AOW Requirements with PADI

[jbomb001]

Hello my name is joel and I took a boat diver class... I'll admit I didn't learn anything new but I did have fun with the class. As part of the class my instructor had me plan 3 vacations,research each destination and find out if the lds in that area had its own boat or chartered a separate captain for it and where the shops were in relation to the boat access, do you have to drive from shop to dock or is your facility on the waterfront? Is there a head on your watercraft , what is included in the fee,snacks tanks Nitrox ? That sort of stuff.

Sent from my galaxy S5 Active.

 

[James R]

The revised Boat Diver class can be quite useful for people who know nothing of boats. The old class was embarrassingly thin on content.
I wish everyone had the new boat-diver class so they don't leave their gear strewn all over the deck and benches!

Yeah, well there is that! I don't think a class should be required to prevent gear grenades from exploding all over a boat, but unfortunately it does happen a good bit.

 

[RJP]

Hello my name is joel and I took a boat diver class...

Hi Joel...

I also took a Boat Diver course when I first got certified, and it was great. In addition to the straight-up logistics of boat diving it covered...

1. Specifics about how to dive off a dive charter in NJ with looking like an idiot
2. Intro to NJ wreck diving
3. How to catch lobsters

The cost of the course was only $35 more than the cost of the dive charter; money well spent.

 

[DJ457]

Before doing some of the specialties you have to have done you AOW first. For example - you mention doing the deep specialty - the prerequisite for the deep specialty is Advanced Open Water. Also for the wreck diving specialty. So make sure you check that out.

 

[jringold]

Ok, first I just about spewed diet coke all over my monitor. I just re-read my OP and saw that I called PADI “PAID”. Honestly that was actually a slip and not a smart a$$ poke at humor!

Thanks for all the great advice. I especially didn’t consider that I have to be AOW to do the deep speciality. Based on some of the input I’m rethinking all of this and think I will talk to my lds about designing a program where I can get AOW while working in the first dive of each of the speciality courses I plan to take. Then I should just have to follow-up with the remaining dives to finish them off after AOW. I also didn’t consider that following my initial plan would be a much larger expense before I can be AOW cert and thus miss out on some dive ops until completed.

We have a vacation that happens to include scuba next week (Sandals). We are planning a scuba trip that IS vacation for the spring. We are looking for a fun and affordable live-aboard trip for the spring. I would certainly want to be AOW cert by then or it could be a real boring trip!

As a side note and not trying to derail my own original thread, but we are looking at something middle of the road. From what I understand, Blackbeards is very affordable but is like camping on the water. Aggressor is totally luxury and extremely expensive. I’m thinking we need something in the middle.

Anyway, thanks for all the great input and helping me think through this.

 

[NAM001]

Isnt AOW a prereq for Master diver. So wouldn't it be AOW(with the AOW adventures) plus 3 or so misc certifications,,,, rescue and first responder being among them. I know things vary agency to agency. I think mine required for master was 3 specialitys including or plus rescue. rescue required first responder and AOW,, AOW required adventure dives. Plus of course number of dives.

My SSI certs have the qualifying classes printed on them. I would have to dig them up to see.

Were you suggesting that you could skip AOW and go straight to Master?

No, there is no time limit on dives for AOW specialty.

No, you will not "automatically" get certified as an AOW diver. You will, at a minimum need to have your instructor fill out the paperwork and (probably) pay the fee for card processing. This would apply for Adventure Diver as well.

Adventure Diver certification is given to divers who complete THREE Adventure dives (and the corresponding Knowledge Reviews)

Advanced Open Water Diver certification is given to divers who complete FIVE Adventure dives (and the corresponding Knowledge Reviews)

Accordingly, after your third specialty you could get Adventure Diver... and then do Rescue Diver instead of waiting until you complete five specialties.

Then, when you complete all five specialties you could get a PADI Master Diver cert.

 

[TMHeimer]

Before doing some of the specialties you have to have done you AOW first. For example - you mention doing the deep specialty - the prerequisite for the deep specialty is Advanced Open Water. Also for the wreck diving specialty. So make sure you check that out.

Yeah, there's that. Also, you have to consider what your end goal is, as well as what courses are available in your area. Also consider the cost should you start this course in one place and then finish it as a specialty elsewhere. I did AOW right off the bat after OW because that's the only way I could get out on a boat to dive where I was at the time. Ended up with me doing Rescue and DM a couple of years later. Is this your plan? I didn't even know what AOW was before that boat trip (and the other 3 dives in Springs).
If your plan is to be AOW certified for the trip to be "allowed" to go to 100', then just get AOW and forget the specialties for now.

 

[RJP]

Were you suggesting that you could skip AOW and go straight to Master?

No, I was assuming that OP would submit for AOW having met the criteria by applying Dive 1 from each of the specialties he laid out towards AOW.

---------- Post added September 15th, 2015 at 08:42 PM ----------

Before doing some of the specialties you have to have done you AOW first. For example - you mention doing the deep specialty - the prerequisite for the deep specialty is Advanced Open Water. Also for the wreck diving specialty. So make sure you check that out.

While I don't have my PADI specialty instructor materials handy, I believe they only require Adventure Diver cert, not AOW. A quick look on the PADI web pages for Deep Diver and Wreck Diver shows that they state...

"Also, the first dive of this PADI Specialty Diver course may credit as an Adventure Dive toward your Advanced Open Water Diver certification – ask your instructor about earning credit."

So, unless there's a circular reference going on here ("You can apply Deep Dive #1 towards AOW... which you have to have earned prior to enrolling in the Deep Diver course") you don't need AOW.

 

[DevonDiver]

You need Adventure Diver, not AOW.

This means you'd just need to order the specialities correctly. Deep or wreck would need to be 4th or 5th in order.

As an instructor, I'd sign-off AOW after dive #1 of specialty #5. I'd accept 3 specialties (Inc nav) in lieu of adventure diver.

I'd actually not recommend paying for AOW because deep supercedes it anyway... That'd be the card you showed to dive ops. The only reason to get AOW would be if you consequently wanted Master Diver.

 

[RJP]

Ok, first I just about spewed diet coke all over my monitor. I just re-read my OP and saw that I called PADI “PAID”. Honestly that was actually a slip and not a smart a$$ poke at humor!

Thanks for all the great advice. I especially didn’t consider that I have to be AOW to do the deep speciality. Based on some of the input I’m rethinking all of this and think I will talk to my lds about designing a program where I can get AOW while working in the first dive of each of the speciality courses I plan to take. Then I should just have to follow-up with the remaining dives to finish them off after AOW.

Note - unless you're doing private classes for a specialty and/or doing them with the same instructor that did your AOW you probably won't save any money or time by applying an AOW dive towards a specialty. Most shops won't discount the class because you skipped the first dive. Some won't even let you... it's more than a little disruptive to the flow and vibe of a group class to have a student miss Dive 1 (with everyone else) and then show up for dives 2-4.

If it's a different instructor who doesn't know you - and a private class - they may apply Dive 1, but will want to do a checkout dive with you to assess your skills and comfort in the water. So the net-net is you're still doing the same number of dives for the specialty class. If you signed up for a Deep or Wreck class with me I wouldn't apply the Deep or Wreck dives from your AOW cert towards the specialty... unless I conducted your AOW deep and/or wreck dives.