Is Padi advanced worth taking ?

[ScoobyPat]

Mike hit it on the head again by saying that AOW with inexperienced newbies consists basically of a few 'babysitted' dives with an instructor. I made the mistake of taking AOW right after my OW and I really didn't enjoy the dives because I was too inexperienced (and, yes, afraid of the deep dive).

On top of that, I finished my dry suit justy a few days before the AOW and my buoyancy was everything, but neutral. AOW, 5th open water dive with a dry suit and shaky with buoyancy to begin with - you do the math.

But...now I am AOW and that doesn't mean anything since all of ('only'-OW) buddys are way better divers than I am.

If I could chance anything, I would at least put in 20 dives are pre-requisite for AOW.

AOW was for me a 'discover the specialty' courses with an instructor, nothing more.

 

[R_Deluca]

seanrollins once bubbled...
In all honesty, my advanced course was a waste of money.

The advanced course basically allows you to dive deeper. I DM on a lot of these certs and have yet to see one that was worth taking. Of course this depends on the instructor and how much time they spend on Nav and Bouyancy, but this is PADI, smile and nod!

 

[R_Deluca]

I am not knocking the course it has the potential to be a good course, however with the dive industry being as tight as it is (pricing wise), the courses are generally rushed through and you end up having people with nine dives total, all training dives, who are now considered advanced divers!

 

[jacsac]

I think the best reason to take AOW is that it is a requirement for Rescue, which is a great class. AOW in itself isn't worth the bother if you plan on diving anyway.

 

[Warren_L]

It really boils down to what you make of the course. Anything that gets you diving and trying new things I feel is a good thing. And for some, if having an instructor along as you try new things to make you more comfortable, great! But if you don't feel you'll get much out of it, don't take it. Your choice.

 

[DORSETBOY]

When teaching the AOW, some instructors will tell students what option al specialities they should take over and above the deep and nav prerequisites, this defeats the whole point. Yes an instructor can give you advice but the AOW is meant to be about selecting specialities which a). you'll be interested in b). will give you training and experience appropriate to the conditions you'll be diving in at a later date.

An instructor when teaching any speciality should go over and above the bare min they are required too, this will also help the instructor ans he/she is that much more likely to have students doing ConEd.

Oh and the rescue course was the best I did when doing my training, again though this depends on the instructor and if they go that extra mile.

 

[Albion]

your OW course would give you all the experience to cover AOW (this is what the BSAC course set out to do and had to revise it as it is not what the market wanted), and from reading some posts here I get the impression with the right instructor it might be the case, but for many this is not true. Far too many divers seem to rush right into AOW after OW without any further experience, a good thing if the OW course was lacking and you need further shepherding but generally they are still too new to learn much more. On a recent trip we had a “rescue” certified diver with 28 dives under their belt, do you fancy being rescued by them?

I remember from my own AOW course (which I took after about 80 dives and only then because I wanted to go on a trip where AOW was a requirement, bit of waste as in 6 years diving i have only shown my C Cards to three people, and one who had a look at my log book), the instructor asked the group to descend to the bottom, which he said was 40M. While Myself and my GF did some calculations the rest of the group could hang about (they were all AOW already). We started the descent (it was 40M viz thankfully), and at 35M I realized it was still a long way down, my GF, myself and the instructor leveled out at 40M (130ft) to see the rest of the group blindly going all the way down to the bottom at around +46M (150ft), and then watched as the instructor madly tried to get them all back up again, humorous at the time but could have gone badly wrong, especially if it was low Viz. So the two least qualified divers were the only ones who used their heads! After the dive i asked the instructor what he was thinknig and got some blurred answer about not normally like this, and who qualified the other divers to dive without thinking?

The basic AOW requirements are really in there to give the instructor something to do, and I am encouraged when I see instructors thinking outside the box and instead of teaching the course as it is set down, seek to improve divers buoyancy skills diving knowledge and the like, much more beneficial than swimming around looking for lost snorkels.

 

[turnerjd]

Albion once bubbled...
I remember from my own AOW course (which I took after about 80 dives and only then because I wanted to go on a trip where AOW was a requirement), the instructor asked the group to descend to the bottom, which he said was 40M. While Myself and my GF did some calculations the rest of the group could hang about (they were all AOW already). We started the descent (it was 40M viz thankfully), and at 35M I realized it was still a long way down, my GF, myself and the instructor leveled out at 40M (130ft) to see the rest of the group blindly going all the way down to the bottom at around +46M (150ft), and then watched as the instructor madly tried to get them all back up again, humorous at the time but could have gone badly wrong, especially if it was low Viz. So the two least qualified divers were the only ones who used their heads! After the dive i asked the instructor what he was thinknig and got some blurred answer about not normally like this, and who qualified the other divers to dive without thinking?

My (UK) university dive club used PADI, and we regularly had students arrive that were already qualified by either BSAC or PADI. Before we let anybody use club kit they had to have a two part assessement. The first part was a basic scuba review in the pool, but the second part was more challenging.

We used to take them to stoney. We would plan a dive, for example down to 32m for 5 minutes (do the baby puzzle with the different shape holes), then upto the next level (at about 16m halfway between the 10m and 20m shelves) for a certain time etc....

However, we would never stick to the plan....... the person doing the check would stay at 32m for 10 minutes. Invariably from a group of 4 - 6 people, no-body would even notice that we had broken the plan. even after 10 minutes nobody would have said anything. Then coming up to the 16m wall swim we would stop at the shelf (20-odd metres) and watch.... nobody would continue up to 16m.........

Too many divers plan the dive and ignore the plan. (they accept what the instructor / dive leader tells them, and blindly follow)

After having discussed the dive it was repeated...... and repeated.... and repeated.... untill they were able to perform the dive that they had planned.

Unfortunately, unless somebody takes the time to show you what you are doing wrong you will never learn. - This type of testing wasn't unique to my old club - when I joined my current club they tried something similar............

Jon T

 

[DORSETBOY]

Deff agree with what Albion says, I would also say in particular to help most divers who have only just or have recently finished OW, they may need to improve their bouyancy skills. It worries me to see so many new OW divers with often major bouyancy skills, the Peak Perormance Buouyancy (PPB) AOW dive can be a means we can help divers improve their buoyancy and more often than not the rest will fall into place. If little thought is given to the way we teach PPB, a student diver will finish the AOW no better off than when they started.

 

[mogwai]

Am working throughaow at the moment. Seems to me it is all about experience, dive, dive and dive some more. Am also fortuntate that my buddy is alos my instructor and am constantly learning. Being in the water as much as poss seems to be the key, aow helps you further along the path.