Is it worth it?

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Hello all,

Brand new to SB, although I have lurked for a bit.

I do have a question concerning specialties/certifications PADI specific.

Just complete my OW and I have stumbled upon an opportunity to 5 specialty certs alongside AOW for what i consider to be a "steal" when it comes to PADI courses. I went through the same instructor for my OW and really enjoyed learning from him. Compared to other class/course costs that i have seen in SB I understand this is an awesome deal. I would rather not talk about costs but i have seen quotes for Nitrox and deep classes (two of the certs i would be taking) on SB and i would pay between $70 and $100 less than the price posted on SB per class.

Now to my question(s). Is it worth it? The way i see it, these classes are worth it due to the fact i will be seeing new dive sites with an instructor (entries, exits, and other stuff that I currently concern myself with when i go to a new site) and i will get to learn new skills as well as work on the buoyancy issues that i feel are directly related to my air consumption problems with someone who can tell me "you are doing it wrong."

Now to play Devil's advocate. Put Another Dollar In, we've all heard it and thought it was hilarious (the first time). Without referencing "don't dive beyond your training/limits"... Why do i need a cert to do something, aside from just the dangers? Night, Deep, Nav, Wreck, multi level, boat? These seem like things i can read about either in books or here on SB and go and take a building block approach to learning myself (crawl, walk, run or light jog). That's enough of that, i was able to poke holes into my own argument, but humor me and poke some more.

Let me know. Also, couldn't find the "rules" section of this particular forum. Forgive me if this is the wrong format/place for this question.
 
You'll get a variety of answers. I'll start by saying you probably should get at least a few dives under your belt before jumping into specialties. I did my AOW with only two post-OW dives. But specialties are somewhat more elaborate (depending on the specialty of course). Doing more classes is IMO fine as long as your general scuba skills, particularly buoyancy/trim are reasonably good. And of course you can get those (buoyancy)tips you may need from the instructor. Ie.- you shouldn't be popping up & down, scraping the bottom, etc. while taking the Nav course... If you're OK with that and the money is good, why not? You're going to pay for charter dives anyway at some point and some of the specialties may involve that plus you have an instructor with you, learn new stuff and have an extra margin of safety. After say 20 dives (maybe aside from course dives) I would say to consider Rescue course. That's another subject, but personally I think doing Rescue even a little before you're really ready for it is better than waiting 'til after 100 dives--in the mean time something may go wrong and you don't have the skills.
-----Yes you can learn a lot of the stuff from books. And it's good to review books/course manuals from time to time. As with other stuff (taking musical instrument lessons, etc.), having a live instructor is better by far. But not absolutely necessary for something like say night diving. I would think an experienced diver could obviously show you the ropes at no cost. So you could take the good deal and do the 5 courses or spend no $ on them and just go diving.
 
Nice thing about the AOW is that you get to sample specialty dives, my wife and I did of course the required deep dives and navigation, but we also did a scooter dive, photography and night dive all for a very reasonable price and it gave us an introduction to new things in diving. We did it early on with maybe 15-20 dives. I thought it was definitely worth it.
 
I think it all depends on multiple factors......

1) If you are a good self learner, blessed with a good mentor(s) and the available local instruction is mediocre or less you may have a hard time seeing the value of a lot of those courses especially if you advance ahead of them on your own.

2) If you have a good instructor, have not advanced ahead of the course content and thrive as a student then it makes a lot of sense.

The catch..... there is always one. To dive certain boats / sites your need an AOW card to satisfy the operators rule. Sometime logged experience will suffice but the AOW card is the common credential. It's sort of bogus since instruction quality and diver experience in practicing the skills involved vary widely but recording a card number satisfies insurance requirements.

Concentrate on diving skills, night and navigation universal requirements I think. P P Buoyancy, Search & Rescue, and most will benefit from a structured introduction to night diving make a good 5.

Skip UW naturalist, photography, fish spotter and underwater basket weaving.

Pete
 
Excellent answers so far, thanks guys and/or girls!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hello all,

Brand new to SB, although I have lurked for a bit.

I do have a question concerning specialties/certifications PADI specific.

Just complete my OW and I have stumbled upon an opportunity to 5 specialty certs alongside AOW for what i consider to be a "steal" when it comes to PADI courses. I went through the same instructor for my OW and really enjoyed learning from him. Compared to other class/course costs that i have seen in SB I understand this is an awesome deal. I would rather not talk about costs but i have seen quotes for Nitrox and deep classes (two of the certs i would be taking) on SB and i would pay between $70 and $100 less than the price posted on SB per class.

Now to my question(s). Is it worth it? The way i see it, these classes are worth it due to the fact i will be seeing new dive sites with an instructor (entries, exits, and other stuff that I currently concern myself with when i go to a new site) and i will get to learn new skills as well as work on the buoyancy issues that i feel are directly related to my air consumption problems with someone who can tell me "you are doing it wrong."

Now to play Devil's advocate. Put Another Dollar In, we've all heard it and thought it was hilarious (the first time). Without referencing "don't dive beyond your training/limits"... Why do i need a cert to do something, aside from just the dangers? Night, Deep, Nav, Wreck, multi level, boat? These seem like things i can read about either in books or here on SB and go and take a building block approach to learning myself (crawl, walk, run or light jog). That's enough of that, i was able to poke holes into my own argument, but humor me and poke some more.

Let me know. Also, couldn't find the "rules" section of this particular forum. Forgive me if this is the wrong format/place for this question.

My humble opinion on certs worth having: AOW, Deep, EAN/Nitrox. These can make a difference as to whether you get to do the dive you want with the gas you want.

What is most important when taking additional training (including the above, make no mistake) is whether you are actually learning something you value. A card is secondary. As an example, I had the benefit of doing the dives and training associated with the PPB specialty tacked onto some other training I was doing. Had I elected to pay the fee, I could have obtained the card. I did not bother as I do not value the card, only the training.

Of course, nothing wrong with some additional instructor led dives to help you gain experience either. If the $$$ are worth it to YOU, go for it. It doesn't matter whether it is worth it to me or anyone else.
 
...//... Just complete my OW and I have stumbled upon an opportunity to 5 specialty certs alongside AOW for what i consider to be a "steal" when it comes to PADI courses. ...//...

Actually quite a good question. The certs that allow you to do things differently are OW, AOW, Nitrox, and Advanced Nitrox. OK, Deep gets you another 10'.

You have to first be honest with yourself and decide if you enjoy taking the courses for the class/instructor inwater experiences or if you enjoy being on a "mission" to get to some level of diving competence. No judgment here, either one is perfectly acceptable. Never forget that we do this for fun. My suggestion for rescue is to take it as soon as you can then retake it with a different agency when you have passed 100 or so dives.

Enjoy!
 
AOW includes 5 adventures (tasters of specialties), so just to be sure, are you saying that the offer is to actually do the full specialties with that AOW?

To do or not to do depends on how you are as a diver and learner and what's being offered. Further instruction and experience is in general good. And I think you are also happy to have some more dives in the instructor's company. It also makes more sense to be AOW with specialties done and not just a taster (AOW is in my opinion the worst certification).

Which specialties are in offer or from which can you chose?
 
The value of classes depends on what the instructor brings to them, and what the student wants from the class. Some people learn better when things are presented to them; others prefer to learn through experiences. Some instructors really TEACH specialties and AOW, and others go through the motions.

You can certainly learn to dive at night, or off a boat, or to use a camera, without paying someone to instruct you. In some cases, you may learn just as much and as well, and in other cases, you may end up with holes in your understanding or your capabilities. I am not a blanket recommender of class work -- my own AOW class was virtually worthless -- but I have seen others that I thought were very well done.
 
+1 with what TSandM says above, it's all about the instructor, which is why I would disagree with Spectrum about Underwater Naturalist as I did that course many years ago with an instructor who is a marine biologist and that was well worth it as I learned a lot from him regarding fish habits etc that has paid off when stalking various creatures to photograph.

I cannot imagine what a boat diving course would teach you other than what common sense tells you, but if you have never been on a boat ......

Do the AOW, make sure you do Peak Performance buoyancy as part of it and master it, get Nitrox certified and then do lots of diving
 

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