Recommendations on which AOW adventure dives to take

aggarwal_r · Jul 23, 2009

Hi,

I'm planning on take my Advanced Open Water course this weekend. Are there any recommendations on which adventure dives to take besides the two mandatory Deeper Water Diving and Underwater Navigation?

Thanks,
R

elan · Jul 23, 2009

Peak Performance Buoyancy can be useful.

ligersandtions · Jul 23, 2009

My recommendation for AOW is to find an instructor who will make sure you actually get something out of the class. My AOW class was almost useless (not completely useless as I did get five dives and learned some....though not from my instructor as he never gave any feedback....in hindsight, I should have asked though).

Find an instructor who will make sure you learn and not just pass you if you meet the minimum standards.

As mentioned above, Peak Performance Buoyancy has the potential to be useful. Also, if you've never done a night dive and are even a little apprehensive, the night dive can also be useful.

Scott · Jul 23, 2009

If done right Buoyancy can be good, Night is always beneficial, Search & Recovery if you have an interest, Multi Level can be informative especially if you're taught how to really use that computer. Another good one would be Digi Photo.

What 'electives' you take/get are really dependent on the site location and the instructor.

rstofer · Jul 23, 2009

Sometimes the selection is made by the shop.

Around here the topics are Deep and Navigation (mandatory), Search & Recovery, Boat and Peak Performance Buoyancy.

The Boat, Deep and Peak Performance Buoyancy are done from a 1 day, 3 dive charter boat. The Navigation and Search & Recovery dives are done from the beach.

The Boat thing is kind of useless unless it gets you to a site for the deep dive. A night dive might be fun and a drift dive is always a blast!

Richard

muddiver · Jul 23, 2009

It really depends on where you plan to dive. In the south Pacific I would think Deep, Navigation, Buoyancy, Drift, Night, Equipment Specialist and Enriched Air would be the most useful. You might also consider the Boat Diving specialty and Wreck Diver if there is much of that where you think you will dive.

AWARE Fish ID, Coral Reef Conservation, Underwater Photography, National Geographic and Underwater Naturalist will be good future courses that will enhance your enjoyment of diving, but will not help you be a better diver necessesarily.

Joe-Diver · Jul 23, 2009

aggarwal_r:
Are there any recommendations on which adventure dives to take besides the two mandatory Deeper Water Diving and Underwater Navigation?

Well, what do you want to do?

That's what the program is all about....introduce you to types of diving that interest you. Look through the book....pick 3 that you find interesting and want to try out.

Garrobo · Jul 23, 2009

The easiest ones since the cert has no significance anyway.

boulderjohn · Jul 23, 2009

Garrobo:
The easiest ones since the cert has no significance anyway.

Hard to imagine a posting with which I disagree more.

Whatever the value of the cert itself, the true value lies not in possessing the card but rather in what you learn while getting it. I would therefore say that you should choose the ones from which you will gain the most benefit from working with an instructor. That's why I would avoid the easiest ones, including, as previously mentioned, boat diver. Also as previously mentioned, I would avoid the ones that teach you nice things to know but don't put you in the water learning new skills.

That is why I agree with a lot of the advice you have been given, such as peak performance buoyancy, night diving, search and recovery, and multi-level.

heavyjeffd · Jul 23, 2009

I would like to suggest the following:

Nitrox (not really a dive, but definitely a worthwhile speciality)
Peak Performance Buoyancy
Night
Deep
Navigation

As an additional dive to add to that (in lieu of Nitrox for an actual dive) you could do Boat or Wreck.

Those are all really solid foundations and useful skills.

Recommendations on which AOW adventure dives to take

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