Adventure vs Adv. Open Water PADI Course

[Peter Guy]

My guess is that the shop decided not to offer AOW because that requires two days of diving whereas Adventure Diver can be done in one day. IF there is significant travel involved, it would (sort of) make sense.


There are a few PADI specialties that require AOW but I'm too lazy to look them up right now!

 

[Bob DBF]

Any PADI OWSI can teach AOW.

Since my first thoughts are not very flattering towards the instructor/LDS, could you give me a good reason why they would not teach AOW, but instead teach Adventure Diver and Rescue.



Bob
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“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”
― Winston Churchill

 

[Oldbear]

Maybe only teaching 10yr Junior Divers for Jr. Adventure Diver; you need to be 12-14yr for Jr. AOW.

 

[The Chairman]

Not to hijack the thread, well maybe just a bit... What do you intend to do with your certifications? I mean, what is your end game, your goal, your raison de le faire as it were?

Some people just want certs to collect cards. While many poo-poo this, I find nothing intrinsically wrong with this approach. If that is the case, then the more cards, the merrier and all that matters is if you have fun!

Some people see this as a natural progression to their diving. Again, not a bad reason at all and it shows your commitment to diving and that the marketing machines are operating. Following the stepping stones to a bigger achievement is never a bad way to go.

A few really want to become better at the craft of diving. Right or wrong, this is celebrated by our community. If this is the case then the choice of instructor is more important than the shop or even agency. As RJP showed us, plinking off the requirements for each course is pretty simple and they are all pretty similar even from agency to agency. After all, AOW is required by many dive ops to do the deeper or more challenging dives like the Speigel Grove here in the Keys. But what are you really getting for your time and money? Every instructor is different and not every instructor will fit your personality or honor your goals. It's up to you to decide what you want in an instructor and that again, depends on your overall goals. Then you need to ask the shop/instructor and see if you think it's a good fit. What is the instructor's emphasis or do they even have one? Has anyone talked about them here on SB good or bad? Do any of your friends or the divers you respect have a recommendation? What is their gear like and does that even matter to you? I'm sure there are a number of other questions you can ask. Just remember, you can call a class or instructor just like you can call a dive. If you're not having fun then walk away and find someone else. Classes should be fun and challenging. If you complete a class wondering what, if anything you got out of it, find a different instructor for the next one.

 

[BDSC]

So if a person took the Adventure Diver course and later wanted to take the AOW course, could you sort of "upgrade" and just complete two more adventure dives making sure that you have taken the deep and navigation as required, or would you take it as a totally new course and do 5 dives?

 

[adam61]

I did some additional research because I didn't realize this was such a big deal in the certification world, I'm just a new diver looking for some clarification. After speaking with the dive shop owner it seems due to the recent drought there are no sites where the deep diver requirement can be completed without about a 5 hour drive which drives up the expense and time required for AOW class significantly. The deepest options nearby are 50-60ft deep and while 60ft meets the requirement it is often hard to get exactly that deep and they prefer to dive to 90-100ft for the Deep Water specialty to really get the divers experience with the differences associated with deep diving. The instructor offered to do the entire AOW course if I signed up for a 4 or 7 night dive trip to the Caribbean as the water would be deep enough to easily allow completion of the entire course.

As for the why I want more certifications it's twofold. On a recent wall dive in Cozumel they split the divers based on experience/certification and the newer divers dove around 60ft and had a decent dive, while the more experienced divers dove at 100ft over a wall and said it was one of the neatest dives they'd ever been on. So I'd like both the credentials and experience/skills to do the more difficult dives. The other reason is to continue to improve my skill set so I feel more and more comfortable in the water and in more difficult situations.

As a follow up to my previous question If I'm on a say 7 night dive trip completing advanced open water, since we are doing half of 5 specialties is it normal/allowed to complete the other dive of each specialty and come out of it with AOW and 5 specialties complete?

Thanks for all your help!!

 

[Oldbear]

The way I read the Instructor's Manual it is take the two extra Adventure Dives and make sure you have Deep and Navigation as part of the total five....and pay for a new Processing Fee for the new certification.

---------- Post added March 17th, 2015 at 09:21 AM ----------

...
As for the why I want more certifications it's twofold. On a recent wall dive in Cozumel they split the diver's based on experience/certification and the newer divers dove around 60ft and had a decent dive, while the more experienced divers dove at 100ft and said it was one of the neatest dives they'd ever been on. So I'd like both the credentials and experience/skills to do the more difficult dives. The other reason is to continue to improve my skill set so I feel more and more comfortable in the water and in more difficult situations.

As a follow up to my previous question If I'm on a say 7 night dive trip completing advanced open water, since we are doing half of 5 specialties is it normal/allowed to complete the other dive of each specialty and come out of it with AOW and 5 specialties complete?

Thanks for all your help!!

Adam,

All good reasons to take the AOW course...

I am not following you on your follow up question. Can you phrase it a little differently?

 

[The Chairman]

As a follow up to my previous question If I'm on a say 7 night dive trip completing advanced open water, since we are doing half of 5 specialties is it normal/allowed to complete the other dive of each specialty and come out of it with AOW and 5 specialties complete?

Of course!

 

[adam61]

Oldbear I think NetDoc may have answered me, but here's what I'm saying. It sounds like you do half of 5 full specialties to complete the Advanced Open Water certification. It seemed to me like a little bit of a waste not to just do 1 more dive in each specialty that same trip and have the 5 full specialties completed along with Advanced Open Water. However, since I'm not 100% comfortable with how the process works I wasn't sure if that was possible.

 

[knotical]

... to just do 1 more dive in each specialty that same trip and have the 5 full specialties completed ...

Depending on the specialty, it can be more than 1 more dive.

examples: Deep, Wreck and Search & Recovery each require a total of 4 dives
Night, Navigation and Videographer each require 3 dives.