AOW vs. Specialties

[aujax]

but what do you need to get to the next level - do you have to take the whole AOW course to go on to Rescue Diver, or Divemaster, or can you just take a couple specialties and then go ahead?

 

[MISFIT DIVER]

I'm not sure if anyone else has heard of this, but my understanding is that PADI is now going to allow a nitrox dive as part of the AOW required 5 dives. I belive they are not going to require any formal trainning. Suppose to be an over view of the enriched air specialty and count towards one of the required dives.

 

[mwilding]

MISFIT DIVER once bubbled...
I'm not sure if anyone else has heard of this, but my understanding is that PADI is now going to allow a nitrox dive as part of the AOW required 5 dives. I belive they are not going to require any formal trainning. Suppose to be an over view of the enriched air specialty and count towards one of the required dives.

They already do and I have already done it. You have to do your classroom sessions for Nitrox seperately, but your first two AOW dives can be on Nitrox and you are good to go once you show the instructor you know how to log the dives...

 

[IBKuz]

To start the Padi Rescue Diver course you have to have AOW. To be certified as a Rescue Diver you also have to have taken a recognized First-Aid course and have a valid CPR Card, at least this is what I needed. To start DM courses you have to be RD certified and have 20 logged dives.

Ian

 

[Lead_carrier]

PhilD once bubbled...
SSI require 4 specialities and 24 logged dives for AOW. I thought the standard of the SSI specialities was awfully low and learned little from them, most was common sense.

Each required two dives, but you could actually do multiple courses at a time, ie: fall off a boat and drop past 60' twice breathing Nitrox at night and you completed the necessary dives for Deep, Boat, Nitrox and Night. That along with the basic coursework hardly qualified anyone as an Advanced diver in my view, but there you go. Actually completing 24 dives was far more beneficial to me, than the actually specialities.

Sounds like you need to find a more challenging LDS or instructor. My AOW students do basically the same things as you described but they don't do all 4 at once, as apparently, your instructor did. We'll dive deep, I'll make them do some motor skills and thinking drills to show them how their reactions are at depth. There is a possiblilty the can combine 2 specialties on some dives but not more.

At least with SSI, 24 dives are required I started to do a specialty class with different agency for divemaster. The instructor didn't like questions I was asking and got sorta huffy. After class we had a student/teacher conference. He really got huffy when he found out I had more dives in the specialty than he did. I thought it was kinda funny but he thought I was trying to be a smarta**. Needless to say I didn't finish that class.. or the dm course under him.

 

[PhilD]

Lead_carrier, I actually did seperate dives for all of my specialities, but it was pointed out to me that several could be done at the same time, and I'm sure that is the way some people do it.

 

[aujax]

well, thanks everyone for your replies. I'm thinking it's going to be easier and more beneficial for me to take the specialties one at a time. this will be easier on my budget ($100 a course plus rentals instead of $250 plus rentals) and will allow me to get more out of my time - i'll actually get the specialties rather than get a taste of each of them. That sounds like a bit of a waste of time (though no instruction or dive experience is really a waste of time of course!).

 

[SubMariner]

but it was pointed out to me that several could be done at the same time, and I'm sure that is the way some people do it

It depends. To which agency were you referring?

PADI only allows one Specialty per dive EXCEPT when using Nitrox. IOW, you can only do u/w photo or nav or whatever on that dive UNLESS you are doing Nitrox, at which time the dives can be considered combined.