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At the risk of being labeled here are my thoughts:
You need OW or else you cant get your tanks filled: I can get a boat, I can get all the gear i want, I can learn about deco by asking questions here on Scubaboardand I can dive deep. I can learn to use a reel all on my own dont need a class, I can learn to manage my buoyancy I can learn trim and about anything else I need when I need it.
--as a test lets see if I am close. say I dive to 200 feet, I stay 15 minutes (air), I come up to 120(nitrox um 34?) and hang for 10 min, 90ft 10 Min come up to 60 hang 10 min, up to 20 (64%?)and hang 20 min 10ft for 10min am I clear? assume I have the air SAC and I staged bottles I have 0 deep nitrox training, just what I learned in my Naui OW in 1982 and a few questions asked) And please stay with the spirit of this, I am not advocating diving deep with out training. before I really attempted it I would get real deco training.
So why would I take a class?, either it is because I do not have the confidence to learn on my own or because I want to accelerate the process, or maybe because there might be something that I did not know I needed to learn or maybe I am an egoist and need a badge.
Thread topic is "Redesigning AOW" and its sister thread "AOW=bs" obviously many people are not satisfied with this class.
Personally I intend to take it because I have to to get OWDI it will not matter to me if I learn nothing or lots it is a stepping stone, In fact in my situation it is to my advantage to have minimum dives, however when I do become a DI I plan to have dived to 200 ft at least once, been inside a wreck, and be fairly competent in UWphoto. I have no interest in ever going in a cave, or skydiving. So I would love it if the training in either AOW or DM included all that I need to safely accomplish all these tasks. I am not young and do not think that I can have it all in an instant, I think that AOW should be at least everything a sport diver needs to know to do all dives he might want to safely. and if there is no real content past being able to hang horizontal at 20 feet for 10 minutes then call it something else. how about "Experience Diving, everything we are sure you did not learn the first time"
Often it's because it shortens the learning curve. If you opt to learn on your own, it should be with a mentor who can show you how to do things in ways that have been time-tested and proven to be effective. Otherwise, it will often be the case that you develop habits that will work for now, but prove to be an impediment as your diving progresses to higher levels ... in which case you have to "unlearn" them and learn a different approach. That method usually proves expensive and slow.
That approach is never advantageous. One of the most important things an instructor can bring to their students is context ... the ability to explain the concepts of the academics in a way that relates to what the students will actually be experiencing. The only way to develop that context is through diving. If your goal is to become an instructor, the more experience you can bring to the class with you the better.
AOW or DM training will not provide you with any of the above. In order to safely go to 200 feet you have to take some sort of technical training. This will focus on much ... MUCH ... more than simply decompression procedures. What will really cause you to struggle will be the task loading. In deep diving it will be performing the gas switches while dealing with buoyancy control and adhering to your schedule. For diving in a wreck there are safety protocols involved in selecting proper tie-offs, proper reel work, and knowing how to deal with silt-outs. Those are the MINIMAL things that you will only learn by diving ... and the correct protocols can only be learned by doing them either with an instructor or a mentor who's willing to work with you. AOW and DM won't even touch those topics ... rightfully so as they deal primarily with the protocols of recreational diving. And the skills you learn in those classes will only serve as a stepping-off point for the skills necessary to conduct deep dives and wreck dives safely ... you need to develop those skills well beyond anything that's required to be even an excellent sport diver.
But going to 200 feet and diving inside a wreck are NOT things that a sport diver needs to know ... in fact, I believe that teaching these things at the sport level would be inherently dangerous because of the difference in mentality between sport diving and technical diving. Tech divers simply do not attempt to seek short-cuts in their training, and spend endless hours training for contingencies and emergencies to assure they'll be prepared to deal with them. The vast majority of sport divers would have no interest in putting in the necessary effort to do those types of dives safely. For that reason, they should not be offered training that will only provide a false sense of security ... because at 200 feet even the smallest mistakes can be fatal if not dealt with promptly and properly.
do you think there is some difference in European diving conditions and the rest of the world ?
