DIR- Generic Drinking the DIR koolaid

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I would respectfully disagree with the notion that you need AOW and Nitrox to do AOW dives. GUE and UTD teach more than just "Fundies" and "Essentials." As mentioned above, UTD has Rec 1 and then Rec 2 and that certifies you to be on charters on which AOW divers usually dive from. You can take Rec 3, though I would recommend Tech 1. By staying within UTD/GUE there is no depth that you an not dive that PADI is teaching. The only difference is that these agencies structure their training to require you to be more thoroughly trained for those same depths that PADI is letting you dive after a guided diving experience.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Why are you even suggesting agencies? RAID has awful instructors too. There is nothing inherently wrong with PADI AOW, given enough time and effort by the instructors and students (more than a weekend but also more than $300)

Because RAID has objective standards to the skills. RAID also has better quality control (but they are smaller) over their instructors. I've seen them take action with bad instructors. Not dangerous, but bad. Never seen that with PADI. They act on dangerous instructors only.

Mind you, I'm not a RAID instructor, but I do recognize what they are doing. I hope others follow suit.

 

[rjack321]

I would respectfully disagree with the notion that you need AOW and Nitrox to do AOW dives. GUE and UTD teach more than just "Fundies" and "Essentials." As mentioned above, UTD has Rec 1 and then Rec 2 and that certifies you to be on charters on which AOW divers usually dive from. You can take Rec 3, though I would recommend Tech 1. By staying within UTD/GUE there is no depth that you an not dive that PADI is teaching. The only difference is that these agencies structure their training to require you to be more thoroughly trained for those same depths that PADI is letting you dive after a guided diving experience.

Because you will (eventually) run into an operator that wont accept anything but a PADI card. Plenty won't accept a NAUI card either, so the chances that a RAID (or CMAS or YMCA or NSS-CDS lol) card will get you onto that kind of boat are slim too. It happens - so you might as well find a reasonable PADI instructor (they exist) and get something with their name on it.

 

[elgoog]

I still think that I should do GUE F1 first before PADI AOW given my need for better skills. I'm new and I admit I need good training.

Just to clarify, I agree with/recommend this order and was what I did as well.

 

[PfcAJ]

Called my LDS regarding their AOW course. It'd be done over a weekend depending on where we went for it and it'd cost $300 (insane). They said I could do it locally, if I chose, I guess by diving Clarks Hill Lake to depth. I would choose the local dive to save money because it seems like the AOW is pretty worthless training.

I still think that I should do GUE F1 first before PADI AOW given my need for better skills. I'm new and I admit I need good training.

@elgoog My goals are really just to eventually become as expert a diver as I can be, able to do what needs to be done in a situation that goes awry. I want to dive to wrecks, I want to dive deep ocean. I want to do all of this using a BP/W and using the techniques GUE teaches for what I think are pretty understandable reasons.

@PfcAJ What about rec3 was so bad?

Everything that @rjack said.

“Ascent gas” is baloney. Use a deco gas and actually get some real benefit from dragging an extra bottle.

Not good enough to use a deco gas? Then you really shouldn’t be doing deeper dives with trimix. You’re just not ready.

The idea of a “baby step” before tech 1 is ridiculous. So let’s get it straight... the idea of a baby step is STILL doubles and a bottle for the ascent.... so gear wise it’s the same. You can manage the gear presumably. So either you’re skills deficient and can’t maintain a deco stop (oh wait don’t you have to perform stops anyways? Haven’t you been doing that since Fundamentals? So what’s up?) or you’re
mentally not there (but wait you still are doing trimix dives past 100’ with a gas switch... So what’s up?) Does the extra 20’ on tech 1 spook you? 20’ is two aisles at the grocery store. If that spooks you, then, you guessed it, YOURE NOT READY!

I find r3 to be a nonsense course designed to sell courses to people who shouldn’t be technical diving due to skills or mindset. Take tech 1 or keep Rec diving till you’re good enough to take t1.

Keep the TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS in your pocket and go diving.

I really h8 it!!

 

[PfcAJ]

 

[seeker242]

My understanding is that, if any comparison can be made, Rec 2 would be like GUE's version of other agencies' Rescue courses, and Rec 3 would be like GUE's version of their Deep Diver course. Rec 2 doesn't seem to attract a lot of interest. I can't recall anyone on SB mentioning they had taken Rec 2. You're one of the few to report on taking Rec 3.

Rec 2 is basically, according to the standards, Rescue primer + Navigation primer + Triox primer, just all in one class. Sounds like a combination of Rescue and AOW, just minus the fish ID and undwerater photography options.

 

[PfcAJ]

Rec 2 is basically, according to the standards, Rescue primer + Navigation primer + Triox primer, just all in one class. Sounds like a combination of Rescue and AOW, just minus the fish ID and undwerater photography options.

Fish ID and underwater photography > Rec3

 

[nadwidny]

My AOW was a joke too. But its one of those things that you just need as a base to get into places/boats.

Back when I was a shop monkey at the LDS the owner would call AOW "Pay me to take you diving".

 

[RainPilot]

Have you thought about RAID? Their equivalent course is the Explorer 30 (meters fortunately)

Advanced 35 is the better course, the Explorer 30 is more like AOW from PADI but the Adv35 has rescue and two deep dives as part of the 6 dives (Buoyancy, Nav, Rescue, 2 x Deep, elective dive), I have not yet found someone for whom Explorer 30 is a better option.

I don't know if people will find troubles with that cert being accepted, as much of the vacation dive world lives in the PADI bubble.

So far I have not heard of anyone having an issue with RAID certs being recognised, it is growing very fast in SE Asia so there is a lot of brand recognition in Indo, Thailand, Vietnam, Phillipines etc etc