Did I just ruin my dive trip?

billmach:

My Wife and I certified at the same time awhile back and have been avid local divers.
We decided last week to book a trip thru our dive shop to log some saltwater time down in mexico. I was totally physced about this dive trip until my wife went to the dive shop on her own for fills the other day and one of the instructors going on the same trip sold her on aow certs.By telling her you can only go on the boat at certain times because your only ow certed and you'll be the only ones in the shallow end while everyone else is in the deep end . Now dont get me wrong here I want to
move on to instructor and plan on moving thru the certifications because i love diving and we have talked about opening a dive shop in the future because were so addicted. But I wanted my first dive trip to be enjoyable and all about having fun diving. but now it seems were going back to class again in a tropical local .the reason I ask is because ive read here alot of people saying the aow cert is a waste of time. to just keep diving and and further yourself
and Im curious as to what i need to be expecting for the cert dives
Is it just fun dives that you gain experience on? or is it more like the original cert classes??

any info would help thanks all

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The AOW is a tremendous course and not at all like the OW. No exams/tests - instead you complete Knowledge Reviews on the 2 core dives (Underwater Navig. and Deep) as well as the 3 elective dives of your choice. Apart from being more fun than the OW this program is designed to improve your abilities and therefore give you more confidence. Enjoy!

billmach:

but now it seems were going back to class again in a tropical local .the reason I ask is because ive read here alot of people saying the aow cert is a waste of time. to just keep diving and and further yourself
and Im curious as to what i need to be expecting for the cert dives
Is it just fun dives that you gain experience on? or is it more like the original cert classes??

any info would help thanks all

Click to expand...

depends on the instructor and you, your level and so on;

for me the most usefull were the buoyancy exercises. also, it's good to do your first deeper dives with an instructor focused on what you are doing (and the AOW is a good place for that) ... that is if you didn't get past your first already

also it was a lot of fun with the search/recovery and the uw navigation.

it really is usefull (it was for me at least);

and besides it's diving, not class-time; and diving is ... just more diving; if you get your AOW at the end (which opens dors in some places) then all the better;

(and you get another plastic card which can allways be used to butter your bread if you have no dive-knife with you ).


i'd say: go for it.

I'd say the AOW is a fun course and you'll enjoy doing it. If there's one course that's probably best to do on holiday it's this one because of the variety involved, and the fact that the dives are adventure dives rather than course dives where you just practice skills.

Having said that, I do agree with those who say that for training purposes this course is a bit of a rip-off. I'm in the middle of the rescue course now and there's nothing you need from the AOW course really - but then PADI sets the rules.

So, basically, enjoy the AOW - and I'm sure you will. Just don't expect to learn much.

utnapistim:

depends on the instructor and you, your level and so on;

for me the most usefull were the buoyancy exercises. also, it's good to do your first deeper dives with an instructor focused on what you are doing (and the AOW is a good place for that) ... that is if you didn't get past your first already

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Heh, the second dive I did after my OW course was a led dive to 25m - still, the first dive I did after my OW was into a cave so the second seemed pretty tame by comparison.

i think its a complete waste of time and money if you havent logged enough dives. i would personally recommend diving as much and logging as much dives before taking aow so youl make the most out of it. you dont wanna be taking the peak perfomace buoyancy with awful buoyancy. but if you think your ready then by all means go for it, it will hone your already inherent diving skills

Just did my AOW in Phuket. I was lucky int hat I was the sole student, so got to pick my instructors brains the whole time. the 5 dives were great, a lot of them are actually several types of dive sin one. for example, my first dive (deep) was onto the wreck of a dive boat, the bottom of which was at 35m, I did my "narced" test at 29.6m (according to my dive comp) After the 25 seconds it took me to write my nam ebackwards and do the arithmatic the instructor had noted on his dive slate, we basically cruised around the wreck for a short time, and then followed the sea floor up and he pointed out a heap of creatures on the reef and swimming aorund. way cool. the only one that is really kind of atest is the navigation dive. I did well with the ocmpass, but not so well with the natural nav (partly because my bladder was bursting at the seems) and it took 3 goes to get my bearings somewhat straight.

The other 3 dives (wreck, naturalist and multi level) were lots of fun. I had done all my reading the night before, answered all the questions easy, so we spent the boat time reviewing and me asking questions about anything that I could think of. Personally, learning to use the Wheel was my favourite part, partly as they made the wheel sound like some really complex and difficult thing, whereas the reality is that I feel it is easier to use than the tables. It just makes so much sense...

Anyway, just do the AOW - think of it as 5 dives where you learn lots of stuff, and get a cert. at the end of it.

Z...

I don't think the dive operators in Mexico care what your c-card says on it. The only time I went diving and needed to show a AOW card was in the USA.

billmach:

My Wife and I certified at the same time awhile back and have been avid local divers.
We decided last week to book a trip thru our dive shop to log some saltwater time down in mexico. I was totally physced about this dive trip until my wife went to the dive shop on her own for fills the other day and one of the instructors going on the same trip sold her on aow certs.By telling her you can only go on the boat at certain times because your only ow certed and you'll be the only ones in the shallow end while everyone else is in the deep end . Now dont get me wrong here I want to
move on to instructor and plan on moving thru the certifications because i love diving and we have talked about opening a dive shop in the future because were so addicted. But I wanted my first dive trip to be enjoyable and all about having fun diving. but now it seems were going back to class again in a tropical local .the reason I ask is because ive read here alot of people saying the aow cert is a waste of time. to just keep diving and and further yourself
and Im curious as to what i need to be expecting for the cert dives
Is it just fun dives that you gain experience on? or is it more like the original cert classes??

any info would help thanks all

Click to expand...

if you get a good Instructor,then any course will be beneficial,learning is never a waste of time!

billmach:

one of the instructors going on the same trip sold her on aow certs.By telling her you can only go on the boat at certain times because your only ow certed and you'll be the only ones in the shallow end while everyone else is in the deep end .

Click to expand...

Not too sure here .. My wife and I did our AOW just last weekend ..Specifically because there are some operators that don't necessarily trust the standard OW ..the instructor is telling her that this is the case where you are going. I got stuffed into two rather dull dives in Nassau because all I was certed for was OW. However I have also been allowed to dive night, deep and wreck on the same card, and in various locations. So it does vary.

The key is do you know this instructor .. do you want to dive with him/her.. do you believe he/she is NOT simply selling the course.. If you are comfortable with the answers to those questions then by all means take the course, the dives can be a blast (as were ours last weekend). I think that the biggest benefit is that it gives you some experience in controlled conditions that you might not get otherwise.

Do I think I actually learned anything new? Not Really, My wife did find that the Peak Performance Boyancy Dive was helpful to her with learning about her new BCD, but that was it. One of our goals was to evaluate the instructors, since we both want to move on from here (tech diving Ice/Cave/Wreck) we wanted to be assured as to their quality before we started into areas where we really needed to learn..