PADI intended the AOW course to immediately follow the OW course. Al, I understand your sentiment here; really the issue is that probably the PADI standards for OW certification should be higher and the course itself should include more supervised dives with specific goals in mind. Unfortunately, that would not support the profit and market driven side to PADI...

In my OW class, my buddy had some real problems getting comfortable in the water and getting her skills together. Since it came easier to me, we spent some time in the pool together just practicing buoyancy and air drills. To his benefit, the instructor joined us on an occasion and really spent some extra time with her to get the skills going; time for which he wasn't paid. Anyhow, people exit the OW course with a wide range of abilities and skills, but the thing that probably all of us had in common right after the class was that we would benefit from immediate diving experience. If the AOW course is the most comfortable way to get that for some people, fine. I went off for my first trip to Cozumel a couple of months after OW, and did around 20 dives in a week.

 

[docwascuba]

Well i far as i remember there a are 5 dives required for aow certification.. Wouldnt be considered advanced after your nine dive .. Could get you on a dive that your not ready for..I would dive for a while with some more experienced divers and then you will be ready..es

 

[StSomewhere]

Don't think your only option is the path the large agencies have paved.

The only reason I would even consider AOW is because more charters are reluctant to take you to certain dive sites without it, regardless of whether the training is actually rigorous enough that you'd be safe at those depths.

 

[Ishie]

I took it with 50 dives, and then again as part of my nitrox cert at 100 dives.

For the stuff like "night", "deep", and "boat" parts, I had already done it, so it was like "yeah yeah yeah". For things like navigation and search and recovery, I found I did a lot better at the 100 dives because I was totally comfortable with my kit, my skill level, etc, so was able to maximize the focus on just the skill at hand.

 

[douglasville diver]

It's A Good Question. My Buddy And I Went Right To Diving The Weekend After The Ow Check Out At A Quarry Where I Ran Way Low On Gas @ 80 Ft. Just Done Things The Way We Were Taught No Problem. Big Boost Of Conifidence.
Went Two Weeks Later To Pompano Beach 2 Drift Dives Sat. 2 Night Dives That Night,110 Ft Wreck Dive Sun. And A Last Drift Dive After That.
All Thats Well And Fine But We Only Thought We Were Gitting Good.
A Few More Quarry Dives And Some Skills Work In The Pool Including Some Ditch & Dons And We Are Sure Enough Ready To Breeze Aow!
Let Me Just Say Uw Multitasking Ain't No Piece Of Cake , Working The Tables @ Depth [104 Ft]and @ Night Ain't The Same As On Land In The Day.
Navagation , Well, I Had To Re-tank During This One And After Much Work I Found My Way Around A Box And A Triangle And Some Obsticals.
Search & Recovery Went Well And Then A Curve Was Thrown,
Without Any Talk Before Hand We Were Told There Was An Unconscious Diver @ Some Where Around 60 Ft. He Is Out Of Air And We Must Locate And Recover Him To The Surface . Took 22 Mins. And We Were Wooped!
All This Rambling Is Just To Say, Glad I Did It.did It Make Me An Advanced Diver? Well Advanced Enough To Know What I Don't Know , I've Got Alot To Learn And Practice This I Know But I Wonder , No Matter How Many Dives I Make Will That Ever Change?
I Hope Not

 

[UWSojourner]

I believe you would get more out of finding out all you can about the DIR fundamentals course and taking it next. Talk to a DIR-F instructor and find out what they recommend before you take the course. Good luck.

 

[creamofwheat]

I know for me, I took my OW class about a month ago and now I am just diving and working on buoyancy and trying to sort out my major problem areas. I feel more comfortable doing this and sorting some stuff out before i take the AOW class. I mean, it would be pretty embarassing for me if I was in an AOW class and couldn't hold a safety stop. So for me, I am diving and practicing my buoyancy and whatnot. Once i get more comfortable, I will take the AOW class. I know that personally, i am not ready for it yet (no way in hell you'll get me deeper than about 65ft right now even with an instructor, and learning navigation while still struggling with my buoyancy also doesn't make me feel comfortable). So for me, I am waiting until I master some more skills and become more comfortable. But that's me. Some people benefit from taking AOW right away. It's really up to you and how you feel about it.

 

[skybird]

I was ( am ) fortunate that my instructor works out of a very small dive shop at the local quarry. My lessons were one on one for OW and he took as much time as I needed, taught me many things that sometimes are for further classes. He suggested the AOW right away, for a coupld of reasons, one was financial. If I was enrolled in a class, i paid no quarry fees AND my equipment rental was free. I will be getting the rest of my gear after income tax. I didn't complete the AOW beofre the quarry closed for the winter, so I will pck up where I left off. He is very undrstanding and said whatever time it takes, it takes ( I am directionally challanged and can't seem to get the hang of navigation yet lol) I know for classes with several people this wouldn't be possible.

 

[TheYellowSubmarine]

I'd say do a few more dives before your AOW. Just after your OW, you're still getting the hang of what you learnt in OW, and I don't think this is the right time to go on to learn new stuff. Just do some easy dives to get used to diving. This way when you do AOW, you won't be stressing as much, and it will be much more fun. The stuff you learn will also sink in a lot easier because you won't be worried as much about some of your basic skills from OW.
Then when you get your AOW card, you can actually concider yourself more advanced as opposed to collecting cards as quick as you can.

 

[StSomewhere]

I believe you would get more out of finding out all you can about the DIR fundamentals course and taking it next. Talk to a DIR-F instructor and find out what they recommend before you take the course. Good luck.

I took the 5thd-x Essentials course for similar reasons. Any diver can learn real diving skills in a class like these.

If you do go the AOW route, choose an instructor who will actually teach correct gas management, especially how to calculate how much gas you'll use for the required deep dive. This is a good instructor interview question. Run, don't walk, from any instructor who tells you to simply "be on the boat with 500 psi".