Calling SSI divers

[SC_Hoaty]

I've never heard of not having a schedule for when the O/W dives will be.

The "schedule" can be very loose some times - weather can screw stuff up. My first shot at OW dives was cancelled by flooding, my second shot by a hurricane that sank the boat.

 

[Thalassamania]

Sure, schedules change, but to not have a schedule? That seems odd.

 

[RonFrank]

The PADI one you do not fully complete the courses in AOW I believe.

PADI AOW has a prerequisite of OW, nothing more. You do five dives including Navigation and Deep. The rest are student choice but a lot of shops choose for the diver. Mine were Altitude, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Night. These are the most useful of skills for our area so it was fine that the LDS chose the curriculum.

I took OW and AOW back to back. AOW allowed me 5 additional divers with an instructor to firm up Skills. After that my buddy and I felt prepared to dive on our own which we did. PADI AOW is complete after the classroom, pool sessions, and 5 CO divers. We got our AOW certs with zero unsupervised OW dives. I honestly believe this is the best way to do OW/AOW.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

I honestly believe this is the best way to do OW/AOW.

Really? Certifying "Advanced" divers who have never done an unsupervised dive? I can understand that this is acceptable, but "best"? C'mon.

 

[starrlamia]

Sure, schedules change, but to not have a schedule? That seems odd.

my class didnt have any scheduled, because we all had different schedules and our teacher had to schedule around his work and other responsabilities, we ended up scheduling it the last day of class, which was fine for me.

 

[RonFrank]

Really? Certifying "Advanced" divers who have never done an unsupervised dive? I can understand that this is acceptable, but "best"? C'mon.

I do not consider the cert Advanced. I would not consider it Advanced if the student had 50 dives, would you? The class teaches divers the things they need to know for basic diving. Navigation, Deep, Buoyancy Control, Altitude (we dive over 5000'), and Night. These are all basic skills. When would you have a diver learn them, or be working on them? ASAP is the answer. It speeds the learning process a lot having more time in a classroom, pool, and in OW with an instructor learning these skills. The student will then need practice but at least I knew what to work on when diving on my own. After passing OW I am not sure I had a good feeling about diving on my own. After AOW I had a LOT more confidence.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

I do not consider the cert Advanced. I would not consider it Advanced if the student had 50 dives, would you? The class teaches divers the things they need to know for basic diving. Navigation, Deep, Buoyancy Control, Altitude (we dive over 5000'), and Night. These are all basic skills. When would you have a diver learn them, or be working on them? ASAP is the answer. It speeds the learning process a lot having more time in a classroom, pool, and in OW with an instructor learning these skills. The student will then need practice but at least I knew what to work on when diving on my own. After passing OW I am not sure I had a good feeling about diving on my own. After AOW I had a LOT more confidence.

Guess your OW and mine were very different. I went out the next day to dive with a buddy.

It took me a year or two before I got the AOW. It was more "advanced" than my OW was, but far from any tech diving. After all, it is a recreational cert.

 

[freewillie]

I've never heard of not having a schedule for when the O/W dives will be.

This store seems to be very flexible in working with students schedules. Instead of making them commit to set schedule class these days, pool these days, ocean these days they will assess his progress then move on when they feel he is ready. They were also very flexible in working around days that will work. I'm sure they have set day they would like to take students out but think they are not as set in these students have tod pool or ocean.

Personally feel this is better for the student. It is probably not good from strict business model, but we hear here on SB all the time divers saying did not feel ready for ocean but was on the schedule for classes so let's just try and see how you do. Lots of threads to this effect.

I actually did not let on until later I was also certified but thought initial answer was what I'd expect here on SB by other instructors. After that I had no questions he'd get very good instruction.

Just wanted to be sure when booking dive charters he wouldnt be questioned or denied because the shop was PADI elitist. BTW looking two weeks Hawaii August, so wanted to know if anyone had bad experience with their SS certs.

 

[freewillie]

Forgot add last reply thanks to all who have answered so far. Really appreciate input

 

[fjpatrum]

PADI AOW has a prerequisite of OW, nothing more. You do five dives including Navigation and Deep. The rest are student choice but a lot of shops choose for the diver. Mine were Altitude, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Night. These are the most useful of skills for our area so it was fine that the LDS chose the curriculum.

I took OW and AOW back to back. AOW allowed me 5 additional divers with an instructor to firm up Skills. After that my buddy and I felt prepared to dive on our own which we did. PADI AOW is complete after the classroom, pool sessions, and 5 CO divers. We got our AOW certs with zero unsupervised OW dives. I honestly believe this is the best way to do OW/AOW.

I always thought the PADI AOW had a requirement of 25 lifetime dives to actually receive the card. That would imply doing your training dives (call it 10 dives) plus 15 dives on your own (ostensibly) that proved you were competent to plan and execute your own dives without an instructor. Is that not the case? I know at least one of our local shops does it this way...

EDIT: Can't seem to find any reference to 25 dives for AOW "completion" on PADI's website...