Why do Advanced Open Water?

[plwtwo]

AOW is meant to help divers gain experience, while learning some additional info and/or skills about the particular "area" of the specialty.
It's meant to build confidence in unsure divers, as well as, giving divers new or old a way to dive under supervision of an Instructor to refresh or learn new ideas.
Also, a lot, of divers only dive once a year, sometimes once every two/three years. AOW is an easy way for those divers to feel more secure and get back into the dive community.
Unfortunatly, some of you don't have rational common sense to realize, that classes are written for the diving community as a whole, so they have to be able to be taught to divers with little experience to those with tons of experience who maybe hasn't dove since the days of horse collar BC's. Every dive instructional organization; PADI, NAUI, YMCA, SSI; structure classes to be adaptable to a WIDE range of experience. It is then up to the LDS/INSTRUCTOR to teach within the scope of the class, as well as, the comfort level of that student.

 

[jpsexton]

It is not the instructor. It is not the content of the program. It has to do with the organization.

I still stand by my statement, a good instructor will make the class valuable regardless of the agency.

I have no first hand knowledge of PADI as my training has been with SSI, and then NAUI but one of my dive buddies and mentors is PADI trained and speaks highly of his instructor and AOW class. As a mater of fact the group that I regularly dive with represents every agency except YMCA and when I asked them about AOW the very first thing any of them said was find a good instructor!

A poor instructor selling guided dives as AOW will be the same guy no matter what agency he is affiliated with.

 

[Thalassamania]

… A poor instructor selling guided dives as AOW will be the same guy no matter what agency he is affiliated with.

Absolutely.

 

[captain]

And is this the same reason you recommend the Silver Advanced ahead of the Advanced Class in the YMCA program?

Don't get me wrong I think the YMCA has great training programs. But I am trying to see why you dislike PADI so much when it seems that the YMCA programs are fairly similar. Pool, Classroom and Open Water. Then offering further courses for further training and experience. If the YMCA Open Water course was so good we could all just move straight to the instructor program once we got the relevant experience.

And yes you have mentioned a few extra skills required by YMCA and NAUI but are these skills really the difference? Some of which PADI actually do and some which are done with a minor difference.

I am not currently familar with the current basic YMCA course content but in 1970 when I was YMCA certified the next step was instructor, there was no intermediate courses.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Maybe 1 out of 10,000 get narced at 100' but it will happen and has;

Not intending to take this comment out of context ... but I am curious as to where you came up with this statistic.

In my experience, all divers are narcosis-impaired at 100 feet to one degree or another. Some don't realize that they're impaired ... some handle it better than others ... but that doesn't make the narcosis any less of a reality. At 100 feet, we've all had a couple of nitrogen cocktails, and it does affect us.

That's simple physiology. How we handle it depends on the individual ... and will vary for that individual from one dive to another. But just because you don't "feel" narced doesn't mean that you aren't ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Walter]

It is not the instructor. It is not the content of the program. It has to do with the organization.

In the words of the great Jedi Master Thalassamia and Master Walter, you are wasting big money being taught Cr** if you signed up for PADI AOW.

Join the dark side, and you will be floating on air (of arrogance)...

Actually, PADI's and YMCA's AOW courses are virtually identical, NAUI's is slightly better. YMCA has AOW, which I don't recommend, but it also has Silver Advanced which I do recommend. Silver Advanced is a totally different class, it has twice as many dives and some real academics when compared to either agency's AOW.

LA County's Advanced Diver Program leaves them all in the dust.

As far as I'm aware, LA County ADP and YMCA Silver Advanced are the only two advanced courses available that standards require to actually be advanced. There are instructors in all agencies who teach excellent advanced classes and issue an AOW card upon completion. Bob, Ber and MB are three who immediately come to mind.

We're easy to confuse, similar in appearance, but Walter is slimmer and handsomer and I have the better whiskers.

And you started diving the year I was born, so you're also far more experienced. You don't happen to know Bob Cunningham?

If the YMCA Open Water course was so good we could all just move straight to the instructor program once we got the relevant experience.

It's not that good and even if it were, you're forgetting that other essential componet - experience.

 

[drew52]

If the YMCA Open Water course was so good we could all just move straight to the instructor program once we got the relevant experience.

relevant experience... those are the last 2 words of the sentence you quoted...

If I need to be more clear. If the YMCA Open Water program was so good they would not offer Open Water Diver 2, Advanced, Silver Advanced because our advanced isn't quite good enough, then .... etc and finally instructor. The divers should have all this stuff already and require no further training until such time as they have enough experience to enter into the instructor program.

If you believe PADI falls short then most agencies including YMCA fall well short of what you believe should be required.

 

[Thalassamania]

And you started diving the year I was born, so you're also far more experienced. You don't happen to know Bob Cunningham?

I knew a Bob Cunningham who was a Lt. Col. and DETCO in Kadena, Japan. The name rings a bell from elsewhere also but I’m having trouble placing it.

 

[Walter]

Great Lakes diver from Michigan in the late 50s until he moved to Florida, probably in the 70s. He was a pioneer in underwater photography. He was also a NAUI and YMCA instructor until about 1964 or so.

 

[Thalassamania]

Great Lakes diver from Michigan in the late 50s until he moved to Florida, probably in the 70s. He was a pioneer in underwater photography. He was also a NAUI and YMCA instructor until about 1964 or so.

I've heard of him, probably from Lee Somers. We may have meet at one or another function.