Getting AOW!

[Trailboss123]

I just signed up for AOW this weekend: Fri/Sat/Sun. I’m psyched! Diving is getting more fun as I get more comfortable (despite the garbage I wrote about in my other thread). I already did 5 dives over the past 3 days and am planning a dive trip to Maui and Big Island for the last week in April . I’m so blessed!!!

Day 1: Deep Dive, Navigation
Day 2: PPB, Search/Rescue
Day 3: (TBD - maybe Enriched?!), PPB Specialty

Since I have the book and am a club member, it was about $400 total including the specialty cert. All are boat dives.

I’m not sure what I want to do for the last adventure dive: Self Reliant wasn’t an option and I don’t know if a night dive will fit the schedule. Maybe Enriched?? Probably good to have some instruction before messing with my air...

April 22 is a club clean-up dive and I’ll get to do some shore diving, which is the other major skill I wanted to cover before I leave for the other islands on 4/24 or 4/25.

Thanks to all of you who put up with my over thinking and over writing! I love this!! And I just bought some Seawing Gorillas!!

Good for you! Happy to hear how things have progressed for you. Given your options, I would do the Nitrox certification. It will come in handy for the future. Normally, with PADI, the nitrox certification is course work only and doesn't include a dive. If your instructor will throw in a dive while using nitrox after you have completed the course work, then it would be a no brainer for me.
Self Reliant is an awesome course, with the right instructor. However, it is a stand alone certification and not part of AOW and as @Marie13 said, there is a prerequisite of 100 documented dives prior to taking the course.

 

[Marie13]

And is a completely separate stand alone course and not an option for AOW certification.

I was typing fast and didn’t have time to fully explain.

 

[Trailboss123]

I was typing fast and didn’t have time to fully explain.

Been there and done that

 

[tursiops]

I just signed up for AOW this weekend: Fri/Sat/Sun. I’m psyched! Diving is getting more fun as I get more comfortable (despite the garbage I wrote about in my other thread). I already did 5 dives over the past 3 days and am planning a dive trip to Maui and Big Island for the last week in April . I’m so blessed!!!

Day 1: Deep Dive, Navigation
Day 2: PPB, Search/Rescue
Day 3: (TBD - maybe Enriched?!), PPB Specialty

Since I have the book and am a club member, it was about $400 total including the specialty cert. All are boat dives.

I’m not sure what I want to do for the last adventure dive: Self Reliant wasn’t an option and I don’t know if a night dive will fit the schedule. Maybe Enriched?? Probably good to have some instruction before messing with my air...

April 22 is a club clean-up dive and I’ll get to do some shore diving, which is the other major skill I wanted to cover before I leave for the other islands on 4/24 or 4/25.

Thanks to all of you who put up with my over thinking and over writing! I love this!! And I just bought some Seawing Gorillas!!

Some comments:
* According to standards, the Deep Dive cannot be the first in the sequence, unless there has been an in-water evaluation of your skills and readiness prior to that.
* PPB is a very useful first dive: buoyancy is the foundational skill for everything else. I'd even consider doing the PPB Specialty on Day 1, and really focus on it, then go to Deep and Nav on Day 2.
* it is Search and Recovery, not Rescue.
* Day 3 can be S&R, plus an elective. Yes, EANx can be an elective, but that is a waste since it does not require dives, Do EANx in advance and use it on all your dives, as others have said. Consider DSMB as your elective; focusing on it for a full dive can be very rewarding and it is not as easy as it might look!

 

[Aloha Joe]

Thanks - just signed up for EANX! I’ll do the coursework tonight and go in for review/practical tomorrow. We’ll dive nitrox for all the dives I believe.

I’ll talk to them in person about the sequence. I’d like to do PPB the first day also; I was just reciting what I was told on the phone (by someone other than my instructor).

 

[Neilwood]

Thanks - just signed up for EANX! I’ll do the coursework tonight and go in for review/practical tomorrow. We’ll dive nitrox for all the dives I believe.

I’ll talk to them in person about the sequence. I’d like to do PPB the first day also; I was just reciting what I was told on the phone (by someone other than my instructor).

I would say that is a good choice.

PPB is a great one to start with as you can take the lessons learned in that and use and improve on those aspects throughout the other dives (under the watchful eye of your instructor).

 

[Bob DBF]

The instructor I had for AOW required PPB and it was the first dive of the series with nav second, and another on the first day, Deep was the first dive on the second day and Search and Recovery as the last dive.

His reasoning was that he could assess and work on any buoyancy issues before the deep dive, making it easier on himself and his students for the deep dive and when working with lift bags. From my class, and other classes I saw afterwords, it seemed to work well.

From my point of view, reading and completing all the reviews, either after or before the class, will give one an understanding of dives they may make in the future, even though you don' experience the dive during the class.


Bob

 

[Resqdivemedic]

I usually start my AOW class with PPB, which we really focus on. I also like to do a night dive as one of the electives.

 

[Aloha Joe]

We were going to do Deep first and Navigation second. It was a small boat and a strong current and they couldn’t tie off, so we ended up doing PPB first and Navigation second.

I’m kind of disappointed - PPB was basically “stay close to the bottom but don’t touch, and control breathing to control altitude.” I haven’t read the material yet but I have a feeling there’s more than that? We did one skill where I touched my reg to something on the ground. For navigation, we counted kick cycles at the beginning of the dive, and swam a square pattern using kick cycles right at the end. No mention of natural navigating cues or any review from the book. “Navigation is just to get close, like to find the area of a dive site or wreck or something like that.”

We didn’t do the square pattern until I was down to under 500psi. I was thinking he forgot, and if that had happened I”d probably say something to the shop. I feel like I”m getting the absolute bare minimum. There were several other divers who were just recreational diving, so my instructor was also their guide. I was the only student.

Am I too picky? Maybe Hawaii is so transient that it’s hard to find and keep good instructors? I know there are some out there. Or maybe there aren’t enough people taking advanced classes? With every dive I appreciate my OW instructor more and more - she was phenomenal, covering all the reviews, skills, and making sure we all were competent.

I honestly feel like this AOW cert I’m going to get is borderline pointless. I’d rather find a buddy who’s interested, read the material, and practice the skills together.

 

[mainedvr]

We were going to do Deep first and Navigation second. It was a small boat and a strong current and they couldn’t tie off, so we ended up doing PPB first and Navigation second.

I’m kind of disappointed - PPB was basically “stay close to the bottom but don’t touch, and control breathing to control altitude.” I haven’t read the material yet but I have a feeling there’s more than that? We did one skill where I touched my reg to something on the ground. For navigation, we counted kick cycles at the beginning of the dive, and swam a square pattern using kick cycles right at the end. No mention of natural navigating cues or any review from the book. “Navigation is just to get close, like to find the area of a dive site or wreck or something like that.”

We didn’t do the square pattern until I was down to under 500psi. I was thinking he forgot, and if that had happened I”d probably say something to the shop. I feel like I”m getting the absolute bare minimum. There were several other divers who were just recreational diving, so my instructor was also their guide. I was the only student.

Am I too picky? Maybe Hawaii is so transient that it’s hard to find and keep good instructors? I know there are some out there. Or maybe there aren’t enough people taking advanced classes? With every dive I appreciate my OW instructor more and more - she was phenomenal, covering all the reviews, skills, and making sure we all were competent.

I honestly feel like this AOW cert I’m going to get is borderline pointless. I’d rather find a buddy who’s interested, read the material, and practice the skills together.

All instruction comes down to the Instructor and regardless can be a good or bad experience dependent on that and what they put into it. But AOW is only the "adventure dive of each specialty" So its the first dive of 2-4 other dives you would do for that specialty.
I agree I have seen AOW classes that were just get done and do the required skills, and others that were fun and while you did the required skills the instructor went above and beyond for you to learn something. I did mine on Maui with only 10 dives under my belt but it worked out good we got 5 guided dives learned a few things and one was a scooter dive to the ST. Anthony wreck which is small but had a huge turtle and several frog fish as well as the Goodyear reef.

So again I can see your perspective and the way you describe I would agree. And yes most resort diving certs are pretty bare bones (not all) as for the instructors usually get paid by the head so volume is how they make money unfortunately. Sorry if you had a bad experience, it makes divers skeptical of instructors, kind of like a plumber or electrician coming to your house and fixing something in 10 minutes and charging you $500 bucks your not always sure you got what you paid for till the next time you try to fix it yourself and it cost you twice as much and you still end up calling a pro.