bobfmdc
Contributor
Since I see this thread is still active, this is a post script on what I posted above in November 2015 regarding my wife's 1973 NASDS cert.
In August 2016, while on our now annual trip to Grand Turk, rather than getting an SSI replacement card, my wife took the NAUI Advanced Open Water certification from the dive shop we have been dealing with for about 15 years (Grand Turk Diving). Their AOW cost currently is advertised as $440, but it includes 4 open water dives. Since a two tank trip down there costs $105, and if she was not taking the course she would otherwise be diving with us, our net out of pocket for the cert was about $220. This was consistent with what it would have cost simply to get an SSI card locally (as I described above), but much less trouble than to find an SSI instructor and go to all the trouble of getting the SSI card dives done (less if local quarry fees are included). It was also more fun.
Someone asked earlier about what was required in an AOW course compared to the old open water courses. My wife's AOW online study course was sort of a recap of the usual open water course material and included a test. For NAUI AOW water work, you pick 4 "skills" to address on your 4 dives. My wife, or maybe her instructor, picked navigation, search and recovery, fish identification, and deep diving. The latter was just a bounce dive to 130' with some comprehension testing there. There was also some underwater knot tying involved in one of the dives. While none of this was new to her (maybe the knotting was) since she has made about 400 recent dives in the last 18 years, I and she both recall that none of the 4 skills was addressed in her 1973 NASDS certification.
In August 2016, while on our now annual trip to Grand Turk, rather than getting an SSI replacement card, my wife took the NAUI Advanced Open Water certification from the dive shop we have been dealing with for about 15 years (Grand Turk Diving). Their AOW cost currently is advertised as $440, but it includes 4 open water dives. Since a two tank trip down there costs $105, and if she was not taking the course she would otherwise be diving with us, our net out of pocket for the cert was about $220. This was consistent with what it would have cost simply to get an SSI card locally (as I described above), but much less trouble than to find an SSI instructor and go to all the trouble of getting the SSI card dives done (less if local quarry fees are included). It was also more fun.
Someone asked earlier about what was required in an AOW course compared to the old open water courses. My wife's AOW online study course was sort of a recap of the usual open water course material and included a test. For NAUI AOW water work, you pick 4 "skills" to address on your 4 dives. My wife, or maybe her instructor, picked navigation, search and recovery, fish identification, and deep diving. The latter was just a bounce dive to 130' with some comprehension testing there. There was also some underwater knot tying involved in one of the dives. While none of this was new to her (maybe the knotting was) since she has made about 400 recent dives in the last 18 years, I and she both recall that none of the 4 skills was addressed in her 1973 NASDS certification.
