Advanced Open Water Course

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Scuba446

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Question,
About how long AFTER obtaining your BOW cert should one be thinking about the Advanced Open Water course?

Should one have so many dives prior to this, or so many months experience, etc.

One PADI dive shop just told me that one can go right from BOW to AOW with no restrictions on number of dives, time, etc. While this may be true - is it really the best way this should be done?



???
 
Hi,

I did my AOW two months after the OW and with almost 20 dives. I fel no difficulties in the AOW and for sure it increased my confidence in diving.

Take care
 
The AOW course isn't really an extra course. It is more like a continuation of the OW. The downside of doing them back to back would be that it is a lot a lot to take in for a newbie. Having a few fun dives in between is not essential but I think it would be benefitial.
 
I made a few dives between OW and AOW. The skills I learned in AOW made me a better diver and I felt more comfortable in the water. There is always more to learn but consider doing at least one or two dives inside your cetification level in between. People that go straight through from certification to the next, in my opinion, do not become as good a diver, and often have poor water skills just because they dont dive outside of a class.

There is one guy starting a DM course at my LDS that only has about 25 dives! I just dont think certification agencies should allow people to move from one level to the next without actual dive experience. It is one thing to dive under the supervision of an instructor, and another to dive when you are in control and responsible for your own actions. You learn alot those first few dives as a certified diver from the little things you dont have to think about as a student.

Be weary of people who substitute cetification level for actual dive experience and a proper mindset.

~Marlinspike
 
I would recommend getting at least a dozen or two dives in.

Before you take AOW, the most important thing you should have down is buoyancy. Next skill is to be calm and relaxed (ie. no hand waving and flailing).

I did my AOW dives last weekend with a woman....that I wanted to kill after the class. We did a photography dive - I could take pictures of anything, because every time I stopped to get close to a fish, her fins were stirring around in the bottom like a blender. It was BAD!!

During our deep dive, our instructor had to constantly add air to her BC on the way down, and dump it on the way up. She just did not get it! I would like to note, I don't want to get into the argument that "the instructor should have spent more time, should have done this...blah, blah, blah".

During navigation, she didn't "get" a compass. I had to show her about half a dozen times that you need to hold the compass level - not tilt it completely vertical so you can see it!

And don't even get me started about our search and recovery dive....I finally said screw it and just went and did the tasks by myself and ignored where she was. Yes, I know this was not the "right" thing to do...but if she can't have the basic skill to follow behind me and stay off the bottom while I am doing something as simple as sweeps, she should not have been in the class!

Take you AOW class when you feel you're ready - just make sure that you have your important skills down before you do it - you will get more out of the class if you do, and your dive partner and instructor will appreciate it. AOW class is not the time to practice buoyancy - you should have that down before you even sign up for the class.

But most of all...have fun!! Even with the dive partner I had, the class was an absolute blast! Search and recovery was very cool - as a matter of fact, I'm lucky enough to get to do a search & recover dive tomorrow in black water and I can't wait!!
 
Get a few dives in first. Have fun and enjoy yourself. Some of the dive operations off the coast of NC barely recognize some agencies AOW because of the push to go from OW to AOW. They will check your dive log before they will let you on board with them.

Get you AOW, definitely, but get some fun diving in first.
 
The reason that I beleive that you are getting different responses to the same question is that these classes may have different structure & content depending on who/where the teaching is done.

My AOW was just OW - part 2. We were not expected to have any experience beyond OW. In fact, our instructor told us that the 2 courses used to be just 1 longer course. (Could only be true for his agency, who knows?)

Regardless how much "experience" or how long ago students say they were certified, you are going to run into some students in "Master Diver" or even higher classes who have managed not to grasp or to forget some skills. Our disgust with being buddied with these folks in our classes often has more to do with our own discomfort than with the problem-child's skills. We are aware that this person can't rescue us, we fear that we will have to rescue them, and we get anxious over whether they will lead us too deep or too far from the boat/shore because we realize that we are not totally in control. If it happens, chalk it up to a learning experience.

If the instructor you have spoken with is really aware of your ability level & says that the class is appropriate, it probably is. One more question: does the guy have assistants? This can make the difference between whether all the students have a safe & satisfying experience or whether more able people are held back and less secure people are pushed too hard. If he has an assistant, you can take him/her aside & explain that you need extra support (if this proves to be true).

You will not know whether you are right for this class until you show up & try it. Wish we could all refer to one standard, but a lot will depend on who else shows up. If the class is a bunch of ex-navy seals who just need a refresher, it will probably move faster than if the Pasadena sewing circle enrolls (unless granny surprises us once more!)
 
Interesting read... The name of the Thread is:


The Mis-Adventures of my AOW class- READ!
 
I agree with art.chick. My LDS does all of the basic OW dives at Dutch Springs. After the skills are done on the platform, the other three dives are for the students to get use to diving and work on their buoyancy. However, At least with NAUI, an OW allows someone to dive under the conditions they were trained. So for everyone who goes through these classes, as well as a lot of other shops that use Dutch Springs as a training site, that is the only type of diving these people should be doing. While a few dives between OW and AOW would be great, I think an AOW course is good for those people who lack the confidence and abilities to go out by themselves. The AOW gives them the chance to learn a couple of new things, but more importantly just dive under the watchful eyes of the instructors and TA’s. Of course, as it has been said many times before, the course is only as good as the instructors.

One additional benefit of the course for the novice diver, at least here, is that the final two dives to get you AOW are ocean dives. That way they get experience in diving under those conditions, which are very different then at the quarry, again under the watchful eye of the instructor.

Ty
 
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