A silly question about AOW

[SC_Hoaty]

I find it funny how a poster asks about a generic certification, like AOW, available from a variety of agencies, and all the PADI folks have to get into the minutia of PADI's rules on the cert, as if that is the Gospel on the cert. Are there discounts or brownie points awarded for the poster who knows PADIs rules the best?

In this thread alone, there have been comments about "you can't do the deep dive first," "you must do a pool dive in a drysuit," and "adventure dives don't mean the same as a specialty card."

Do folks realize there really are other agencies out there? And those other agencies have their own rules?

 

[Them]

FWIW, there's about a 99.328% chance I will use SDI for the dry suit training.

I spent some time today browsing/skimming SDI's books on a number of subjects.

Also talked to an SDI (and PADI) instructor. I laid out where I am (noob), what I got (BP/W, delusions of cold water, etc.), what I was doing (including that I was trying different agencies). He showed me his personal dry suit, talked variations, pros/cons, common issues, underwear, and fit...we actually spent about an hour on subjects ranging from training to the joys of car stereo installation. I learned a huge amount and have a better idea what will be realistic - which is basically all of it, over time.

Short form: I liked what I saw/heard.

 

[arthurmnev]

1) If you want to learn good buoyancy control go dry it will be a bit harder for you than others, drysuits are more involved, but you will appreciate it when you go diving in 3mm or no suit -- if you can learn to control dry suit, the rest is easy.

2) Rent the suit, dont buy (a good dry suit is $$$$) until you know you will use it later. I dove dry but I don't like it and will go on dry dives only if it is a really good group to do something interesting, some people love it, me -- I hate the hood, thick gloves, and, most of all, waiting for people to get in the water while I'm sweating all body parts off... standing in the sun (even with legs in the water) waiting for everyone else to suit up.
3) 50 is good for wet as well...when I was doing AOW cert in NJ, I went dry because I did not be cold. Looking back, (for me) 40s = dry, 50s = wet; also, for 50s do get gloves -- depending on thermocline you might get uncomfortable. I can tell you that at 40s, I found 5mm gloves to be too much, something thinner would have been better. The hood is nearly mandatory (again from my perspective) even if you dont get cold, ear infections (cold + not so clean water) could be a problem after -- unless you know your body well, don't risk it.

In reference to water temperature: we were diving in a quarry, for every 30' temperature dropped about 10 degrees. So while the surface was about 60s, my computer clocked 40) at the bottom... the screwed up part was 87 air temperature, so gearing up and waiting was a torture.

 

[RonFrank]

My AOW class was fixed and it was PADI. I had no problem with that as many of the adventure dives are fluff types of skills with no instruction necessary. I consider many of the adventure dives unnecessary under the PADI umbrella like Boat or FishID.

With five dives to my credit AOW was an opportunity to do five more dives under the supervision of an instructor. I would not have cared if one of the dives was advanced basket weaving, and altitude was a non skill dive as there is nothing different about diving at altitude. We did Deep, Nav, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Altitude, and Night. It gave me the confidence to dive on my own with a buddy and honesty OW was not enough to dive unsupervised. I could have, but was much more confident after doing 10 supervised dives. Doing a supervised night dive was also beneficial and a great learning experience as it was dark, and a little Scary :scared:, very different as a new diver.


I learned to dive DRY with maybe 50-75 dives logged. Drysuit diving is not something you master in a couple dives. Most divers will be comfortable in a drysuit after 10-15 dives and have it down at maybe 25 dry dives. I know a guy that was struggling with dry diving with over 50 dry dives. So diving dry can be a challenge for some and is not something most pick up quickly. I would suggest having your buoyancy and trim under control before going dry. I had several unscheduled ascents when learning to dive dry. Now its just part of diving and I have not dove wet for a couple years as CA diving is very enjoyable.

New divers want to gain experience through training and that is valuable. But the real benefit of AOW is just diving with an instructor for a weekend!