Need Advice: AOW and the Maldives

[KnowledgeIsPower]

There's definitely some easier diving. When we did a liveaboard our very first dive was a aquarium like no-current dive with a bottom. Still nice enough, but obviously chosen as a checkout site. I'm sure there was more of that available, but everyone on the boat was experienced so I think after that they were trying for the best sites as far as marine life and scenery, and not worrying about more advanced conditions. I expect any land based resort that caters to some inexperienced divers has easier sites they can go to.

To the OP, is this something you have to decide in advance? Many resort places are fairly flexible on working in a course, assuming they have the people to do it. I suggest you ask them if that would be a problem, then dive there for a day and see how you're feeling about things then. How would doing the class cut into your 10 dives? You will still be diving if you take the class, just that you will be doing various training exercises during some of your dives. If you are concerned about losing dives you have already paid for, talk to them about it. As long as whatever additional they charge you for the class doesn't include charges for the boat dives, or they can apply the money from some of your purchased dives to your class, you won't have lost anything. Heck, maybe once you are there you can add some more dives.

They seem to be a smaller shop (they are on a local island), so I think they are fairly flexible. As for the dives, my biggest issue is we are only there for 6 days because traveling here from the US takes 35 hours each way because of all the connections! The first and last days we cannot dive because of the 24 hour no-dive advice (We arrive at Noon the first day and leave in the evening the last day). So we only really have 4 days of diving. The shop has a 3-dive/day capacity so I can really only do up to 12 dives.

They told me the class takes 3 days because of the Knowledge Reviews...so I am not sure if that means if I can only do 2 dives/day when taking the class, I have to confirm with them. And while I agree that doing exercises while diving will still be fun, I probably will be in shallower water for some of the dives and not really get to experience the nicer dive sites that the Maldives offers.

We are thinking for now it may be a better idea to for us to just stick with our OW and do the 10 dives and do the AOW later next summer when we come back (our lake freezes over until mid-may). Unless they can compress the class for us or allow us to do extra dives in addition to the AOW dives during class days I am not sure it is the best idea given our schedule.

 

[EFX]

Since you have time I would suggest working on getting your weight and trim right. Buoyancy is a lot harder if you are overweighted and your trim is off. I might be repeating what others have already said but with little or no air in your BC see if you can hover at 15 ft. Remove (or add) weight in 2 lb increments until you can. You can also check trim. Completely relax and see where you go. Move weight between trim and waist pockets until you can hover horizontally. You may need to adjust how high (or low) you wear your tanks. After weight and trim are fixed keep diving and work on buoyancy. If you have dump valves on your BC use them instead of your inflator hose to dump air as this won't disrupt your trim as much. When you feel comfortable then retry the AOW class. Tell the shop you've been working on buoyancy so they aren't prejudiced against you.

 

[2cold4california]

Nobody here saw what the instructor saw.


I've only ever heard of my instructor refusing to cert one person and he ended up getting cert by another instructor at the same shop.


When an instructor does this, it usually means the person(s) were exceptionally
incompetent divers.


After reading the description OP it sounds like your wife is the issue. Ask the instructor if he will give you the cert and tell her you need some space because she's too "buoyant".

 

[supergaijin]

I thought the Maldives had some easier diving, just not all of it or the best sites are for beginners. Thoughts?

As a rule of thumb, the closer you go to the outer rim of the atoll, the stronger the currents. There is plenty of inner reef dives that are spectacular and protected from the currents which flow through the atoll.

The more 'adrenaline' dives are the channels where currents can be ferocious.... or non-existant depending on tide, wind and oceanic forces at the time. Depending on the reef formation, it is usuall possible to drop in further away from the channel entrance where the current is generally weker, while the more experienced divers drop in at the channel directly. This does strain the resources of the boat (eg. delayed response if there were an emergency) so not all channels are suitable for this option.

Again, there are plenty of inner reef dives which are simply fantastic.

 

[bluefabian]

I have the feeling that the instructor is right. More dives will result in more confidence and you will accumulate experience in varied water environment. Some instructors pushed AOW right after the student pass OW. This guy hold it off even with your request.

I just got back from Maldives.

Some dive sites are good enough for beginners. However, be wary of currents. I had an unexpected drift dive due to the sudden appearance of strong current somewhere near the beginning. At one time - I experienced a zig-zag pattern current that drag me from the left and then to the right - all the way. It was fun - but I am sure new divers will can find this exhausting and physically challenging. In every dive that we did - the DM went in to the water first to check the intensity of the movement.

 

[KnowledgeIsPower]

So I worked out a deal with the shop we are diving with in the Maldives. We're going to do the AOW over 2 days (private lessons) and 6 more dives over another 2 days for a total of 11 dives. It works out pretty well because they are private lessons and our first dive will be a Peak Performance Buoyancy dive so that will definitely help. Then we will also do a Drift dive which I think will be very helpful for diving in the Maldives because of the currents.

Overall pretty satisfied, the other dives will be Deep, Wreck, and Navigation. I think for everything except the navigation/buoyancy we will enjoy as they probably don't require much instruction time and they will be at nice dive sites. Overall looking forward to it!

 

[Imla]

Personally... Id swap wreck for Night in the Maldives. The wrecks i dove there were pretty benign, and a bit of common sence goes a long way.
Nightdives were spectacular though! Loved the few we got.

 

[KnowledgeIsPower]

We were wanting to do a night dive but were kind of chickening out because of all the sharks ...but really, how creepy is the night dive in the Maldives? We are willing to try it just a bit nervous doing it in the Maldives!

---------- Post added August 19th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ----------

What the heck...it's a good opportunity for us to do a night dive. I would much rather do a night dive in the Maldives than in our local cold water lake! We're going to go for it and swap the wreck dive for a night dive

 

[KnowledgeIsPower]

Just came back from the Maldives and wanted to give a quick update.

Completing our AOW there was great! It was nice having the extra attention of an instructor for our first 5 dives (even though they were AOW dives, we did them at popular dive sites so we got to see a lot as well while training). Diving there was great and contrary to the OW instructor we did not feel out of control. We both were able to achieve neutral buoyancy, descend properly, and ascend at 30 feet per minute, hold a safety stop, etc. We had a couple dives with the max depth of 100-110 feet for the AOW without any issues and stayed shallower for the rest of the dives as that was where most of the marine life was! We also did a night dive which was spectacular and a great experience.

We felt so comfortable diving there, and it was nothing like our Open Water course. Granted diving in 85 degree water with no wetsuit and great visibility can't be compared to diving in a fresh water lake at 55 degrees while wearing a 7 mil wetsuit and no visibility! During our OW all of our dives were at 15 feet and even the first AOW we did before we left was at 15 feet.

To be quite honest I've learned a lot in the 11 dives in the Maldives, primarily that I have been overweighted a lot. Obviously I had to be re-weighted for salt water and to compensate the loss of a wetsuit, but I am sure I was overweighted back in our fresh water lake because achieving neutral buoyancy there was extremely difficult while it was very easy in the Maldives.

 

[Damselfish]

To be quite honest I've learned a lot in the 11 dives in the Maldives, primarily that I have been overweighted a lot. Obviously I had to be re-weighted for salt water and to compensate the loss of a wetsuit, but I am sure I was overweighted back in our fresh water lake because achieving neutral buoyancy there was extremely difficult while it was very easy in the Maldives.

Glad you had a great trip. While it's possible you were overweighted before, note that achieving neutral bouyancy is also simply much easier without a heavy wetsuit, because it's bouyancy keeps changing with depth.