Aow=bs

[MXGratefulDiver]

It may be BS for most divers that have several dives under heir belt already, however for the newer diver it does give them the opportunity to do 5 more dives, experiencing new dive environments, with a qualified instructor... and I believe this was the purpose for the AOW certificate.

Just my opinion...

Depends on the instructor. I rarely accept an AOW student with less than 25 dives ... counselling them to go out and develop some comfort with what they learned in OW before taking the next class. I'll even take them diving ... or help them find a mentor who will. But I do try to be clear that unless they have a certain comfort level with the basics they should have learned in OW, they won't be able to complete the AOW class curriculum or achieve the skills they are paying me to teach them.

I doubt anyone who's taken AOW with me would consider it BS ... many of them come here from other states to take the class (my current class is two students from Oregon, but I've had students from as far away as Minnesota and Colorado). They wouldn't be coming this far if they thought it was BS.

What's wrong with a lot of AOW classes is that they are marketed as "five more dives with a qualified instructor" ... ... qualified for what? If they don't teach you anything new ... if they don't challenge you to improve your skills and show you how to take your diving to a higher level ... then what's the qualification? And if it happens to be the same instructor you took your OW with, then perhaps you should be asking yourself why you need five more guided dives in the first place. Aren't they supposed to be teaching you how to plan and conduct dives as part of your basic OW training?

It's your money ... but to my concern, if you come out of any diving class feeling like you didn't meet the goals you established for yourself going in, then you should find a better instructor. One, perhaps, who's committed to actually teaching you something worthwhile in exchange for the money you spent and the time you invested taking the class.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[jviehe]

Are you saying his skills were great after passing the course, but went to crap after going AOW? Do you not believe there are many crappy PADI courses where little is learned? Sure, there are crappy SSI and NAUI courses, but I would also bet there are more crappy PADI divers than any other agency.

Im saying that this one anecdote does not equate to the AOW certification being BS. Its entirely possible that this guy was able to master the requirements of the AOW certification course, and then go on the next dive and screw everything up. The description in the OP sounds like textbook stress. There are no facts as to whether he is even certified AOW or proof of his dive experience. The OP basically just came on here and slandered some diver he doesnt know based on one experience observing him, and them blamed his certificiation.

 

[Tanker299]

If I may ... and yes, I have not been diving (or posting here) in over a year (my new baby girl needed constant attention, kids, go figure)

I got certified back in 91 in Germany (US Army) and after that dove mainly in Egypt, Israel and Jordan. I wanted to do it purely recreational and have continued to dive "sporadically" over the years but never in any sort of hard-core fashion.
Although I have had many opportunities to take the AOW training, for one reason or another I never have, yet it has never been an impediment to my diving.

Now, that I live in NJ (brrrrr) my dive op requires AOW for boat dives so I'm sort of *forced* to go that route. I'm certainly not against doing it because it gives me time to take structured teachings from a dive instructor.

While AOW may not make you an "advanced" diver, and semantics aside, it does give you the opportunity to do more dives with a group and with an instructor if for nothing more than making you more comfortable under water and with the equipment. I mean, if we didn't need this at one point in our diving life we'd all have gills instead ...

AOW, regardless of operator, is definitely not bs in my mind as it does provide value to the many divers who have just either discovered the sport or need more *direct* attention for just a bit longer in their learning.

Oh, yeah ... I love the ocean, always have, was born next to it and lived next to it for most of my life, yet, I am the guy who will undoubtedly be downwind hugging the side of the boat for most of the trip, both ways. And I'm known on occasion to lose all sense of balance while taking my fins off but I have been fortunate to have folks give the old man a hand, while snickering nevertheless but a helping hand is worth much more than an elitist comment about someone's experience

Alex

 

[Scubagolf]

The name of the course(s) could be changed to reflect reality: call it EOW (Extended Open Water), or maybe BOW (Beyond Open Water.)

 

[Kamchatka]

"Puked after both dives."

REAL divers don't get seasick!

 

[The_DivePirate]

I still say that OW2 would be very suitable. There is nothing advanced about it.

Joe

 

[Garrobo]

What Kamkatcha said.

 

[TSandM]

You know, reading over this whole discussion, it seems to me that the problems are these:

First off, the OP was using an n of 1 to dismiss AOW as a concept. There's a problem with that, because in trying to draw conclusions about the value of a class based on one graduate of it, you are unable to determine whether the class is junk, the instructor was junk, or the student was incapable. I used to take riding lessons from a man who was probably one of the finest instructors and riders on the planet. For years, he taught Olympic level students, but he got bored or cynical, and decided to take his instruction to the "little folk". Watching his students at a clinic, you'd get the idea this guy was completely bogus, because he was teaching very low quality students. He liked doing it, and seeing if he could make silk purses. But observing one student gives very little information about the value of a class or the talents of a teacher.

Second, the criteria being used to evaluate the student are extremely personal to the OP, and clearly, the majority of us do not feel that most of the criteria are valid to dismiss the class. Seasickness, for example, has nothing to do with one's education.

And third, the discussion has gotten sidetracked, as it always does, into an uproar about the unsuitability of the NAME of the AOW class, because the results being turned out, in general, don't match most people's ideas of what an advanced diver is. That still begs the question of whether the CLASS (which is hard to discuss, because it varies from what I took, which was absolutely minimally helpful, to Bob's class, which I'm not sure I could pass today) has anything to offer.

As a result of those poorly defined parameters, these discussions can, have and will rage for pages . . .

 

[D_B]

......

 

[freediver]

<this post is simply filler...just waiting for the page to turn>