What is required to become an Advanced Open Water Diver?

[socaldiver]

Hi Everyone,

In reading everyone's response I would have to agree with most. PADI has changed their AOW to Adventures dives, I have just finished my "obligatory" classroom sessions and will be doing the "Adventure Dives" the middle of June. I don't look at it as becoming advanced but having someone who I feel confortable diving with (my instructor in this case) showing me hopefully the proper techniques in these specialty dives.

I do not intend to be anything more than a recreational diver and will go no further in training after Rescue diver. I see all I want to see above 60 feet, but knowing I have done a "deep" dive, a wreck dive, etc, etc, etc only gives me some confidence.

I have only been diving for the past 5 months but dive at least 4 times a month. I am not tooting my horn because I will never feel I have enough experience to let myself become complacent but I have seen people diving off the same boats I have with more dives "logged" and have held their "c" card far longer than me and I shake my head at how they could be certified. I wonder where they got certified from. It's scary.

IMHO the OW cert should be more intense and elaborate more on not just buoyancy and the other skills sets needed, but also on some rescue and navigation as well.

Thanks for letting me put my $.02 worth in. I would just like to finish by saying find yourself a good dive buddy as I have, help each other become safer and better divers, stay wet, safe and enjoy the wonders under the sea. It's a fantastic world.

Socaldiver

 

[Warhammer]

Fishkiller,

A better approach would be to dive with someone of greater experience than yourself. Having a highly skilled diver for a buddy will do wonders for your ability. Just in observation alone you will pick up on things. And if that person is willing to teach you some of what they know regardless of their cert level, that would be great. You may not gain C-cards, but who cares, the experience is what your after. Course come to think of it, if everyone used this approach, nobody would have a buddy.

 

[Warhammer]

Several people have mentioned that PADI has changed their Advanced Open Water Diver course. That is not the case at all. They simply added the Adventure Course inbetween OW and Advanced. Adventure requires 3 "experience" dives from the specialities and Advanced still requires 5 "experience" dives from the specialities, 1 of which must be Deep and 1 which must be Navigation. Around here you'd be hard pressed to even find someone teaching the Adventure course, they say why not make 2 more dives and get the Advanced cert. Both course are, however, taught from the Adventure Diver book.

 

[OceanSpirit]

OK,

I'm really going to annoy a few people....

Frankly, I was glad to do the PADI AOW and get it out of the way and then go *real* diving. I have no need to get certified to use a drysuit or dive a wreck, I get all the information I need from the people I dive with, as I keep my eyes and ears open for new ideas. I admit I was proud as hell to get certified but the school I qualified with were more concerned with turning out well rounded students rather than coining it in handing out certificates (they went bust...) I am forever grateful to my instructors (where are you Ken and JJ??) who taught me that PADI is a means to an end and not and end in itself.

I'll go and hide now............

 

[Walter]

Let's face it, most of the agencies fall flat on their collective faces in this respect. PADI & YMCA require 5 dives, NAUI requires 6. This is ridiculous. PADI once had a pretty good course called Advanced Plus, but they dropped it. YMCA has two advanced courses, Advanced, which is one of the jokes, and Silver Advanced, which requires 10 dives and is an excellent course. LA County has (and this is hearsay - don't bet the farm on it) an advanced program that requires 3 months to complete and actually turns divers into advanced divers. Anyone living in or near LA county should seriously consider taking it.

WWW™

 

[Fishkiller]

Warhammer

yes I should have edited that post but like your reply

I have dove with a guy that has c cards and over 50 dives, but was a complete idiot underwater.(hind sight this guy Really inspired confidence in me, NOT!)

IS there a way to tell of a persons abilities without relying on c cards and number of dives? before you trust them underwater?

 

[Lost Yooper]

Do yourself a favor and don't get all caught up in all that PADI $#!^ (NAUI, YMCA, etc.). At best, I think they give you a false sense of security. If you want to become an "advanced" diver, get in the water with the right gear and stay there until you're extremely comfortable (may take months or years). Buy GUE books and learn everything you can (if there are no instructors around) and take their courses when you are up to it. If you can't, learn all you can from them via internet, and baby step your way to more advance stuff.

The only courses I would take from the basic OWD agencies are the basic class, nitrox, and adv. nitrox (if up to 100% O2). After taking these classes, forget 90% of what was taught, and start learning from the WKPP and GUE on the GUE Quest mailing list. If you really feal like donating to your favorite agency for another patch or whatever, have at it.

There's part of my take on the majority of agencies -- aack!

Mike

 

[WetDane]

LY -
I concur - I was trained by SSI, no much difference - master is 50 dives and rescue, I'm still working on actually taking the classes for advanced, but I have many more dives than I need to - I just go and have fun with it - there's no other way to learn.
I'm also very fortunate as my LDS is a GUE training center -but then they want 100 dives between training levels...

We also do a lot of training dives, just me and my buddy - where we will just go down and work on buoyancy for an hour, I would like to see more classes like that in the regular "patch" agencies - but I suppose that is not likely to happen...

Oh, and I FAR prefer the TDI EAN class over anything PADI, NAUI, SSI or YMCA has, maybe that's just because it is taught at a tech diving facility and not arec one?!

Cheers,
Terkel

 

[jobowker]

I don't think that anyone is going to argue that the advanced open water cert makes you an advanced diver. Keep in mind that the purpose of the advanced course is to advance your training, to help you hone your basic skills and pick up a few new ones. It gives you the ability to do a few more supervised dives. I think we all agree that certs don't make you an expert, and everyone seems to know at least one person with a bizillion dives who holds only an OW cert. There is no substitute for experience, but additional training + experience is even better. When I was doing my OW dives, my main concerns were keeping up with the class and trying to do everything I was supposed to so that I didn't kill myself. I have dived with people better than me, who have offered suggestions on ways to improve. Had someone made these suggestions during my OW cert, they would have been largely ignored, as it doesn't take much to get task loaded as a newbie. Now that I am a little more relaxed and can focus on additional things, I can be more receptive to suggestions and critiques than when I first started. Also, the experience gained in additional dives offer diminished returns. You are always learning, but the additional amount you learn with each dive tends to go down as the number of cumulative dives goes up. You change a lot as a diver between your 1st and 50th dive, but you DON'T change as dramatically between your 500th and 550th dive. That is why no one is an advanced diver after 10 dives, but hopefully you have the neccessary training at point to gain the most out of your successive dives. I know a guy who has hundreds of dives, ony an ow cert, but he still isn;t an experienced diver. All of his dives are less than 60 feet in warm water looking for lobsters. I know someone else with a fraction of that number of dives who is far more experienced in deep, drysuit, and wreck diving, so the # of dives or # of certs can only present a rough guideline. If PADI required 100 dives before you could get your AOW cert, you would be more experienced going in, but the knowledge you gained through making your own mistakes during those 100 dives may have been learned in the AOW course. The bottom line is that I think you would become a better diver by doing some certs and then a bunch of dives, rather than a bunch of dives and then the certs. That way, you can apply the knowledge you have learned.

 

[TexasMike]

WetDane...

Thanks for the statement about the TDI EAN course. I plan to take that course in a few weeks. Helps me feel like I've chosen the right course track.

--TexasMike