PADI training courses on live aboard operations?

[Ben Prusinski]

I have decided that it makes more sense for me as a single solo traveler to do live aboard trips this year to the Caribbean and Asia so that I can spend more time diving and having fun and save on cost as well. Do the live aboard operations such as Aggressor and Sun Dancer offer PADI advanced training courses on these trips? I checked the websites and did not see any listing for PADI courses.

[diversteve]

I think the Aggressor and Dancer Fleets - same people really since Aggressor owns both operations - are SSI-based.

[Thalassamania]

They used to be NAUI based (I know I ran ITCs for them), so there may still be some NAUI capability kicking around.

[Ben Prusinski]

Wow so that must mean these live aboard do not provide any training just diving. Does anyone have a recommendation for a live aboard that has advanced PADI training provided as well as diving?

[Thalassamania]

I believe that most liveaboards, while perhaps not demanding the card, expect most divers to be above the PADI AOW level.

[Pedro Burrito]

I was on the Cayman Aggressor in October, 2011. The two DMs on board complained that they did not really have the opportunity to actually teach classes on board because most of the divers were already very experienced or brought their instructors with them as part of a scuba shop travel event. Both quit, one went on to teach in Grand Cayman and the other is back in the USA.

According to the Aggressor Fleet website,

"All certification and specialty courses are taught in accordance with national training agencies such as PADI, NAUI, SSI, SDI, TDI, etc."

They use SSI as the certification agency. I'm mostly PADI trained but the SSI courses will provide equivalent training and will be accepted by PADI. PADI says they want the PADI course or "or qualifying certification from another training organization". Perhaps an interesting side note is that the Aggressor Fleet will only employ Dive Masters with SSI certification.

Here are the courses the Aggressor Fleet offers:

Certification Courses:

Introduction to Scuba $150
Non-divers discover the beauty of scuba diving, all under the guidance of a personal dive instructor. Includes all equipment and two open water dives.
Open Water Certification $300
Get your national certification agency certification in one week. Learn: entries and exits, ascents and descents, underwater navigation, octopus use, buddy breathing and buoyancy control. Includes lectures, written and practical tests, check-out dives, scuba and personal diving instruction.
Open Water Check-out Dives $150
After completing pool and classroom work at home, bring a referral form or letter from your instructor stating the portion of your work completed. Training conducted by professional instructors.
Master Diver with Rescue $300
This certification is the highest recreational diver level you can reach. The Master Scuba Diver indicates you have a significant amount of training and experience in a variety of dive environments. Prior to the course, you must have completed the following: Advanced Open Water, First Aid, CPR and 3 specialty courses. The Master Diver certification includes Rescue Diver and 2 additional specialty courses of your choice.

Specialty Courses $150 Each:

Advanced Open Water:
This continuing education course includes three specialties of your choice such as deep diver, navigation, underwater naturalist, etc.
U/W Photographer or Videographer:
This is an introduction to basic underwater photography using a digital or video camera. You’ll learn about the different lenses, cameras, strobes and techniques. This course gives students an overview of digital still and/or digital video cameras, housings, lighting, exposure, storage and computer editing. Equipment not included.
Night Diver:
Learn how to plan a night dive using the proper signals and navigation. Discover marine life found only at night.
Nitrox:* All Aggressors are equipped with 80-cu. ft. aluminum tanks. A few 60-cu. ft. tanks are availble upon request. Tanks have “K” valves for use with standard yoke regulators. “DIN” and “J” valves are not used.

Nitrox Certification Course: $150
This includes all necessary equipment (tanks, use of oxygen analyzer, use of course materials, instructor, and check out dives). Student may continue to dive Nitrox, using the Student Fill rate, the entire week once they have completed the course. Certification will be from a national certification agency.

Nitrox Student Fills: $80
This includes all nitrox tank fills at 32% beyond the certification level and only available to those who take the course on board.

Nitrox Unlimited: $100*
This includes all Nitrox fills at 32% for certified Nitrox Diver, proof of certification required.
* price for 7&8 night charters (10 nights - $150)

Deep Diver:
Learn emergency decompression procedures, how to plan deeper, safer dives, while understanding the risks involved in deep diving.

Environmental Diver:Learn about critters, fish, living coral and their behavior patterns. Discover where to find them and how to study them in their environment, what they eat and how they breathe.
Wreck Diver:
Learn all the necessary skills for safe wreck diving. Exploration of wreck sites when safely feasible.

Reef Ambassador:
During the week-long Reef Ambassador course, divers will learn about the relationships between key marine organisms, the value of reefs to humans, threats to their health and the role that divers can play to preserve the marine environment. The mission of the Ocean Futures Society is exploring our global ocean, inspiring and educating people throughout the world to act responsibly for its protection, documenting the critical connection between humanity and nature, and celebrating the ocean's vital importance to the survival of all life on our planet.

Aggressor Fleet | Courses, Gear & Photography (http://www.aggressor.com/courses_gear_info.php)

[Thalassamania]

Hm .... prices aren't bad either. Thanks.

[RonFrank]

When I am paying big bucks for a Live aboard I generally just enjoy the Dives. What training is possibly more important than the things you may miss as you ignore the things around you in favor of a certification?

If you want to train on a boat try the Keys. The diving is very good but not $250 a day which is what a live aboard costs minimum. Keys diving will run $75 a day for 2 tanks plus hotel, food, airfare, but likely half the cost of a good Live aboard. You could do a live aboard out of CA but again I feel like its a bit of a waste. You can get training in most states in Summer and some in the winter.

[Quero]

I regularly teach the Advanced Open Water course on board liveaboards here in Thailand. We can also do Rescue courses aboard the boat, but I don't think that's the ideal use of liveaboard time. The AOW course, and by extension the Specialty ratings, are mainly about particular environments or activities, so, for example, a liveaboard is a great opportunity to get in lots of deep diver training, or really focus on photo, or hone navigation skills. We don't have Dancer/Aggressor boats in Thailand, but we do have them in the region, and we have other high-end liveaboards in Thailand where additional training opportunities are possible.

[Oldbear]

I would have to echo RonFrank's and Quero's sentiments exactly. There are less expensive and more ideal places to take dive training than on a liveaboard.

From my liveaboard experience the divers were a lot more proficient than I was as an AOW. While I was able to hold my own during the dives (at the time I had about 20-25 dives), I still was the weakest link in the tour group. I used the setting to just enjoy my time with my favorite DM Dive Buddy, aka my daughter, and just watch others and gain experience. The nice thing about the liveaboard was that it offered 3-4 dives per day within a very relaxed environment. I learned a lot just by observing the more advanced divers.

Now with that said I did take my PADI Master Scuba Challenge on a boat that we lived on durning the week...but it did not travel anywhere and was anchored in the same spot, thus not a true liveaboard by nature. Again the advantage to this was a lot of diving time to do course work. I did five specialty courses in four days with some fun dives to boot. The entire time the primary focus of this boat was training and very little else.

I would strongly encourage you to take your AOW first...then partake in the fun diving liveaboard experience in some exotic place. I think in the long run you will be happier. :dance3:

P.S. We are guys ... and guys by nature do not multi-task very well. :facepalm:

Happy Diving,

~Michael~

[DivemasterDennis]

If you travel with a group and there is an instructor in your group, every boat I have been on will allow you to train with that instructor, and most boat have instructors as DM's or dive leaders. As for cert level to do the dives on a liveaboard, my wife is open water certified, but has hundreds of dives and is an excellent diver. She has never been denied any dive experience. Competence counts.
DivemasterDennis

[Ben Prusinski]

Thanks guys, in that case since I am a newbie diver, I will do a few more resort based dive trip first to gain another 50-100 dives under my belt and experience before heading for a live aboard situation. Thinking Bonaire, Fiji and Grand Cayman sound like my next trips to do so. Once I am near dive master level training wise and have my PADI specialities than I can do these advanced level trips.

[scubaskipper]

Yes you can take AOW on most liveaboards. All that I've been associated with only want instructors as DMs, so they can teach if asked, most are PADI instructors. Most boats are franchised, contact individual boat and tell them what you want to do so they have any required student materials on the boat when you get there. a lot depends on how far in the middle of no where the boat is. Most try to keep 2-3 student kits for any specialty classes that are good for the area they operate in. Aggressor was trying to get everyone to cross over to SSI but most that I know didn't, too much $ to cross over for the number of classes you would do. My guess would be some sort of cross marketing going on. Nitrox was a big specialty, U/W photo and a few AOW. I would try the e-learn for class and concentrate on the dive, dive, dive while on the boat. I had people take my classes just to get a private dive guide on each site.

[Darnold9999]

I also would suggest that a liveaboard is not the ideal place to do training. With one exception. Nitrox is a course most offer and does not interrupt your diving. You can do the reading in between dives and the required dive is just that - a dive - no skills to demonstrate.

However I would not forgo the liveaboard experience just because you are a beginner diver. Many trips, Belize comes to mind, are simple easy dives and appropriate for divers with a lower number of dives. you may get more out of a liveaboard if you are more experienced, but I would not avoid them just because you are less experienced. Just let everyone know up front that you are a beginner and don't try to go beyond what you are comfortable doing.

[Oldbear]

...I would not forgo the liveaboard experience just because you are a beginner diver...

Ditto to everything that Darold9999 said.

I did my first liveaboard after taking my AOW and with about 20 dives. The Operator knew that when I booked the trip and DMs were fantastic and placed me in an appropriate group of divers. Like I mentioned before, yes I was the weakest link (my own self imposed label, not theirs), but held my own and was not a distraction to the rest of the group. But IMO the shear number of dives/day that the liveaboard offered me let my diving skills progress much more effectively than all of the resort diving I had done up then, especially in the given time frame. Even the DMs commented on my bouyance improvement.

I would not discount the liveaboards until you reach 50 or 100 dives.

Plus they are a blast...depending upon the trip, if there are any day excursion opertors, the Liveaboard's diving schedule will most likely be off-set from thiers. You first dive is about the same time as they are gathering at the docks, your second dive is about the time they are on the way, your third dive is about the time they are in their surface interval rest time...ect...

Good luck and happy diving.:D

~ME~

[Ben Prusinski]

Cool well after the Bonaire trip, I will do live aboards and have time to dive more and gain experience. Belize, T&C, Caymans and Galapagos sound like great places for this to dive and see more places. Hawaii, Fiji, Palau and PNG are great too.