Going Deeper. Next step advice?

Hello all.

Recently certified with PADI and am confused on my next options. I took my dry suit specialty at the same time as my OW course and now am planning a next step before my dive vacation in november to cozumel. I want to broaden my options as far as depth and dive time during my vacation. If I take AOW I have read that the Nav and Deep dives are required as well as three of my choice. I am also under the impression that AOW "sampler" dives are only counted as the first step to a specialty.

My questions are do I need 5 specialties to be AOW? How deep can I go as AOW? Can I take just the deep diver and nitrox specialties instead, and then use nitrox rentals and go deeper without my AOW cert.?

What course of action would you pros recomend?

Thanks

Congratulations of becoming Open Water Certified

To broaden your options with regard to depth you will need to take your Advanced Open Water course. The course is made up of 5 'Adventure Dives', and yes has to include the Deep Adventure Dive and the Navigation Adventure Dive - the other 3 Adventure Dives are your choice based on what your interests are and what you want to achieve. Completing the Deep Adventure dive will extend your suggested maximum depth to 30 metres. Adventure Dives are the first dive the specialty course in that area. For example the Deep Specialty Course is 4 dives and the Deep Adventure Dive is the first dive of the course. You cannot do the Deep Specialty Course as an Open Water Diver, you must at least be an Adventure Diver (which means that you have completed any 3 Adventure Dives). However I would suggest doing the full Advanced Open Water course before the Deep Specialty Course. (The Deep Specialty Course will take you to 40 metres). Nitrox is highly recommended and you can also do this as part of your Advanced Open Water (although the shop may charge you a little extra to include it).

However the Advanced Open Water Course should not be regarded as a way to extend your depth, but also your general diving skills under the supervision of an instructor. I would also highly recommend the Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure Dive as part of the Advanced Open Water Course, to really improve your diving experiences.

Aside from further training, just dive as often as possible to improve your dive skills and really get the most out of diving!

Enjoy your diving and your holiday.

Take your Advance Open Water do the 1) deep 2) Nitrox 3) Nav 4) Search and recovery 5)Peak Performance Buoyancy (Most important) and with less than 25 dives might not make a big deal right now.

This will allow you to the limit of 130 feet, But don't get in big rush to go deep. Get some time under water first. air or nitrox goes fast at that depth. Stay at around 90-100 for awhile. You do not need 5 specialties for the AOW. My advice take things slow, been diving for long time before I got my AOW and Nitrox. Next step for me is Intro to cave and doubles.

My questions are do I need 5 specialties to be AOW?

AOW consists of 5x Adventure Dives. Those dives are the 1st dives from the corresponding Speciality Courses.

You only need 5 (adventure) dives to become AOW, not 5 specialities.

How deep can I go as AOW?

There isn't a set limit, only recommendations. None of the cards that you will get are 'licenses' to go to a certain depth. They just reflect the minimum training and knowledge you have been given - which are just two factors in the calculation of your personal depth limit.

A newly certified Open Water diver is given a recommended limit of 18m/60ft.

Divers with further training and experience are recommended to limit themselves to 30m/100ft.

Divers with specialist Deep Diver training are recommended to abide by the general maximum limit for recreational diving - 40m/130ft.

The best course of action is to respect the wisdom of these recommendations, and use them as guidance towards setting your own personal depth limit. That limit should reflect your own honest consideration of the training you have received, the experience you have gained, along with your personal comfort and confidence at depth.

Most well experienced divers would recommend that any diver should slowly and progressively increase their depth experience. Doing a single 'Deep Adventure Dive' on an AOW course could neither be considered slow or progressive...


Can I take just the deep diver and nitrox specialties instead,....

With PADI, you need to have AOW (or at least Adventure Diver) certification before you can do the Deep Diver course. Why would you seek to skip a progressive training step towards deep diving. There are risks.... what matters is the training and your personal competence... not what card you hold.

Nitrox can be done after OW (see below)

.....and then use nitrox rentals and go deeper without my AOW cert.?

Nitrox won't make much difference to your safety at depth. It won't allow you to 'go deeper' either.

Consider the risks of deeper diving;

Increased Air Consumption / Greater Risk of OOA incident.
Nitrogen (Inert Gas) Narcosis
Decreased NDLs / Increased Risk of DCI

Nitrox will extend your NDL, but it will do nothing to reduce narcosis or improve your air consumption. Neither will it magically get you back to the surface if you run out of gas....

In addition, nitrox brings the risk of oxygen toxicity/convulsions at deeper depths - which makes it very limited as a deep diving gas.

Worth doing some research on nitrox, so that you don't sign up for a course with false expectations...

Heath Sapp:

Take your Advance Open Water do the 1) deep 2) Nitrox 3) Nav 4) Search and recovery 5)Peak Performance Buoyancy (Most important) and with less than 25 dives might not make a big deal right now.

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AOW choices are personal preference and can be dictated by local/regional environmental and diving needs.

It's never wise to 'assume' what's best for someone else. That is where an experienced instructor should consult with the student - to determine some decent learning objectives from a progressive and cumulative AOW course.

Heath Sapp:

This will allow you to the limit of 130 feet, But don't get in big rush to go deep.

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Counter-intuitive advice. If you want to change people's mindsets about rushing into deep diving activities, it is first best to dispel the notion that their 'license' automatically dictates their personal depth limit.

thanks DevonDiver I'll put in in the memory banks.

I am amazed by such informative responses in such a short time! Withen two hours my questions were answered very well! Thanks scubaboard!

I appreciate all of your advice and plan to move forward into AOW shortly. I had considered that route and am excited to take my learning to the next level. I am definatly interested with the PPB course as well as search & recovery, and finally nitrox. I plan to take advantage of having an instructors insight and advice to help me get the best experiences possible!

On dry land I have experience with navigating and surveying but I find it alot more challenging as a bubbler! The few dives I have under my belt were with "lower end" rental equipment and I found that the console hose was to short and the compass on the console challenging. The console did not have a easy to read angled compass and I found myself focusing on bouancy and SPG so much that I would get off track!

I am most excited to take my navigation and PPB so I can develop those skills and gain a strong foundation on the basics. Could you fill me in on what is invlolved in the "Boat Diver" specialty?

Long story short I am new to this amazing sport and cannot wait to expand my knowledge! Thanks all.

cheeko:

On dry land I have experience with navigating and surveying but I find it alot more challenging as a bubbler! .....I found myself focusing on bouancy and SPG so much that I would get off track!

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One of the biggest challenges facing novice divers, applying new skills (i.e. on an AOW course) is task loading. The core skills taught at OW level still take up the majority of your 'processing power'... leaving new skills to seem unfathomably difficult/demanding.

A good AOW instructor will help you make that transition - and should ensure that your core scuba skills are reinforced and ingrained, so that you have the capacity to fully benefit from new skills you are learning.

I quite often hear people state that the AOW course can be a little 'thin' in respect of new skills, but realistically, the benefits are gained from increasing the task loading, so that it helps your core skills become more instinctive.

There's no substitute for spending hours in the water, as a way of ingraining new and old skills. The trick at AOW level is to develop new capacity, without detriment to your core skills.

You've gotten some good answers about your AOW class. May I make another recommendation, since you are interested in deeper diving? Please read THIS article about gas management. This material will NOT be covered in your AOW class, but it is some of the most important information you can acquire with regards to diving deeper.

Ive been pushing the envelope hard for 15 years and never had an accident or a DCS hit. I could not have done this without a lot of training, as suggested, including several deep and tech diving courses. I also could not have done it if I didn't take the extreme diving very seriously and therefore work just as extremely to learn and understand the challenges, before trying it.

Just a few personal lessons:

1 - Be in the best shape you can - being lean and aerobically fit go a long way to staying safe, and conserving you air.

2 - Study hard and pay attention - focus on learning the material, not on how to get certified with the least effort.

3 - Thoroughly understand the science of gases - why each gas is used for what purpose, and how the different water pressures effect the gases - how the different mixes work is interesting and a bit challenging at first, but once you understand you can make a lot more safe judgements on how to dive. And by gases I also mean just plain air - the most important gas.

4 - Pay close attention to human dive physiology - understanding how the different gases get into and out of your tissues and organs is the key to diving safely in all conditions and depths.

5 - Be extremely serious about your training classes and training dives - getting it right while your with the instructor means it will come more naturally in the open water - and that brings incredible joy and ease to your scuba dive trips.

Regardless of your certification, understanding how your body is effected by breathing gas under lots of pressure, is key to diving. Then understanding what equipment and techniques will make your diving effort most effective, will make it easier.

The harder you work to learn the info and skills from getting certifications, the easier it is to put those skills in the water. The easier it is to put the skills to use, the better time you will have when you go to have fun. And the likelier it will be that you will get home safely (or back to the boat at least) - so you can do it all over again...

...enjoy and be happy... scuba rocks...