Question: Why are divers usually cool people?

[jhelmuth]

Walter... Jeremy...

You need to remember that the "Advanced" in AOW doesn't mean he's advanced in his diving skills (or anyone else for that matter)!

 

[JohnStrr]

Uhhh.... Hypothermia??

 

[Walter]

"You need to remember that the "Advanced" in AOW doesn't mean he's advanced in his diving skills"

Well that's certainly obvious. His instructor is also an idiot.

 

[washow88]

Welcome to scuba jeremyrfoster.
I talked about AOW before in a different forum.
Some instructors are so money hungry and they would do anything to take your money.
I have seen it in the pool, students are in the shallow end of the pool and the instructor is convincing them to sign for the AOW.
If I have a choice, I would change the rule. To become AOW diver, you must have 20 untraining dives in your logbook.
Walter is absolutely correct; AOW does not mean you are advanced in your diving skills.

 

[Windwalker]

Considering some boats won't take you without an AOW, You can bet that instructors are going to start pushing AOW more to BOW students, so they won't have to deal with the embarrassment in addition to other rea$on$.
Not saying its correct.. those are just the facts.
We will start seeing a lot more inexperienced AOW people as time goes by.

Hopefully that will get the Boat people to look at the log books and not at the Ccard. Why in heck does one need AOW if they have had Stress and Rescue, Depth Diving, Boat Diving, Night & Limited visibility, Nitrox, and 62 (non class related) dives under the belt.

I just don't get it.
:huh:

 

[Cave Diver]

Walter once bubbled...
"You need to remember that the "Advanced" in AOW doesn't mean he's advanced in his diving skills"

Well that's certainly obvious. His instructor is also an idiot.

C'mon Walter, dont hold back... Tell us how you REALLY feel!

 

[Walter]

"dont hold back... Tell us how you REALLY feel!"

That could get me in trouble. I think it's best if I do hold back.

 

[Boogie711]

It's deplorable that such a move is even possible.

Maybe next we'll hear about someone getting OW, AOW and Nitrox certifications all in a weekend resort course.

 

[ScottyK]

At the LDS I frequent now, the instructors won't combine the classes. Also, to thier credit, they refuse to do AOW certs in a quarry (I know that this in not practical in all states). The owner insists that you go out on a two tank boat dive in the ocean to get your deep water portion done. His attitude is that if you're going to give a boat captian a C-card with his name on it, it's damn well going to mean something. I applaud him for it.

I got my AOW through his competition, who I've since stopped patronizing for several reasons. We did it in a quarry, and man was my first boat trip out into the Atlantic stressful. I only wish the guy who trained me kept the same standards.

 

[OceanShark]

I also took my time getting me certification levels increased. I started with OW. After a year I decided that I felt confident enough in my ability (plus I wanted to learn more) to take the AOW. Then Nitrox because it interested me. After playing with that for about a year I decided to take the Rescue Diver course due to hearing about one of my buddies (who is faily new to diving) going into underwater panic, and the person he was with did not know how to deal with it. Thankfully they were in only 10 feet of water so when he shot for the surface nothing terrible happened. After hearing that I took the Rescue course for my buddies and my own safety. Its been another year, and I am now going to get Wreck cetified because I feel confident enough in Diving to move on, and to pursue what I got into diving for... Shipwreck exploration. Just because you have the cards does not mean you should be diving beyond your own personal level. One thing my dive instructor said to be before I even started to dive is "Dont let a card go to your head. It cant take the place of experience"

Dave