ADVANCED CLASS...HERE OR COZUMEL

[Marc Lieberman]

So, I just received my OW cert and am very excited. I have an 8 day trip planned to Cozumel in the beginning of April. My question is: since I am going to be paying for dives there already, would it be better to get my advanced while I am there. The other option would be to get it done earlier here in chilly Colorado. Thanks for the help

 

[NorCalDM]

I would do my training at home and then just have fun diving on my vacation.

 

[uncfnp]

It depends on your priorities. I hate deep quarry diving with the thermoclines so I chose to do AOW on vacation in Florida and that was before online course work was available. Plus it gave me dives in the conditions I will actually be diving. For me it was the right choice.

 

[Marc Lieberman]

Where they do the diving here, the water is a chilly 63 degrees. Also, I can't go until Dec or Jan when its likely to be 20 degrees outside...brrrr

 

[yle]

"chilly" 63 degrees? That's summertime water temps for us...

If you're going to do your AOW in Coz, it will really pay off to do your homework in advance. By that I mean not only read the chapters and complete the Knowledge Reviews, but arrange the details with the shop: exactly which dives you will have planned to do on which days.

In Cozumel, a deep dive and drift dive are part of the normal routine; that is, you're not sacrificing any "vacation dive time" to accomplish those. But the navigation dive will have to be done somewhere out of the current and in shallow water. You don't want to sacrifice a morning to do that when you could be taking a regular dive trip to see interesting stuff. Better if the nav dive can be done sometime (like in the afternoon) when you wouldn't have been doing a regular dive trip.

Find out what options are available for the remaining two dives. If they try to sell you on a "boat dive", just know they're not giving you your money's worth. Every dive you do there will be a "boat dive", and so you'll pick up everything you need to know whether you're in an AOW course or not.

A night dive would be very useful; I always try to include this in my AOW courses.

And a shop that really wants to provide you with a valuable course will suggest either a "peak performance buoyancy" dive or a fish identification dive. The fish ID dive is often panned, but if it's done properly it can be very worthwhile.

It would also be useful to get the performance requirements for each of these dives in advance, so you know exactly what your instructor should be doing with you on each dive. The deep dive is not just a "follow me, we're going to 100 feet". All of the dives have explicit requirements that connect with the material in the book.

Overall, the more preparation you do for the course, the better experience you'll have.

 

[yle]

One more suggestion: if you're going to be in Coz for 8 days, avoid doing your AOW at the beginning. Spend a couple days just diving for fun. This will give the guides and your instructor a chance to help you polish your basic skills and to get a better idea of how best to handle your AOW schedule. You can then spread your AOW dives over three or four days, if necessary. And then you'll have a couple days afterward to do more "just for fun" diving.

 

[TMHeimer]

I would do my training at home and then just have fun diving on my vacation.

I always advise exactly this regardless of what course one plans to take. I guess if your reasons are time related (too cold at home 'til next summer, etc.) or financial (you'll be paying for dives anyway in Cozumel) there is some reasoning there. At least I would get the manual at home (or e learning if that's possible) and do all the knowledge reviews ahead of time so you have no studying the do down there. But I'm not sure how this works now--maybe the shop in Coz would want you to buy the whole thing from them.

 

[Bratface]

I would rather get my training at home and enjoy my diving. You will already have learned the skills required for AOW and be able to use them for you dive trip.

 

[driftwood]

I know that AOW is required to advance a person's training and I strongly advise all divers to take a rescue/stress class. Pushing an AOW class isn't always the right way to teach people how to be scuba divers rather than people certified to dive.

Just a thought, why not skip the AOW card at this time and spend the money on a private dive master for some/all of your dives? Personally, I think hiring a private DM on Coz is a bargain. They can help you polish your skills while greatly enhancing what you see on the dive. On our last trip, we broke away from the group and had a very different dive than the rest of the people on the boat. In the water first and the last to get back on the boat. Want to see a splendid toadfish? Just ask. Trouble with a specific skill, same answer.

Remember to tip the DM at the end of the dive. Problematic that the DM will get the tip if you give it at the office at the end of the vacation.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I'd do it at home. The first adventure dive students have with me is ppb/buoyancy. I set a high standard to meeting the performance requirements, so people often have to repeat that dive, often with assigned practice.

But if you just want a c card, then vacation works.