enough "self-rescue" in AOW?

[yle]

I had to do the vast majority of what you listed during OW. Ex. Take BCD off underwater and put it back on.

Remove & replace the BCD underwater is a required part of the PADI OW course; it is a skill performed in confined water (e.g. pool), but not one that students are required to perform during an open water dive. (You should have noticed that there are a lot of skills required in confined water, but only some of them were repeated in the open water dives. The full list of all these requirements is in the student manual for the course.)

If you didn't R&R your BCD underwater in the pool... a corner was cut from your OW class.

 

[Diver below 83]

The term AOW is being extremely miss used in this thread. The paid adventure diver is not the AOW rating. That is the ADVANCED open water. Those are two different ratings. The reason your not getting the full class and is because your doing the adventure course. Which is basically OW.
The AOW or advanced open water is a higher rating over adventure and ow. In that class as mentioned by the poster above is a much more intensive course in which you should be taught more things.

Unless you the OP are just miss using the words yourself. Paid adventure and paid advanced ARE NOT THE SAME

 

[yle]

But everyone on the check-out dives (all DMs) were shocked that in AOW I never 1) had to find my mask; 2) had to take my BCD off underwater (I did have to take it off and put it on at the top, but that's it); C) have my air turned off.

Emergency ascent was only taught in theory, not practice.

The more I read your post, the more I'm convinced it was your OPEN WATER course, and not your AOW course, that is the real problem here. Nearly everything you list for your expectations of your AOW course, including

remove/replace mask underwater
remove/replace BCD underwater
having air turned off (and responding appropriately)
emergency ascents

are required skills in the PADI (and I assume for other agencies) beginning Open Water Diver course. Seems like the root of your problem might be that your OW class was a little... lightweight.

 

[Diver below 83]

I did not realize padi uses the term “adventure” interchangeably with both the “adventure course and AOW course” that’s where my confusion came from. Sorry about that. For sdi adventure and advanced are two completely different things.

 

[yle]

The term AOW is being extremely miss used in this thread. The paid adventure diver is not the AOW rating. That is the ADVANCED open water. Those are two different ratings. The reason your not getting the full class and is because your doing the adventure course. Which is basically OW.
The AOW or advanced open water is a higher rating over adventure and ow. In that class as mentioned by the poster above is a much more intensive course in which you should be taught more things.

Unless you the OP are just miss using the words yourself. Paid adventure and paid advanced ARE NOT THE SAME

If you're referring to the PADI AOW vs the PADI "Adventure Diver"... they have the same requirements for the dives that are included in the two courses. The difference is that AOW requires Deep and Nav and three others. The Adventure Diver requires just three adventure dives.

But the performance requirements for the individual dives are the same for both courses. In that respect, AOW is not "much more intensive" than Adventure Diver.

However, you do have a point that if the OP only did three dives, he could have qualified for the Adventure Diver card and not the AOW card.

EDIT: I was writing this response as you were editing your post above. Not a problem... you're right that the terms "advanced" and "adventure" cause a lot of confusion; they mean different things to different agencies. I don't think the OP has mentioned specifically which agency's courses he's taken, although I inferred it was PADI by the description of his three AOW dives.

 

[yle]

Sounds like rescue is the way to go. I think my OW instructor wasn't all that great.

Bingo. For both statements.

 

[Diver below 83]

If you're referring to the PADI AOW vs the PADI "Adventure Diver"... they have the same requirements for the dives that are included in the two courses. The difference is that AOW requires Deep and Nav and three others. The Adventure Diver requires just three adventure dives.

But the performance requirements for the individual dives are the same for both courses. In that respect, AOW is not "much more intensive" than Adventure Diver.

However, you do have a point that if the OP only did three dives, he could have qualified for the Adventure Diver card and not the AOW card.

EDIT: I was writing this response as you were editing your post above. Not a problem... you're right that the terms "advanced" and "adventure" cause a lot of confusion; they mean different things to different agencies. I don't think the OP has mentioned specifically which agency's courses he's taken, although I inferred it was PADI by the description of his three AOW dives.

His description is a cut and paste from the padi “advanced description” online. That’s what finally connected the dots for me he wasn’t referring to the “adventure diver”

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Remove & replace the BCD underwater is a required part of the PADI OW course; it is a skill performed in confined water (e.g. pool), but not one that students are required to perform during an open water dive. .

Does PADI have the option of doing this in open water? I believe no.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

+1 for Rescue. A good RD course will really put students through their paces. If we see a student cruising or not taking it seriously we'll keep ramping up the pressure till the stress really kicks in, as that's the only way they / we will know if they can manage a real situation.

Anyone who goes into it looking a for a free pass is going to get a shock.

We've had a few blokes (and it usually is the guys) come in with the "I can handle anything" attitude, which is akin to walking into an Indian restaurant and demanding the hottest curry on the menu! Be careful what you wish for....

That said, it's a great course to take, and instruct, and you get a lot out of it.

 

[JackD342]

Does PADI have the option of doing this in open water? I believe no.

Correct. No. The two notable PADI OW skills that are pool only are the maskless swim, and the UW remove and replace BCD and weight system. If an instructor added these to OW skills on their own and something went wrong, they would be held 100% responsible.
We do remove and replace the mask UW, and remove and replace BCD & weight at the surface.