Reaching Greater Depths

[knotical]

What is this? I've never heard of it, and it is not mentioned by PADI in its materials. ...

It's an ISO term. Seen here: Reasons to choose PADI for your scuba certification and training | PADI

 

[tomfcrist]

Some folks have a habit of writing checks that their ass can't cash. There is a guy local to me that I certified as an ow diver. He took AOW, rescue, master diver, DM, instructor, adv nitrox/deco, and extended range within 2 years. He then bragged to me about diving to 200' on air in chukk.
The question I had to ask was not if he had the training, but rather why after all this training did he feel the need to dive to 200' just to say he did it?

I don't think there is any excuse for going deep to feel macho. If you are going to dive deep, there has to be an objective. Just diving deep because you can is stupid, and it's addictive. It prompts you to do it more and more and eventually you pay the price. Ask Exley...

 

[Colliam7]

I am eager to advance my qualifications as I have ambitions to increase my ability and reach greater depths in due time.. . . Naturally I thought I would next complete an Advanced Open Water course but have read that the name is just deceptive marketing.

As a general statement, what you apparently read is simply not true - you have read a lot of nonsense. AOW can be a great experience. It can also be a poor experience, and much of the difference depends on the instructor. Now, moving immediately from an OW certification into an AOW course may not always be the best approach, as several have said. I find that the students who appear to gain the most from my AOW courses are often those who have logged 30- 50 dives, as they are generally more likely to be 'prepared learners'. That doesn't mean that a new OW diver cannot benefit from AOW - they can. Rather, The diver who has gained a level of comfort, confidence, and fluidity with the skills they acquired in OW is a bit more likely to use the AOW experience to refine and polish skills, and come away with an enhanced sense of self-awareness. But, AOW training is most definitely NOT 'just deceptive marketing', when provided in a competent, professional manner.

What is the best way to continue to advance my qualification with the aim of diving to greater depths as soon as is safely possible?

By diving as much as you can within the limits of your current training, to broaden your base of experience. I know, that sounds like a pat answer, but it is fundamentally true. The broadening of exposure usually comes through a combination of a) simply engaging in more dives where you have the opportunity to experience new challenges, and b) pursing additional training, where you expand your limits in a structured manner. The additional diving provides the opportunity for you to a) expose yourself gradually to more diverse diving environments, in terms of temperature, visibility, currents, etc., AND b) use every dive as a training dive. That doesn't mean that every dive isn't a 'fun' dive. Instead, think about doing something as part of every dive that involves practicing what you have already learned, improving the skills you have already acquired. One simple example - on every dive practice holding your safety stop at precisely 15 feet for a full 3 minutes, without variation in depth, without finning or sculling. Before every dive, pick some skill - e.g. flooding / removing / replacing / clearing your mask - that you will practice at some point in the dive. Advance your qualifications by improving your basic skills, to the point that they are second nature, that you can do them without thinking, at the same time you are swimming neutrally buoyant.

Since you mention going deeper - in due time - I will offer a few thoughts. It is (too) easy for us to try to instill the 'fear factor' in you - and tell you how dangerous it is to go too deep, too soon, and without appropriate training, in your diving, and how you can be killed by this, that, or the other. But, that doesn't really answer the question of HOW a diver can prepare to dive to greater depths at some future point. Your subjective instinct - to dive deeper - is quite understandable, and many of us felt it early in our diving. I readily admit that I did. Not long after my Open Water certification, I started thinking, 'I want to dive to 100 feet, just to see what it is like.' Later, I started thinking, 'I want to dive to 130 feet, just to be comfortable that I can handle depths right to the recreational limit.' Then it was 150 feet, then 185 feet, then 200 feet, then 250 feet, etc. etc. It is human nature, it is instinct, and to deny that such an instinct exists, or to create an environment in which people have the instinct but fear to admit it, is not necessarily good. The challenge, and the goal, is to manage the urge, and harness the instinct, and direct the energy toward improving your skills as a diver, which will also enhance your readiness to expand your diving limits, including depth, 'in due time', as you very appropriately put it.

To dive to greater depths involves minimizing, to the extent possible, the additional risk that those greater depths necessarily impose on the diver. And, there are a number of risks associated with diving to greater depths, including some that newer divers may not even be aware of. Preparing to dive to greater (than recreational limits) depths normally involves pursuing some form of technical dive training, to help you become familiar with the risks, and to dive in a manner that minimizes (but never totally eliminates) those risks. But, most agencies require that divers has a base of experience before they even consider pursuing that training - e.g. at least X dives, at least X number of dives to depths greater than 100 feet, etc. etc. Part of the intent of having those pre-requisite requirements in place is to maximize the likelihood that divers are the 'prepared learners' that I mentioned earlier. Technical dive training is very much about equipment - that is possibly what many people see most clearly at the beginning. But, it is also very much about skills - including exquisitely precise control of buoyancy and trim. It is about procedures, and rigorous adherence to them. It is about discipline (e.g. managing those urges). And, it is ultimately about attitude.

There is no reason to wait until the start of technical dive training to work on rock solid mastery of buoyancy and trim. There is no reason to wait until the start of technical dive training to work on assembling a streamlined, functional set of gear for recreational diving, that provides optimal performance, redundancy, etc. There is no reason to wait until the start of technical dive training to read more (including many, many threads here of SB), or to talk with other, more experienced divers about diving.

If your ambitions are to increase your ability, with a longer term goal of reaching greater depths (competently and safely), good for you! By all means, go for it, aggressively and intelligently. Start with your very next dive, and practice skills that you have just recently learned, until you can do them with your eyes closed, and your mask off, and while swimming neutrally buoyant, etc. The quantitative meaning - for you - of 'in due time' will be directly defined by your willingness to actively work toward that goal on every dive.

As an example of what is possible: I dive with a woman who received her OW certification in SEP 2012. One year - 365 days - later, she had logged over 250 dives, her cumulative logged U/W time was greater than one week (10,080 minutes)- - and she had successfully completed Divemaster training. One year - 365 days - after that, she had logged over 500 dives and had full Cave certification. Was that too fast? No. Should she have 'slowed down'? Why should she? She is one h*** of a diver, and a delight to be underwater with. Just like AOW training depends quite a bit on the Instructor, an individual diver's progression depends very much on them, their desire, their ambitions, their discipline.

 

[Damselfish]

I would not call AOW deceptive marketing (which is often kind of redundant.) Some AOW classes are better than others, but if you take the class I would expect it to be at least as described. Unfortunately, the NAME is misleading and too many new divers read into it what they want to. OW2 would be a better name. There's nothing wrong with taking AOW and you probably should. Just don't kid yourself that it makes you "advanced" or all that much more ready to dive deep than you were before.

And yeah, wanting to go deep for the sake of it, especially at this stage in your diving, is dumb. There are much better goals you could set. And doing the Blue Hole so soon was not a great idea either.

 

[RJP]

I would not call AOW deceptive marketing (which is often kind of redundant.)

Agree 100%. If they called the course "Advanced Diver" that would be different.

Given that an Open Water cert is for beginners... "Advanced Open Water" simply means "Advanced Beginner."

 

[nolatom]

Tom, you've asked your question in the "new divers and those considering diving" column. I, a weekend lunchbucket rec. diver, would not want to dampen your enthusiasm, but, personally I would defer pursuing this goal until you are writing and responding in the "Basic Scuba Discussions" forum. You did say "in good time", and that's commendable and wise.

You've been to 40 meters already and have 8 dives. I recall I mostly stayed shallower than 30 meters until I took Rescue Diver, after about 50 dives. Then I realized there were more hazards than I had understood earlier, and learned that self-rescue was key, so you could be available to help someone else *if* you could do it safely and not turn one distress situation into two. Even so, I haven't been deeper than about 145 feet, and there was a reason for that depth (helping my buddy with a narced diver at 150 whom she brought up to 120 where he recovered). I believe Rescue made me a more safety-conscious diver, who then took his buddy responsibilities less cavalierly than when I was newer and more casual.

If you want to dive deeper than the 40M you've done once, you will need more technical skills, lower gas consumption (comes with experience) and greater gas capacity than that Aluminum 80 tank we all know and love. And if you stay down there more than a few minutes, you'll incur a decompression obligation, and if so you have crossed over from recreational diver (like me) to tech diver who needs decompression tables, more gas with custom mixtures, and a calm mind, which also comes with experience.

I don't know much about what's beneath that "line", but I do know that for now I prefer to stay above it. Best wishes for however you end up proceeding, but my advice would be to do it incrementally, not as fast as possible.

I took AOW because I recall it was a prerequisite to Rescue, at least in PADI. It was good because the instructor was good.

 

[LowVizWiz]

It's an ISO term. Seen here: Reasons to choose PADI for your scuba certification and training | PADI

"Advanced Open Water" simply means "Advanced Beginner."

I find it slightly amusing that there's no ISO Title for AOW!

Thanks for the link knotical

 

[tursiops]

I find it slightly amusing that there's no ISO Title for AOW!

And there is none for Rescue....

I was confused by the OP's use of "PADI Level 2...." when it is actually PADI OW, with an equivalence to ISO Level 2.
I've watched new divers (like the OP) do that Blue Hole 40m dive. I'm surprised there aren't more deaths.
He doesn't know what he doesn't know.... a recipe for disaster.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

We know that the first 20 dives are the most dangerous for a diver. I think it is VERY smart to recommend that a diver take AOW (or whatever continuing education) they want ASAP! Getting more dives in with an instructor, SOON after certification should enhance the diver's safety and help "solidify" their skills AND make them much safer to continue on with diving on their own.

AOW is not really "advanced" but I think it is more and more desirable as the OW classes get more and more abbreviated.

 

[oszillodrom]

We know that the first 20 dives are the most dangerous for a diver.

Is this true? Not trying to make a statement, just curious.