Ripped off for my AOW training

I just finished my AOW cert - something I've been looking forward to for a while. I have been diving for about two years and before the cert class had completed 25 dives - 5 in CA, 10 in the Maldives, and 10 in the Caribbean. I've been lucky to have had the opportunity to dive such great places.

My AOW cert was extremely underwhelming. Navigation dive was cursory, the "deep" dive went down to 62 feet, there was a "boat" dive that was nothing more than any other boat experience, and the fish identification was a joke. All of the other divers in my various dives were right out of OW cert and had no experience diving outside of a class setting. During the navigation dive, one of the divers even kept popping up to the surface due to his inability to control buoyancy...and he was still passed to the next level!!! Most appallingly, not once did a dive instructor instruct us to do a safety stop at the end of dives. Although most dives weren't deep, shouldn't a safety stop be SOP?

At $400 for this class I expected to learn more about being an effective diver and coming away with new skills. Sadly, I think this cert was pointless and I would have done better spending that money on recreation dives. I'm thinking about writing a bad review of the dive shop and even asking for a partial refund. Am I overreacting? Would appreciate your thoughts!

AOW is kind of a waste. Except that some boats require an AOW card to take you to sites over 60'. The bookwork in my case was good (we used the "master" book instead of "advanced"). The dives were almost as much as a joke, except we actually went to 108ft instead of just two feet deeper than OW. 400 bucks seems like it's out of this world, my class was less than half that.

Sorry to hear you had such an expensive and useless class. My recommendation would be to make the most out of your books/videos. If you complain to the agency, they're likely to revoke your card if they take any action at all. At least, that's what I saw happen to another diver on this forum who contacted their agency about a substandard class. In this case they might not even do that.. 2' deeper than 60' is "advanced". The instructor probably didn't break the rules, he just did literally as bad as possible while staying within them.


I would at least ask the dive shop for a better class or a partial refund (or both). I also wouldn't hesitate to write an honest review sharing your thoughts. Just give them a chance to make it better first.

Well if you read though the text of most AOW it is pretty underwhelming. Like most classes it is more about the instructor(s), and the students that makes or breaks a class.

We went with a great instructor for ours, if not I think I would have been very disappointed with the material.

Your class sounds par for the course.... I would recommend doing some research next time and seek out your instructor based on word of mouth from different circles. I might even do some research on a different agency that may have a proven track record for outputting solid divers.

I have also felt burned by a couple of classes I've taken.
There are good Instructors out there.....but I believe they are outnumbered by the "meets the standards" types.
Unfortunately, it's not always obvious beforehand.

The class experience you just had, is the reason for the agency bashing that takes place.....much of it, well placed.

I can't help but laugh, when dive ops specify an "Advanced Diver" rating, because it means nothing.......the experience you had before your class, diving in different places, probably did more for you than that class did.

It's very unfortunate that "Advanced" doesn't really mean that, in the diving world....it's just word play. It should represent something substantive, but it's just a joke for the most part......the word game is that it is just a sampling of the skills that you should posess if you were an advanced diver, kind of like a sample platter of "skills" or "experience"......or whatever it is that the banner wavers like to say about it.

Having good buoyancy skills is not a requirement for AOW, although it is covered in the Adventures in Diving manual.... You have to take more training is you want to get a handle on the elusive buoyancy control.

At the end of the day......the only sure outcome is that you will be separated from your money.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, and the loss of your four Benjamins.

---------- Post added November 25th, 2013 at 10:25 PM ----------

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One good way to assess an Instructor is to find divers with crappy buoyancy skills. After the dive, ask them who their Instructor was.....now you know who to avoid.

Cheers,
Mitch

Kfinn27:

At $400 for this class I expected to learn more about being an effective diver and coming away with new skills.....

Click to expand...

Did you, in any way, communicate (and confirm) your expectations to the course provider before, during, or after booking and/or taking the course?

Just saying...

He may have had expectations of becoming an Advanced Diver; as is inferred in the course title.

I might regret pulling that string.

get a nitrox card and then forget about c-cards for recreational diving.
find peers and dive with them.
if you want to learn something special find an instructor and discuss it with her or him.

The sad thing about the AOW class is that, if you look at the materials in the instructor manual, there is quite a bit that can be taught. But it usually isn't. And every dive could be an opportunity for an instructor to critique your buoyancy, trim and propulsion, as well as situational awareness, and give you tips -- but they usually don't. The problem doesn't lie with the class; it lies with cursory instruction.

It does not sound like you got your money's worth, nor did I when I did the same class.

There are other classes with more meat to them. If you let us know where you are, we might be able to point you at some of them.

Now try "equipment specialist". I wish I spent the money on lottery tickets instead. Or a few regulator manuals...