CAPTAIN SINBAD
Contributor
I was looking at the course breakdown of different agencies. Why do we have AOW or the sample platter type courses? None of the specialties are covered in detail as full specialties and the result is a diver who is diving deeper depths 60 - 100ft with not much more than OW plus some compass reading etc.
PSAI has a deep diver course instead of AOW and that has technical diving level gas planning, buoyancy etc. UTD and GUE have Rec 2 which are attempting to create a diver who will be "advanced" than their Open water not just in plastic card but also in theory and skills.
Is there a reason why most of the agencies have AOW type courses? Would the consumer not be better served if they went from OW to Deep? Purely from consumer's perspective it does not add much value and from a shop or agency perspective, it tends to kill the market for specialties because when customers get used to diving those depths 60 - 100 after their guided dive experience from their instructor, the plastic card is good for those depths. Why get more training?
I'd love to hear peoples thoughts on this, both who have taken the Deep Specialty and those who teach it.
PSAI has a deep diver course instead of AOW and that has technical diving level gas planning, buoyancy etc. UTD and GUE have Rec 2 which are attempting to create a diver who will be "advanced" than their Open water not just in plastic card but also in theory and skills.
Is there a reason why most of the agencies have AOW type courses? Would the consumer not be better served if they went from OW to Deep? Purely from consumer's perspective it does not add much value and from a shop or agency perspective, it tends to kill the market for specialties because when customers get used to diving those depths 60 - 100 after their guided dive experience from their instructor, the plastic card is good for those depths. Why get more training?
I'd love to hear peoples thoughts on this, both who have taken the Deep Specialty and those who teach it.