drrich2
Contributor
Agreed, and many other posters have cited factors contributing to difficulty. I'll come at the issue from a couple of different angles.
First off, the term Advanced is relative; to whom is it 'advanced?'
The designation 'Advanced' is often a rating used to warn fairly new OW divers that a site is fairly likely to be beyond their comfort zone and apt to present conditions unsafe for them.
We could really muddy the waters on your topic by pointing out that sites are often designated Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced, and that your discussion is more based on Beginner vs. Advanced, it seems.
I think public rating systems (e.g.: ratings on shore dives in Bonaire) assume a mainstream average (or somewhat below) OW student with maybe a few ocean dives, ready for warm water, high viz., minimal current, depths either under 60 feet or where it's easy to stay above that, what some people call 'aquarium conditions.'
Victor brought this up a bit in his post; the consequences of a problem also matter. Shore diving Bonaire, once in awhile you may get some current parallel to shore. Whoop-de-doo in most places; you might exit a hundred yards down stream. But if ocean diving, and you surface that much farther from a privately owned boat in 3 foot seas with no SMB and the guy on the boat doesn't know what to do, well...
In that case, Advanced = Significantly likely to be risky to beginners.
The Advanced Rating is also used to mean 'more than Intermediate,' which is murkier. I know some sites in Cozumel are deemed advanced. If I were going to one, I'd probably expect stronger current, deeper average depth and possibility of shifts in current. I'd probably do that dive.
On the other hand, one of my old instructors did a Galapagos trip and described the diving in a trip report. If memory serves, cold water, fairly strong current, negative entry, reef hook, substantial exposure protection...I get the feeling you better have your ducks in a row if you plan to dive Wolf and Darwin. I would not try that at this stage in my diving, and maybe never.
To me, any dive requiring Technical diving training to perform properly is advanced from a recreational perspective.
Penetration dives, aside from the more benign guide-led swim-throughs, are advanced - in fact, overhead diving in general.
A dive, like some wrecks, requiring you to dive & spend significant time at over 80 feet deep in order to accomplish the objective (e.g.: to see sand tiger sharks on a wreck off North Carolina) is well on its way to being advanced (due to air consumption, and the inadvisability of CESA); add cold water requiring exposure protection and dangerous exits due to boat ladder drama, and I might call that advanced.
Richard.
