AOW right after OWD

[tphelps]

Hi,

I completed my open water dive and will complete my advance. My instruction recommended that I study the manual and gather some experience before completing my advance as I won't gain much from doing it right now. I agree with him and wish to gain experience before heading to the next stage.

Does anyone have a link where I can download or view the AOW manual please allowing me to get properly ready. I am asking because where I live, it will take a lot of time before I receive the book

Much help and assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you

You can do your advance course online with PADI e-Learning. With e-Learning you can do pretty much everything online. All you need to do is print out a page when you are finished and then just go diving with your instructor! By doing it online you will pay a little more for the course but you can get access to it IMMEDIATELY and do it at your own pace.
https://www.padi.com/elearning-scuba-registration/purchasecourse.aspx

More about the Advanced Course:
Advanced Open Water Diver Course from PADI Professional Scuba Divers' Training Organization

 

[DevonDiver]

You can do your advance course online with PADI e-Learning. With e-Learning you can do pretty much everything online.

The only problem with AOW eLearning is that it reduces your options for elective dives. At present, only the following options are available:

Mandatory Adventure Dives: Deep, Underwater Navigation

Elective Adventure Dives: Night Diver, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck Diver, Boat Diver and Underwater Naturalist.

If your LDS doesn't have a suitable wreck, or opportunity for night diving, that could easily leave you no option but Boat and Naturalist... which some people don't consider the best elective options for skill-set development.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Finally I made it through the whole 21 pages of this thread...

So for my $0.02....

I certified OW in Egypt (El gouna) in 2007 - then completed a further 14 dives. No further diving until 2011 when working in Qatar 1 did my AoW - in some ways it was a joke. I spent the 4 dives getting back into the swing even though I took the peak performance module. The deep dive was laughable I had to pretend as from the shore we could only get down to 16m! On the upside Vis was shocking and reminded me how spoilt I'd been in the Red sea.

No more diving Jan this year joining a dive club in Dubai - we dive as buddy pairs, no guides all off boats mainly in the Mussandam (Gulf of Oman). Needed to do Nitrox here and AoW was recommended as most dives are +18m (OW limit)

It now being September and the end of the month will see the 100th. All in open water not quarries etc. Over the past 9 months I've learnt and experienced up currents, down currents, wild 6knot currents, hung onto a rock watching the fish life while the current is vibrating you reg and mask etc.

My point begin here is: by the time I did my AoW the extra dives and the experienced gained was negligible, the time from AoW to Diving again, was the same. I just held a card that's it. Sure I knew the mechanics but needed to "re learn" to dive again - like muscle memory. Fortunately my buddy has 500+ dives and so took it slow - I wasn't as bad as I fear I'd be (lots of self pressure not wanting to look a clown) and I'd talked down my abilities. Over a few weeks as it all came back I was invited out to more challenging sites and by heck I've learned loads!

Regarding log books - mines electronic and has the computers dive graph so hard to forge - I use it to keep a track of my improvements and where I go. It came in useful in the Maldives as I could prove over 30 dives with my most recent being 4 days before arrival.

Regarding check dives - By Maldives law I didn't need one, however the first dive was with OW people so nice and easy. I didn't notice but assumed the DM's were checking us out anyway. The fact we rolled up with our own gear which wasn't shiny but not old, were both wearing wings with well used SMB's and reels hung on - thus not requiring one to be given nor needing instructions on use (we were kindly asked if we were okay with deployment - we do it every dive).

Had the DM wanted skills - we'd have done them - I hate the thought of doing mask off - but can and will do, at the end of the day they as DM have a legal responsibility and if anything happened they'd be first in line so am happy to play by their rules.

Yes I did see AoW divers not being buoyant, sculling having crap trim too indeed the majority of other group divers we saw were in clumps around the guides flailing along...I presume because they mainly only dive on vacation .

One of our group had 300 + dives, and had a worse SAC than me - despite him being a gym bunny and me being a smoker.. he hadn't' dived in 6 months. regular practice is the only way...


To further this, discussion - apparently I have enough dives to undertake DM (after rescue) - and given my recent differing diving experiences in locations which are more challenging than the majority of Rec divers I should feel I'm ready to do it? But I don't - perhaps because I dive with people vastly more experienced than me I don't think I'm ready, sure I can dive and am happy with trim buoyancy and now air consumption - yet I still don't think that 100 dives is enough. I've mastered the skills and now refining them. but ready to do DM? Nope!

Personally I think that the certification OW and AoW should be rolled into on with more dives and that Nitrox should be taught from the off, however to be considered advanced surely you need to take into account dives per year ( a bit like a loyalty card - the more you do the better grade not cert you get that year - take into account type of diving too as true OW dives (the ocean) would generally be more challenging than a quarry say (its an example not meant to be confrontational) Caves, wrecks, Ice, CCR, and Tech are more challenging again

How you'd prove your dives is another matter.

Just my ramblings

 

[Tigerman]

The only problem with AOW eLearning is that it reduces your options for elective dives. At present, only the following options are available:

Mandatory Adventure Dives: Deep, Underwater Navigation

Elective Adventure Dives: Night Diver, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck Diver, Boat Diver and Underwater Naturalist.

If your LDS doesn't have a suitable wreck, or opportunity for night diving, that could easily leave you no option but Boat and Naturalist... which some people don't consider the best elective options for skill-set development.

Nope, but youll also be stuck with PPB as the third of those elevtives which definetly IS a good one for skill development if you have limited experience (which is likely at the point you take AOW)

 

[McGlencoe]

I completed my OW in May and then right into AOW, but as I was doing private lessons, the instructor spread the AOW out over quite a few dives, by the time I had completed my night and deep dives, I had 15 dives logged. I advanced into AOW just so I could dive more, the dive shop offered a great deal on equipment rental as long as I was training with them, so it was a great way to use different eqs. on more dives as I was slowly collecting eq. of my own.

Now with 24 dives under my belt and most of my equipment collected, I feel pretty comfortable diving and glad that I jumped right into the AOW class.

 

[JBFG]

I did the same thing.
Did my OW in Cooooold Edmonton, Canada. Went to Mexico 10 months later (no dive in between) and did my advance. 1st dive was a deep dive which was also a wreck. I had no problem with my buancy or anything really. The reason why I did this instead of just not doind some diving are the restrictions as stipulated before. I mean, diving advance can let me go to 130' instead of 60'. Plus I found that the AOW dives were well, diving. not really a bunch of skills stationary.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Over the past 9 months I've learnt and experienced up currents, down currents, wild 6knot currents, hung onto a rock watching the fish life while the current is vibrating you reg and mask etc.

Not sure where you got the figure from, but I seriously doubt you held onto anything in 6 knots of current. Attempting to hang onto a rock in 6 knots of current would require superhuman strength ... and would cause your reg to freeflow, remove your mask, and peel away anything not firmly attached to your body.

People have a tendency to overestimate how much current they can dive in ... and underestimate the incredible power of moving water. I've been in six knots of current ... once ... and hanging onto anything was utterly out of the question. All you can do is go along for the ride.

Other than that ... nice post ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added September 5th, 2013 at 07:10 AM ----------

I did the same thing.
Did my OW in Cooooold Edmonton, Canada. Went to Mexico 10 months later (no dive in between) and did my advance. 1st dive was a deep dive which was also a wreck. I had no problem with my buancy or anything really. The reason why I did this instead of just not doind some diving are the restrictions as stipulated before. I mean, diving advance can let me go to 130' instead of 60'. Plus I found that the AOW dives were well, diving. not really a bunch of skills stationary.

... and that's exactly the reason why I think people should NOT go directly from OW to AOW ... especially with a lengthy period of non-diving in between. Sure it lets you go to 130' ... but it doesn't do much to prepare you for diving that deep. It's all well and good unless something goes wrong ... in which case you're ill prepared to deal with it, in which case you'll either be relying on someone else to get you to the surface safely or we'll be reading about you in the Incidents and Accidents forum.

It's the RARE individual who's mentally ... much less physically ... prepared to go to 130' on their fifth dive ever ... especially after a 10-month interval between dives 4 and 5.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[chrpai]

Jumping in without reading and merely considering the topic....

What if instructors came up with a way of offering this class twice. Once initially after OW to provide the additional experience and skills tuning and then again later in the divers career when they are ready more intense training? Something along the lines of a Fundies or Intro to Tech but in a recreational context. (Higher standards then typical specialties.) Perhaps "master diver" should actually be a real class.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Jumping in without reading and merely considering the topic....

What if instructors came up with a way of offering this class twice. Once initially after OW to provide the additional experience and skills tuning and then again later in the divers career when they are ready more intense training? Something along the lines of a Fundies or Intro to Tech but in a recreational context. (Higher standards then typical specialties.) Perhaps "master diver" should actually be a real class.

I offer a 4-dive skills workshop for newly certified divers who want to work on skills in a supervised setting. It's pretty popular, and helps my students get way more out of an AOW class when they get to the point of taking it. Then again, my AOW involves way more than just diving, and it's the rare individual who could meet the class objectives straight out of OW.

In some agencies ... NAUI and SEI for example ... Master Diver is a real class. In NAUI, it's the diving skills portion of their DM curriculum ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[supergaijin]

I did the same thing.
Did my OW in Cooooold Edmonton, Canada. Went to Mexico 10 months later (no dive in between) and did my advance. 1st dive was a deep dive which was also a wreck. I had no problem with my buancy or anything really. The reason why I did this instead of just not doind some diving are the restrictions as stipulated before. I mean, diving advance can let me go to 130' instead of 60'. Plus I found that the AOW dives were well, diving. not really a bunch of skills stationary.

Sounds like someone needs a similar bumper sticker on their scuba tank. Anyone can go below 60'- the question is will you get back up? Will your buddy? Having 'no problems with buoyancy' is only a small part of surfacing safely after a dive to significant depth. They say "ignorance is bliss"...

This dog pretty much sums up my feelings on that...