Worth pursuing AOW?

[Bob DBF]

Why not do a checkout dive instead?

PADI has AOW as a prerequisite anyway, if he did not do the AOW he would.

lol, you know I mean this only for new divers. Maybe it is my tone, my NSG (not so good) reputation for ranting, but I certainly don't mean that this is the only path to becoming a good diver. I just believe the DIR agencies provide an accelerated path than what can be usually (but not always) found with mainstream agencies.

Sense of humor check.

If the recreational agencies spent some time on quality control, I would be able to disagree.


Bob

 

[NAUI Wowie]

One thing to consider is that some dive operators (e.g. Dressel) will throw in the AOW course for free if you purchase a dive package of more than 5 dives from them. My daughter did the course with Dressel in Playa del Carmen, on a trip in which we were planning to do 10 dives anyway. The additional instruction came in handy for my daughter, and it did not detract from our enjoyment of the dives, which included a night dive, wreck dive, and deep dive.

Wow thats awesome

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

PADI has AOW as a prerequisite anyway, if he did not do the AOW he would.

There are other agencies.....

Sense of humor check.

Yeah, I just have had some major misinterpretation of some of my statements from someone who knows me personally, so just a reaction to ensure clarity. Shrug.

 

[EireDiver606]

To OP, if they require that you spend money on a course that doesn’t teach you anything valuable just to obtain a card that permits you to dive on their boat, I’d forget about them. They’re just trying to sell their courses.

Having an “Advanced” on anything whether it’s diving related or not does not necessarily mean that you are advanced. Actually, I would wager that nine times out of ten, the user with the “advanced” on their card is not in that regard. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s their fault for buying the course, it’s the fault of those who up label everything in order to achieve more profit as sheep always like labels that give off an impression that they are indeed something better than what they really are.

I’ve conversed with a few who did aow and they didn’t have good things to say about it (and those were just the instructors who teach it....).

I feel like a fresh new ow diver thinks that logically the next step is AOW which it really doesn’t need to be, and it makes them think that they’ve accomplished something, which of course they haven’t. The label “advanced” could also foster and develop egotistical young newer divers which is never healthy and could be easily prevented.

Just stay ow if that’s what you want or do a dedicated deeper course which actually teaches you a thing or two to go to 40m. AOW is a crossroads between training courses which has nothing good about it, and should be scratched off the list IMHO.

EDIT: unless your local only dive charter or shop requires AOW for insurance reasons, then you should get it as you have to.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

I got a lot out of AOW (NAUI). I had a great instructor, so I learned a lot.

AOW is great from an educational and instruction point of view. It also opens up a lot of doors, as far as dive options go.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I’ve conversed with a few who did aow and they didn’t have good things to say about it (and those were just the instructors who teach it....).

It was not well received at a shop for which I used to teach that for Con Ed, including AOW, there were teaching days and testing days with practice days (without me being present) in between. How many practice days? Depends on the diver.

 

[TMHeimer]

AOW doesn't necessarily mean you are "Advanced". Need we say that 1,000 times.

 

[American Digger In Europe]

Why not do a checkout dive instead?

Based on 25 years of experience, my shop owner believes that it is too dangerous to allow a new diver with 5 dives (for example) to attempt a Deep Dive class before he or she has mastered the basics of SCUBA diving like maintaining neutral bouyancy, emergency proceedures etc. I agree with his approach.

While this cuts into his revenue, he says that he has a moral obligation to ensure the safety of his trainees and his staff.

I personally, didn't take the Deep Dive class until I had logged 75 dives and had Stress and Rescue and was a DAN certified BLS, O2 and AED provider. I wanted to be sure that I wasn't exceeding my level of skills and abilities before I went deep and I'm glad I went this route.

 

[leadduck]

AFAIK, PADI OWD is not sufficient to start the Deep diver Specialty. You need at least PADI Adventure Diver, which is kind of half an AOWD (3 dives instead of 5). Many people take AOWD and Deep Specialty together.
PADI Tec40 is the better deep specialty, but not a replacement for it. AOWD+Deep is a prerequisite for Tec40.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Based on 25 years of experience, my shop owner believes that it is too dangerous to allow a new diver with 5 dives (for example) to attempt a Deep Dive class before he or she has mastered the basics of SCUBA diving like maintaining neutral bouyancy, emergency proceedures etc. I agree with his approach.

While this cuts into his revenue, he says that he has a moral obligation to ensure the safety of his trainees and his staff.

I personally, didn't take the Deep Dive class until I had logged 75 dives and had Stress and Rescue and was a DAN certified BLS, O2 and AED provider. I wanted to be sure that I wasn't exceeding my level of skills and abilities before I went deep and I'm glad I went this route.

Mastering buoyancy is part of open water for every single agency out there and WRSTC requirements. However, I believe, and I infer this from your statement but do not want to put words in your mouth, that this is not the case most of the time.

Using PADI as an example, as it is the most common case and people refer to it so much, the prequisite for Deep is Adventure Diver, which we all know is 3 adventure dives, the first dive of 3 different con ed specialties. So hypothetically, in the PADI system, a diver is "qualified" to take Deep after 7 dives. (I don't have the deep IG guide in front of me, so I am guessing there is no dive count requirement for deep). 5 or 7 dives, not much difference really. Especially if Fish ID or UW naturalist (which are valuable as complete courses by a qualified marine expert) count to that adventure diver rating.

For deep diving though, I fail to see how BLS, O2, and AED are useful for deep diving. Not sure how stress & rescue (the SSI course name for rescue, possibly others, but not PADI).

Again, it depends on an evaluation. With with my OW students in the past who were naturals, I'd still require a fundies like skills course (could be Essentials, fundies, or a NAUI/SDI course where the instructor augments the course to have similar skills requirements) if they were going for the shortest path to deep course that included either a twinset or sidemount (they'd first have to be trained elsewhere) to ensure they are solid divers. I personally require either twinsets or sidemount for anything below 30 meters/100 feet.

None of the boat captains in my area respect the PADI AOW rating. Not one. Hence my prior recommendation for fundies and then deep with an agency other than PADI. Fundies is respected (and preferred).