Why do Advanced Open Water?

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Good timing on the question - My dive buddies and I have been talking about doing the AOW then Rescue this year. When I asked originally why, one said they would like to dive some of the wreck dives (not sure where, maybe great lakes). I assumed that to dive the wrecks you were required to have the AOW. My opinion is that AOW will give me some more instructor time and a more dives. However, I think the cost was around $250 which makes me have to decide if it is worth it. I like the idea of having the opportunity to learn more that maybe I wouldn't get from just diving. I really want to do the Rescue diving. Currently, if something happened to one of my dive buddies would I know what to do? I'm hoping Rescue diving could help me out here. I have been certified as a First Responder in first aid, cpr, and AED for almost 20 years, but even with this, I can help them on land, but don't have a clue what to do in the water.

S. Nagel
 
a thing no one is really thinking about is... insurance.. most companys will cover you if you stay within your dive limits meaning say a shark bites your leg off and your at 10 ft your covered if you are a ow certafied but as soon as you hit 61 ft your not covered... and if you take advanced course your covered agian most insurance agencys will cover scuba diving in their policys because its so safe.. and there are not many claims from it..
 
nagel:
Good timing on the question - My dive buddies and I have been talking about doing the AOW then Rescue this year. When I asked originally why, one said they would like to dive some of the wreck dives (not sure where, maybe great lakes). I assumed that to dive the wrecks you were required to have the AOW. My opinion is that AOW will give me some more instructor time and a more dives. However, I think the cost was around $250 which makes me have to decide if it is worth it. I like the idea of having the opportunity to learn more that maybe I wouldn't get from just diving. I really want to do the Rescue diving. Currently, if something happened to one of my dive buddies would I know what to do? I'm hoping Rescue diving could help me out here. I have been certified as a First Responder in first aid, cpr, and AED for almost 20 years, but even with this, I can help them on land, but don't have a clue what to do in the water.

S. Nagel

its basicly teachs you how to get people out of the watter or to the surface so you can perform frist aid.. and your cpr training does expire every 4 years and you have to get recertafied
 
The 60' thing is a reccomendation, not a rule. There's no place that will not take you on a 60+ dive as an open water diver. Some locations (like the Cayman Islands) may require a log book showing recent diving before taking you on deeper dives, but as long as you have that you're fine. The only people who are depth restricted are JR (under 18) divers.

The most useful class you can take as a diver is a Rescue course, which with PADI requries you to be AOW certified. For that reason alone you should deal with the AOW. Diving is a hands-on activity, and as such most learning should take place in the water. The course relies on self-learning (reading) and activity oriented briefings. It's a very practical course.

Specialty courses are good if you have a good instructor.
To me the best specialty courses are:
drift:most people aren't used to drift diving, and can learn alot in this course.
photography: yes, yes your digital camera can take a good picture if you take 500 shots, but can you get the shot you want on everytime?
navigation: most divers couldn't navigate a straight line in a cornfield.
Search and recovery: this class (at least when I teach it) is just plain FUN!

Useless ones include: Deep diver, fish id, multi-level, equipment (may as well just take a workshop from a manufacturer), and worst of all BOAT DIVER!
 
nagel:
However, I think the cost was around $250 which makes me have to decide if it is worth it.

Most AOW classes require 5 dives, so it's only $50 a dive, not too bad for 5 guided dives....
 
I was certified for nearly 30 years before I took AOW. I had hundreds of logged dives and hundreds and hundreds more that I never logged. I took AOW because I would go to places where the DM/instructors put me on restrictions (stay above 60', etc.) because I didn't have AOW and my OW card was old (sometimes older than they were!). Once they saw me in the water they removed the restrictions, but it was a pain on the first day of diving. It was worth taking AOW to avoid the hassle--and I've meet some great people taking that and other classes.

Steve
 
fisherdvm:
I found PADI AOW making me a much better diver than my OW colleages...
And how much is that saying?
fisherdvm:
They are correct in informing you it is easier to get on intermediate level dives if you had your AOW card.
If you talk the talk and walk the walk they don't ask to see no stinkin' AOW card. And if they don't know the difference, you don't want to dive with them anyway.
fisherdvm:
Anyone who has doved 100 plus dives on an OW with varying depth and condition has the same, if not better abilities than a PADI AOW with limited dives...
The same? You've got to be kidding?
fisherdvm:
But a person with AOW has better judgement and formal training than an OW diver - assuming both has same number of dives.
Frankly no, they just have the people who know better laughing up their sleeve at them. Not as hard as they do when you whp out your PADI MD card though.
fisherdvm:
The NAUI vs. PADI w. SSI garbage should be left for those who wants to enlarge their ego...
You clearly do not understand the issues so you set up a staw man ad hominem, real cute.
fisherdvm:
But for an average recreational diver, AOW is well worth it. And it is a jumping stone for rescue diver class.... (doesn't matter whose).
Perhaps, but only because their entry level course sucked. Rescue is still an integral part of quality courses.
 
fishballer:
wow. 12-14 hrs + 400 minutes? that's some good teaching.

i wish there were good instructors like that around here.

And, as a former student of Ber's I'll vouch that she makes you work in that class. Actually, I thought it was 16 hours of class, the 2 hour pool session, then the final, for a total of 10 2-hour session. Then about 5 weekends of diving in 4 different locations. I ended up with over 600 minutes of bottom time. Going the typical c-card routine, I think I got the equivalent training to a total of about 7-8 different specialty c-cards.

Check out your local university programs, some of htem may have something similar.


Ken
 
The best reason to do AOW? Because they don't teach much in OW these days. I waited 40 years to get my AOW because my OW (LA County) was pretty damned thorough... covered most of the current OW, AOW and Rescue Diver.

Of course I've seen currently certified instructors who couldnb't fix their personal mask strap or put their BCD on correctly (try 90 degrees "out of phase"). Simply amazing. This is not critical of the many fine instructors out there who teach to and (preferably) above the standards.
 
Thalassamania:
And how much is that saying?.

It is just saying, that when all of us got together for a night dive, I was the only one with 2 lights and a glow stick, the other two guys were going to share the same light. I am just doing a comparason between 3 divers finishing OW at the same time, but one learned a little more about night diver than the other 2. All 3 of us were medical doctors - and safety conscious.

Thalassamania:
If you talk the talk and walk the walk they don't ask to see no stinkin' AOW card. And if they don't know the difference, you don't want to dive with them anyway.
I don't have the luxury of chosing my dive opt too much... it is whom ever can fit me in...


The same? You've got to be kidding?

I am just implying, experience from diving will gain you the same content as what is in the book. All you have to do is experience a dead dive light at the surface, and the panick as the boat approach you to realize, you should have a back up light. Information in the Padi OW book - which someone else's experience is written into the book.

You are being a hippocrit in saying that PADI set low standard on their OW, but when someone try to suggest including additional training through AOW, you are suggesting that "experience" through doing 100 dives is better than a course content. I believe this is strictly because you do not like the PADI brand. As it contradict all your other posts concerning the need for higher standards, and how NAUI is so much better.

Frankly no, they just have the people who know better laughing up their sleeve at them. Not as hard as they do when you whp out your PADI MD card though.
You clearly do not understand the issues so you set up a staw man ad hominem, real cute.

I clearly understand the issue here. You are so anti PADI that you let your prejudice get into the way of a diver's desire to gain additional training. Without the content of PADI AOW, I would have minimal understanding of nitrogen narcosis, safety of night dive, and introduction to navigation and boat diving.... These were, and still are, invaluable in my skills as a diver... Not as a PADI diver.

Perhaps, but only because their entry level course sucked. Rescue is still an integral part of quality courses

You are confirming your prejudice, and hypocrisy.... Their entry level course sucked.... confirm what you have been preaching all along.... PADI has inadequate standard, and their minimal standard is too low..

But when someone suggest that a new diver take a course to complement the inadequate PADI course, you chose to shoot it down.



I respect your background as an experience diver, but I have no respect from you as a person who is looking out for the best interest of the recreational diver.

Your motives are dark, and not as altruistic as it seems on the surface.
 
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