When to take AOW?

[tursiops]

Yeah, sorry, PADI MSD also requires Rescue.

Sounds like it’s closer to SSI Master Diver than AOW. 5 specialties, one has to be Stress & Rescue.

 

[scrane]

Not sure if diving instruction has evolved or devolved. @Sam Miller III NAUI Advanced class in 1979 was 18 ocean dives (from San Diego to Catalina to Monterey and throughout Orange County), a chamber ride to 160', and 54 hours of classroom work and lecture.

I took the back door. I took the NAUI "Sport Diver" certification in 1977. It was pretty similar to what AOW is today for PADI, with a half dozen dives of various focus. Easy and low key.
Since no one in the modern world knows what a NAUI Sport Diver is I petitioned NAUI a couple of years ago to issue a AOW card which they did.

 

[Bob DBF]

My opinion is that it is better to make as quickly as possible the whole sequence: OW, AOW, Deep, and Nitrox.

If the instructor was also insuring good judgment and maybe humility, I might agree. However, eleven dives under supervision and giving the student the idea he is qualified to be hanging out at 130’ on a regular basis is looking for trouble.


Bob

 

[Diver below 83]

Padi aow is the same as sdi AOW and different than adventurer or is it the other way around?

 

[Diving Dubai]

My AoW was, on paper a poor course - and in later life I realised there had been standards violations too.

However I'd not dived for 3 years, and my previous 18 dives had been in the Red sea with superb visibility.

But thinking back, I had some more buoyancy tuition, and I learnt to dive in poor visibility. So in hindsight it was a learning experience.

I remember that course, and my Rescue some years later (also poor) when I'm teaching and ensure that I give my students a good course and teach them as much as I possibly can with in the limits of their abilities (and standards of course)

My advice for a student, is take OW, then make some fun dives and enjoy diving without being under instruction, then comeback at approx 15-20 dives so we can improve you and cure bad habits before they take hold

 

[Belzelbub]

Padi aow is the same as sdi AOW and different than adventurer or is it the other way around?

No, it looks like SSI and SDI are similar in their nomenclature.

There are at least two different approaches to Advanced.
Overview, or introduction to (usually) 5 specialties. PADI AOW, SSI AA, SDI AA.
Completion of 4 specialties. SSI AOW, SDI AD

The overview path seems kind of pointless for a diver looking to advance. With PADI, SSI, and SDI Master Diver requires 5 complete specialties, so with SDI and SSI, you are almost there after AOW. With PADI, you still have to do the 5 full specialties.

 

[tursiops]

With PADI, you still have to do the 5 full specialties.

In principle, you just need to *complete* the five specialities.....you've already done the first dive of each speciality. That means 1 to 3 additional dives for each speciality. In practice, it is usually a good idea to do that first dive again, especially if your AOW instructor wasn't very good.

 

[scubadada]

In principle, you just need to *complete* the five specialities.....you've already done the first dive of each speciality. That means 1 to 3 additional dives for each speciality. In practice, it is usually a good idea to do that first dive again, especially if your AOW instructor wasn't very good.

I used the first dive from AOW to finish deep, PPB, and DPV

 

[TMHeimer]

In principle, you just need to *complete* the five specialities.....you've already done the first dive of each speciality. That means 1 to 3 additional dives for each speciality. In practice, it is usually a good idea to do that first dive again, especially if your AOW instructor wasn't very good.

And, if the shop you are now taking the specialties with won't knock down the price since you have done dive 1. Which was my experience, and some of those on SB. I had that happen with Nitrox (did 1/2 the academics and dive 1 at one shop--2 dives were required then, with Deep--2 different shops, repeated dive one and paid for it, and several other specialties). So, might as well do all the dives since you paid for them. I haven't heard of a shop giving credit for the first dive being done in AOW, but I imagine it does happen.

 

[caydiver]

We did NAUI OWII on the subsequent trip after the cert. The original trip we had the referral so first two days were checkout dives. Rest of 2 weeks was 2 or 3Ts a day. We used the same instructor for the OWII and he was totally awesome. It was a learning experience just to see him in the water. He took plenty of time helping me with floaty feet and truly set us on the path to being competent divers. It was just two of us — NAUI was already losing ground to PADI and SSI. We were super lucky that it all fell into place. Ironically he was with a big op — RSS in GC.