I recently got certified as an open water diver in Playa Del Carmen back in April. Well now I want to go another level up. Since I am not exactly rich I will not be traveling to Mexico until April or May of 2004. My question is, how challenging is the next level of certification. The Advanced Padi open water Diver. Since I live in a landlocked state (Colorado) I have thought about diving a lake called Carter Lake. Its about 120 feet. What type of skills do you have to do for this certification? I know its 5 dives. If anyone is Advanced Cert. through Padi can you help me out. Is it like the Open Water Cert?
Padi Advanced open water Cert.
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The AOW course is not that challenging. It's basically going through the motions of doing 5 specialty dives. The 2 mandatory ones are deep and navigation while the other 3 are elective. I would consider it more of an introduction to advanced diving.
But it's not a cakewalk either. The PADI AOW (Advanced Open Water) course is both a certification and an introduction. With it you are certified to the depths below the 60 ft, down to the 130 ft. level, and you will be introduced to underwater navigation. Night Diving, Search and Recovery, and Peak Performance Bouyancy may be suitable for introduction in your part of the country. Seeing as wrecks, stronger currents needed for drift diving, and lots of colorful fish that would make U.W. Photography a little challanging are not close at hand.
The course consists the home study portion, where you complete the knowledge reviews, and 5 OW dives. In some ways it is easier than the open water course, because it is understood that you have a number of dives completed, and the whole SCUBA experience is not as strange to you as it was in the OW course.
Dispite what you may here on some internet boards. A PADI AOW course conducted by a good instructor, will both help you and introduce you to more diving experiences. The certification is worth it, and with it you can add to your skills later on as you feel the urge.
Hope this helps you.
Dive Safe and Have Fun
The course consists the home study portion, where you complete the knowledge reviews, and 5 OW dives. In some ways it is easier than the open water course, because it is understood that you have a number of dives completed, and the whole SCUBA experience is not as strange to you as it was in the OW course.
Dispite what you may here on some internet boards. A PADI AOW course conducted by a good instructor, will both help you and introduce you to more diving experiences. The certification is worth it, and with it you can add to your skills later on as you feel the urge.
Hope this helps you.
Dive Safe and Have Fun
watersprite
Guest
I got my PADI advanced open water last October. I can't say I'm very "advanced" yet though. I enjoyed doing different sorts of dives I hadn't done before and I think I actually learned something as well.
I did 5 dives: night dive, wreck dive, navigation dive, deep dive (30 metres) and a photography dive.
When I was still only a certified "beginner" open water diver, I had already done the wreck dive, deep dive and had played with photography during some dives.
I think I learned the most from the navigation dive and the deep dive, because I learned more theory for it and I hadn't dived these sorts of dives yet (well, the deep dive I did before was a different story, see other thread on this board).
The rest was more like diving for fun.
I didn't choose for a "current dive" because our wreck dive was like a "current dive" as well. My instructor told me we sort of did those exercises as well as we had a hard time to find the wreck because of the current. That made me choose the photography dive instead, which was lots of fun!!
I would recommend going for your Advanced OW... it gave me more confidence, especially about deep dives.
Have fun!
Watersprite
I did 5 dives: night dive, wreck dive, navigation dive, deep dive (30 metres) and a photography dive.
When I was still only a certified "beginner" open water diver, I had already done the wreck dive, deep dive and had played with photography during some dives.
I think I learned the most from the navigation dive and the deep dive, because I learned more theory for it and I hadn't dived these sorts of dives yet (well, the deep dive I did before was a different story, see other thread on this board).
The rest was more like diving for fun.
I didn't choose for a "current dive" because our wreck dive was like a "current dive" as well. My instructor told me we sort of did those exercises as well as we had a hard time to find the wreck because of the current. That made me choose the photography dive instead, which was lots of fun!!
I would recommend going for your Advanced OW... it gave me more confidence, especially about deep dives.
Have fun!
Watersprite
I would most certainly recommend going advanced open water. If the instructer is good you can learn alot. Rather then heading south though, have you considered moving east? The Great Lakes are a two or three day road trip from where you are depending on how intense you travel.
Thanks to the zebra mussel infestation you will find plenty of deep clear water and some of the best wreck diving in the world. You will need at least a 7mm wetsuit, although most guys(and gals) chicken out and go dry. I dive wet through the ice in winter. Of course most people think I'm a bloody viking anyway, but thats besides the point.
Anyway, I'd just thought I'd post this to give you a few more options.
Dive safe,
Jim
Thanks to the zebra mussel infestation you will find plenty of deep clear water and some of the best wreck diving in the world. You will need at least a 7mm wetsuit, although most guys(and gals) chicken out and go dry. I dive wet through the ice in winter. Of course most people think I'm a bloody viking anyway, but thats besides the point.
Anyway, I'd just thought I'd post this to give you a few more options.
Dive safe,
Jim
RICHinNC
Contributor
I dont think the AOW course is very much of a challenge. The quality will depend solely on your instructor. I did mine in a quarry so some of the specialties were not feasible.
The worse thing that could happen is that you begin to think you are advanced. I had 7 dives i think when i took that course and the word advanced didnt really enter my thoughts.
There may be times when you do a boat dive and you actually have a responsible boat captain. The first thing he/she should do is check to see if you have your AOW card if the dive exceeds 60 ft.
When i did my course in the quarry.....we had to go to the deepest accessible point....lay our computers on the bottom....and record that we actually made it to 60 ft. Didnt make much sense until we got topside and the instructor asked all of us to call off our deepest depth from the computers and none matched. So we got a lesson on the side about computers.
Do the course....get the check mark on your record....and dont stop practicing.
The worse thing that could happen is that you begin to think you are advanced. I had 7 dives i think when i took that course and the word advanced didnt really enter my thoughts.
There may be times when you do a boat dive and you actually have a responsible boat captain. The first thing he/she should do is check to see if you have your AOW card if the dive exceeds 60 ft.
When i did my course in the quarry.....we had to go to the deepest accessible point....lay our computers on the bottom....and record that we actually made it to 60 ft. Didnt make much sense until we got topside and the instructor asked all of us to call off our deepest depth from the computers and none matched. So we got a lesson on the side about computers.
Do the course....get the check mark on your record....and dont stop practicing.
washow88
Guest
pt40fathoms gave you great details about it.
Remember the AOW is just introduction, so you are not really advanced.
I would recommend taking the AOW and later on taking the specialty course of what you wish.
Your instructor may credit each dive in the AOW toward specialty citification of that adventure dive.
Check www.padi.com for more information.
Remember the AOW is just introduction, so you are not really advanced.
I would recommend taking the AOW and later on taking the specialty course of what you wish.
Your instructor may credit each dive in the AOW toward specialty citification of that adventure dive.
Check www.padi.com for more information.
bobert
Contributor
I am currently 3 dives into my PADI Advance Open Water, and will finish a week from Sunday 5/18 with my deep and navigation dives. I have already done the navigation dive but it did not count ( that is another story).
The advise you are recieving is all good. Do not be afraid of this course, it is not hard but you will only get out of it what you put in. If you are enjoying diving the way I am you always want to learn something new and add another new experience to your personal dive log.
GO FOR IT.
The advise you are recieving is all good. Do not be afraid of this course, it is not hard but you will only get out of it what you put in. If you are enjoying diving the way I am you always want to learn something new and add another new experience to your personal dive log.
GO FOR IT.
npaden
Registered
My wife and I are currently working on our PADI open water certification and then immediately (2 weeks later) are going to get our advanced certification.
We have a trip to Fiji planned for mid June and want to be as prepared as possible. Our instructor is great and is charging the bare minimum for the advanced class so we are going to go ahead and take it. If nothing else it will get us some more diving experience before Fiji. The biggest reason is that from my understanding there will be lots of great dives in the 60 to 100 foot range in Fiji and the night diving there is supposed to be awesome so this will give us a chance to experience both of those with an instructor looking over our shoulder rather than with an unknown boat captain in Fiji. We would probably just adjust our dives to stay above 60' otherwise.
But I will by no means consider myself an "advanced" diver upon completion of the course. Just a little more prepared and knowledgable. We will for sure show our captain our dive logs and let him know that we are still inexperienced divers.
FWIW, Nathan
We have a trip to Fiji planned for mid June and want to be as prepared as possible. Our instructor is great and is charging the bare minimum for the advanced class so we are going to go ahead and take it. If nothing else it will get us some more diving experience before Fiji. The biggest reason is that from my understanding there will be lots of great dives in the 60 to 100 foot range in Fiji and the night diving there is supposed to be awesome so this will give us a chance to experience both of those with an instructor looking over our shoulder rather than with an unknown boat captain in Fiji. We would probably just adjust our dives to stay above 60' otherwise.
But I will by no means consider myself an "advanced" diver upon completion of the course. Just a little more prepared and knowledgable. We will for sure show our captain our dive logs and let him know that we are still inexperienced divers.
FWIW, Nathan
Thank you for all the good feedback. I I heard a rumor from a friend that in Colorado you only have to dive to 60 or 70 feet for the deep water dive due to the altitude. I hope this is true. But anyway thanks again to everyone. I can't wait for the extra training.
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