Certification

[diversteve]

Utila is pretty low stress diving. We had to look hard to find any current. And there's a lot of shallow dives. There's a shallow small cabin cruiser wreck on the south side you can easily dive. And Black Hills is one of the best at any depth - it can't be much over 40+ - a pinnacle that reaches up near the surface. Lots of big pelagics while we were there - big grouper, barracuda, some 2' or so triggerfish (Oceanic?) and a few sharks meandering up the wall. We liked it so much we asked to go back a 2nd time.

the advanced padi course includes a night dive.

If that's your motivation you don't need AOW to be able to night dive. I wouldn't schedule it for your 5th dive but later in the week. Bring lights, often times rentals are abused or older/lower output. You can get a good CREE-based light for around $50 or less that will almost provide too much illumination. You can now buy more output/$$ but I have two of these: Penetrater 220 You can also find them online/Amazon under the Dorcy name. Actually these say Dorcy on the handle.

Shops in town night dive at a couple of shallower south side locations - we saw boats near our resort frequently. Those dives are not deep, they train on them during the day. Many of the advanced deeper dives are on the north side.

Personally I'd just dive the rest of the week. A lot of what you do in AOW I'd already done without it by about my 25th dive.

Do you really want to go on vacation to go to class? I suggest you contact a shop and arrange E-learning with them also - that way you've got most of the bookwork/exams out of the way before you arrive. Book it using a code/link provided by your certifying shop - I believe it's so they can get credit plus also access your records but I'm not sure.

As far as dive operator suggestions, if you're staying in town there's about 15 options. I don't know any of them personally but hear UDC mentioned favorably. If you're staying at one of the AI resorts - Laguna Beach, Utopia Village, Deep Blue Utila - you'll be diving with them on-site as it's included in the price. Also they're on the opposite side of the lagoon channel from town so all access is via boat. Coral View or Utila Lodge also as they have an on-site shop as well even though they're "in" town. Deep Blue appears to be having financial difficulties currently so although we liked them, I wouldn't recommend them now. Someone recently posted they don't even run their own boat any longer.

Here's a pretty complete list of operators. Utila SCUBA Dive Shops

 

[TSandM]

People are different. Some folks really enjoy the milieu of a class -- other are tense or constrained. So what you do depends a great deal on who you are.

I would not expect the AOW class in Utila to be particularly onerous or difficult, but you may get some good tips from the instructor. On the other hand, if you are paying money for a class, you might want more out of it than that. AOW is one of those classes with a very large variation in content, quality, and stringency from one instructor to another.

 

[azmodan50]

Wouldn't you have the instructor's attention no matter when you did AOW? Kind of a silly reason to do it right away.

In my opinion, doing AOW right after your basic cert is not respecting the potential dangers of the sport. With almost no dives under the belt, most new divers would have no clue what to do in an emergency during a deep dive. And no matter how good the instructor is, what if the instructor has a problem? Would a new diver know exactly what to do at 100'?

Take your time. Enjoy the sport. There's no need to be a cert chaser, they will always be available. I prefer to take fully specialty courses rather then the watered down versions that you get with AOW.

Just my opinion

 

[KevinNM]

So you need to dive more, but you are not a good enough diver to dive with an instructor, so you should dive with less qualified people? I must be missing something.

AOW isn't a tech course where you expected to come in with rock-solid buoyancy and trim so you can do really complex/dangerous stuff under stress, it's a basic course designed to moderately expand your skills and capability.

 

[RJP]

Wouldn't you have the instructor's attention no matter when you did AOW? Kind of a silly reason to do it right away.

It's not about whether you'll have the instructor's "full attention" but rather where they can apply it and what you can do with it. By doing AOW right away you'll have an instructor's attention when...

A.) You'll require it most, being new
B.) You'll benefit from it most, being still in a formative/learning stage

Or you can wait until you have become completely comfortable with rudimentary form and have developed relatively effective - but possibly inappropriate - coping mechanisms to compensate for things that you don't know or are unable to do. That way, when you eventually work with an instructor, he/she will have to spend much of your time together re-mediating issues and breaking you of bad habits. People can poo-poo this notion, but it's a well-understood dynamic.

Suppose we have an OW class comprised of two students that have just completed their academic and pool work with a capable, effective instructor. All other things being equal, which of them will likely get the most benefit of their AOW course and have better form/skills at 4pm on Sunday, September 27th:

Diver 1 does

• OW Dive 1 and 2 on Sat 3/14
• OW Dive 3 and 4 on Sun 3/15
• AOW PPB on Sat 3/21
• AOW Navigation on Sat 3/21
• AOW Night on Sat 3/21
• AOW Deep on Sun 3/22
• AOW Wreck on Sun 3/22
• Five and half months of diving with various buddies - each with a range of abilities and experience - including some deep stuff, some wrecks, some navigation etc and even bought a GoPro and some video lights along the way

Diver 2 does

• OW Dive 1 and 2 on Sat 3/14
• OW Dive 3 and 4 on Sun 3/15
• Five and half months of diving with various buddies - each with a range of abilities and experience - including some deep stuff, some wrecks, some navigation etc and even bought a GoPro and some video lights along the way
• AOW PPB on Sat September 26th
• AOW Navigation on Sat September 26th
• AOW Night on Sat September 26th
• AOW Deep on Sun September 27th
• AOW Wreck on Sun September 27th

 

[FinnMom]

I think the problem is that most of us think a student will get a lot more out of an advanced class if they have some experience and skill. Our club requires 20-25 dives (one of these is correct but don't remember which) from students before they can take CMAS**, this works very well, IMHO is a good idea and allows us to teach them much more in the class because we don't need to spend time with basics. For example, you can't possibly try to kick backwards until you can stay reliably stay horizontal, level and in one place (parked as it were).

BUT because so many people take AOWD immediately after OW, especially at a holiday destination place, the AOWD class has often become more a class for these divers than for divers with 20-30 dives experience. It's rather unfortunately named in this case, but it's afine thing that the class can be so flexible. More teaching, coaching and attention for a teacher is also very worthwhile, and new experiences esp. like a night dive are wonderously fun. So, since the AOWD class in practise often IS a class with divers who just/very recently finished OW (whether we at home think it should be or not), I'm sure they get a great deal out of the class too.


****
BTW I don't want to just dis AOWD. I have seen AOWD groups that were just out of OW and groups that were very ready for beginning tech training. The AOWD teacher was able to provide both groups with a class that was informative, interesting and challenging and did it within the normal hours of a commercial class. It really is a fine thing that it can be so flexible. We have a fine CMAS** class, but we don't have that kind of flexability or that range of free choice for new experiences.

 

[azmodan50]

It's not about whether you'll have the instructor's "full attention" but rather where they can apply it and what you can do with it. By doing AOW right away you'll have an instructor's attention when...

A.) You'll require it most, being new
B.) You'll benefit from it most, being still in a formative/learning stage

Or you can wait until you have become completely comfortable with rudimentary form and have developed relatively effective - but possibly inappropriate - coping mechanisms to compensate for things that you don't know or are unable to do. That way, when you eventually work with an instructor, he/she will have to spend much of your time together re-mediating issues and breaking you of bad habits. People can poo-poo this notion, but it's a well-understood dynamic.

So instead, send someone still with poor skills and reliant on an instructor off on their own with their AOW to dive at night or deep? Sounds more like a way for one instructor to get as much cash as fast as possible without regard to the student.

 

[Nasser]

If it were me, I would go from OW to the Peak Performance Buoyancy course. Yes you can get a handle on it during OW, but being able to focus in on buoyancy skills specifically with a good instructor and start developing good technique and good diving habits from the beginning (optimum weighting, trim, buoyancy, propulsion, etc..) is good way to build a strong foundation.

Buoyancy affects everything else including air consumption, environmental awareness, and your ability to effectively and gradually move on to other types of diving and take other courses - i.e photography, wreck, cavern, etc...

It's the most important skill you can learn and continue to develop.

 

[RJP]

So instead, send someone still with poor skills and reliant on an instructor off on their own with their AOW to dive at night or deep? Sounds more like a way for one instructor to get as much cash as fast as possible without regard to the student.

So you're suggesting that those folks would be better off doing deep and night dives WITHOUT the benefit of having done AOW first? I'm struggling to understand under what set of circumstances or conditions that might be true.

I'm also unsure why you're assuming that someone who received OW and AOW from a competent, effective instructor will "still have poor skills and be reliant on an instructor."

If it were me, I would go from OW to the Peak Performance Buoyancy course. Yes you can get a handle on it during OW, but being able to focus in on buoyancy skills specifically with a good instructor and start developing good technique and good diving habits from the beginning (optimum weighting, trim, buoyancy, propulsion, etc..) is good way to build a strong foundation.

Buoyancy affects everything else including air consumption, environmental awareness, and your ability to effectively and gradually move on to other types of diving and take other courses - i.e photography, wreck, cavern, etc...

It's the most important skill you can learn and continue to develop.

Spot-on in terms of buoyancy control. OW to PPB is a sensible progression as well. (I forget the DAN statistics, but the error chain in a staggering percentage of dive accidents starts with a buoyancy control issue.)

Here's the recreational training progression I took over the first few months of diving:

OW Academics and Pool - January 2006 in NJ
OW Dives (Logged Dives 1-4) - February 2006 in West Palm Beach
EANx (SDI, no dives) - February 2006 in NJ
AOW (Logged Dives 5-9) - March 2006 on Maui
Four "Fun" dives (Logged dives 10-13) - March 2006 on Big Island
Drysuit and PPB classroom and CW sessions - April 2006 on a Friday in NJ
Dry Suit (Logged Dives 14-15) - April 2006 the next day (Sat) in PA
PPB (Logged Dives 16-17) - April 2006 the next day (Sun.) in PA
Liveaboard Trip (Logged Dives 18-44) - April 2006 on Cayman Aggressor
Boat Diver/Discover NJ Wreck Diving Academics - May 2006 in NJ
Boat Diver/Discover NJ Wreck Combo dives (Logged Dives 45-46) - May 2006 in NJ
Two fun NJ wreck dives (Logged Dives 47-48) - May 2006 (the next day) in NJ
Wreck Diver Academics - June 2006 in NJ
Wreck Diver Dives 1-2 (Logged Dives 49-50) - June 2006 in PA
Wreck Diver Dives 3-4 (Logged dives 51-52) - June 2006 (the next day) in PA

I then spent the summer diving NJ wrecks almost every weekend, while also doing EFR, Rescue, and O2 provider.

Some may look at that and say I was a "card collector" at that point, but they'd be wrong. Except for the liveaboard trip, this was a specific, thoughtful training curriculum put together (in consultation with Wayne from Diveseekers who chimed in above) with the objective of becoming a safe, skilled NJ wreck diver.

Since the OP has "NJ" is his screen name (though with a DE location) I suggest you consider whether you and your son might want to dive locally on even a semi-regular basis. If so, you should give some serious consideration to a similar training progression. If you do it with anyone from Wayne's shop I can assure you that both you and your son will be highly-skilled divers at the end of the process. If Hillsborough NJ is too far for you to travel to Wayne's shop... make the trip anyway. (Many people travel far further than that to train with Wayne and/or his brother Jason.)

Even if you don't want to go all the way through Wreck course... at least do PPB locally and even the "NJ" Boat Diver course. A.) You'll get great training. B.) You'll get an exposure to local diving to see if maybe it might be something that you're interested in.

PS - I started the DM program in the Fall of 2006. (It took a full year to complete the DM program, finishing on the last day that Dutch Springs was open in November of 2007. I recall that it was snowing that day.)

 

[diversteve]

Or you can wait until you have become completely comfortable with rudimentary form and have developed relatively effective - but possibly inappropriate - coping mechanisms to compensate for things that you don't know or are unable to do. That way, when you eventually work with an instructor, he/she will have to spend much of your time together re-mediating issues and breaking you of bad habits. People can poo-poo this notion, but it's a well-understood dynamic.

And a flawed premise. Your assumption is that people are incapable of applying what they learned without the aid of a dive professional such as yourself.