Skills to have polished before going to AOW

[TSandM]

Funny to read this thread. I know a number of the people involved in it, and I know a fair amount about their mindsets, and it's amusing to see how people can use the exact same words to mean totally different things

One of the most important things for the OP is to recognize that MOST AOW classes are designed as close follow-ons to OW, so a high degree of skill development is not really expected. You will get more OUT of the exercises (for example, the navigation patterns) if you have enough bandwidth to think about them, and that means that staying roughly neutral and horizontal doesn't require most of your processing power. Becoming a really skilled diver takes bottom time and some diligence, and it doesn't happen overnight. Nobody (except for maybe Jim Lapenta) expects the AOW diver to be capable of passing GUE Fundamentals

 

[The Chairman]

Becoming a really skilled diver takes bottom time and some diligence, and it doesn't happen overnight.

Probably the very best point in this thread. There's just no substitute for experience.

 

[Johanan]

Don't be coy now: who was it? Great instructors should be outed by their students. Expose them for the gurus that they are and let the world beat a path to their door. It costs you nothing, it encourages them as well as the rest of us aspiring to greatness.

His name is Garry Dallas aka Sidemount Bob. His FB place is Simply Sidemount & Simply Tec.

 

[scubadada]

I took AOW after about 80 dives, I think I got a lot more out of it having many of the basics under control, just my opinion

 

[rbnelsoncausa]

I see there is already a lot of good advice shared here, with which I most heartily agree. Basically, you need to build comfort in the water, which includes all of the good things like buoyancy control and learning to be efficient in the water with your breathing. After a good number of dives (I saw 25 as a suggestion), you tend to relax and get comfortable and settle down. It doesn't matter so much about going deep, but just getting your skills in place. Things like mask flood and clear and reg removal and retrieval (simulated awkward moment when someone kicks it out of your mouth) should reach of point of being natural and also not a disconcerting moment. When you no longer have that extra edge about doing extra skills, adjusting weights, etc., you have arrived. By then, your basic OW skills are solid and you are ready to take on new challenges. People want to do it all right away and get saturated before mastering basic skills. It is a good recommendation to then get more familiar with your compass (which you may have been doing) and understand how it works and how to use it for more complex nav. That is yet another thing to work toward using regularly, even if you have good vis, keeping track of your direction and feeding the mental map in your mind of the way back to shore/boat. Somewhere along the way, the skills all come together, your have really good bottom times, and it's a relaxing experience. So slow down, practice your new skills to make them natural, and let yourself be lost in the experience and what is around you. Of course, while being conscious of depth and such, without it being the focus of the dive. The more relaxed and comfortable you get, the better diver you become and you learn some really neat tricks along the way for moving in and out of close areas and staying off the bottom, and not stirring up or damaging the environment. And you can build these skills in fairly shallow water where you have more time to do so due to a slower burn time of your air supply. There really is a zen point where underwater feels like being at home and it's so delightful!
Then go to Indonesia and see the amazing diversity and beauty there. Warning though: once you have been out in the islands there, it is hard to find anything that compares, so see a bit of other places before heading that way.

Happy and safe diving!

 

[The Chairman]

Just shared this thread on ScubaRadio which will air this Saturday. We drew the same conclusions!

 

[USFpsychDiver]

I'm not an instructor and compared to many of the individuals who gave advice here I'm a rank novice, but the advice to nail down the skill before taking the course that teaches that skill seems a bit odd to me. If the world ran the way I think it should (and it ought to), OW, AOW, and rescue would be the three parts of the basic "recreational diver" training level. Sure, maybe a few dives between OW & AOW so you get comfortable with gearing up and getting on and off the boat and a few more between AOW & Rescue to get trim and propulsion down. I found that my comfort and skills only improved marginally between trainings but improved greatly during training, so why wait over long? I probably didn't really get my trim nailed down until I started taking some overhead classes, and I think everyone would say you need to have it down well before you go into the overhead. I just know that I still had some struggles before taking Cavern and the struggles were gone after. So more than a dozen or so dives between OW & AOW seems excessive.

 

[TMHeimer]

I'm not an instructor and compared to many of the individuals who gave advice here I'm a rank novice, but the advice to nail down the skill before taking the course that teaches that skill seems a bit odd to me. If the world ran the way I think it should (and it ought to), OW, AOW, and rescue would be the three parts of the basic "recreational diver" training level. Sure, maybe a few dives between OW & AOW so you get comfortable with gearing up and getting on and off the boat and a few more between AOW & Rescue to get trim and propulsion down. I found that my comfort and skills only improved marginally between trainings but improved greatly during training, so why wait over long? I probably didn't really get my trim nailed down until I started taking some overhead classes, and I think everyone would say you need to have it down well before you go into the overhead. I just know that I still had some struggles before taking Cavern and the struggles were gone after. So more than a dozen or so dives between OW & AOW seems excessive.

My exact words.

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm not an instructor and compared to many of the individuals who gave advice here I'm a rank novice, but the advice to nail down the skill before taking the course that teaches that skill seems a bit odd to me.

When I am on a dive trip and I see an OW diver with poor skills having a bad time on a dive, I have an overwhelming urge to help. I want to work with that person right away. The last advice I would ever give that person is to keep practicing what you are doing until it is a perfectly groomed habit before you come to me (or someone else) and ask us to fix it.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It depends on the OW course. Some put more emphasis on buoyancy and good trim than others. With such a solid foundation you can refine it so that it is good to very good by the time checkouts start. Some of us start out with buoyancy and trim as the first scuba skill and build everything around and on that.