Adequacy of OW and AOW

[Lobzilla]

Looking back, how do you feel about what you learned in OW and AOW.

Did the training prepare you to recognize the risks scuba diving entails and did you leave with the skills to deal with real emergencies on the next dive after getting the cert?

 

[Bubble_Boy]

I put no in the poll. Just to be more specific, my OW was fantastic and learned a lot!
My AOW was junk, all we did is swim around and at the end they handed me a card...
It's been said before, it all come down to the instructor

 

[eponym]

Frankly, I can't remember enough details to answer. I know (from later review of my divelog) that one of my OWD training dives lasted an hour, which would indicate some comfort level, but I also remember that all our drills were done kneeling on the bottom.

Most of what I now know can go wrong underwater, I learned on the fly. So I guess my answer would be no.

-Bryan

 

[a22shady]

Both my Courses were done really well. I used the Same instructor both times and shop so I expected nothing less than a course done right. I feel my biggest improvment from the AOW course was using the compass. We did a fair amount of compass work and now I can navigate pretty good.

We also did an egg test on our deep dive. The instructor brings an egg and cracks them and you can see how the everything stays together in a circlir egg from the pressure of the water we even passed the yolk/ and stuff around like a ball. Also brought a card with colors on it down to show the color loss.

But Overall I felt as the risk's through both courses we explaind pretty well (I understood) But I have yet to trully end up in an emergency, Do I know how to handle, Yes. If something happened could I safely get back to where I need to be, I feel that I can. But with that being said I feel I could asses and survive. We still practice all the skills each one on a different Dive.

We took our AOW the next year after OW. As we decided for us since we bought all our equipement that we would just focus on Diving and getting comfortable with it and our gear so would wait till next year to do our AOW. I believe this helped us get more out of the course since we had more time and dives and were alot more comfortable then when we first started buyoancy/trim and others were alot better so just gave us more time to focus on the key parts of the course.

 

[drydiver]

I didn't come out of either class with those expectations. Comprehend the risks involved from reading a book and listening to an instructor? yes. Recognize as in having a finely tuned snafuometer, no. I completed my OW with an understanding that I had a learners permit to gain further experience and training and a healthy dose of respect that diver error causes the most incidents, especially in the first year. Immediately after OW, I went on vacation to Jamaica and knew I didnt feel comfortable in a new environment, in rental gear, with instabuddies, so I signed up be with an instructor and by 9 dives total I got my AOW cert, woohoo I saw a lot of crazy stuff happen to divers on that trip and my snafuometer probably graduated in accuracy to just below dumb ass level.
All that was in the Caribbean, but I was hooked, knew I wanted to dive year round and went home to Virginia, bought a 7mm wetsuit, rented some gear, threw myself in Millbrook Quarry. If not for my online instabuddy who had been to that location before, probably would have hurt myself. I decided this dark cold water diving was another beast, but I was not giving up so I signed up for a Peak Performance Buoyancy class because I didnt know a single local diver and I obviously had not mastered my buoyancy in my last 2 dives with the thicker wetsuit. I then joined the Richmond Dive club, met some great buddies, relocated to PA, met some more great dive buddies, mentored even newer divers than myself, took classes and dived my butt off in many different environments. The more underwater shenanigans I saw and experienced, the more I was able to anticipate/prevent/resolve issues.

Sorry so long, but I guess my point is, I didnt expect any outside source to mind meld all the diving knowledge and experience into me, the certs actually meant nothing, what I did with them is what mattered. I consider myself a continuing learner in the dive world, the more I learn, the more I realize that I still dont know what I dont know.

 

[chuck34gboro]

I think the classes are suffecient for people who are smart and get an easy understanding of physics and safety and are taking the course seriously. Instructors should recognize those who don't and not pass them just for the $$$. Unfortunately, money changes everything.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Would be better to separate these questions/answers.

OW was great and all I had hoped for. I became very comfortable and confident as a diver. AOW, not so much. But I've decide that it's my fault for waiting so long to take the AOW course. Sometimes you can be too experienced to get the full benefit of a course.

 

[Petert71]

I don't think my OW course covered absolutely everything it should have, but it did give me enough to dive safely an within my limits. I've spent a lot of time with the instructor since. Doing dives, asking questions and filling any gaps. This has been a big help.

 

[ElGaucho]

My OW was really not very good. We were 4 people and to be honest, I was the only one really interested. But I recently took my AOW, and it was really good. The nav portion, we took it with 6 feet viz, so it really paid off. I really started to understand how to use my SK7 in very practical situations (not only the AOW textbook samples, but my instructor and DM both showed me more practical uses on every dive we did for AOW, really making it worth it). My deep dive ended up being a bit botched, since my girlfriend got a bit panicky, the sea was very rough, we were close to rocks, viz was barely 6 feet ... anyhow, I spent most of the time on my deep dive playing support to the instructor and my girlfriend, together with the DM which whom I buddied up with. But, I did it, and it was in less than ideal conditions (I love those during training). The PPB portion was a bit useless to me because I was already almost trimmed (BP/W, streamlined, etc). My instructor noted that my Hollis F1 fins might be too heavy, and I agree. He said they might be fine if I always use the correct stance/kick, but I am still flutter kicking a lot and I should use a pair of simple (and cheap) full foot fins for those dives to get better trim. It sounded like a smart reco. Because there was a lot of current, that made doing the underwater PPB excercises next to impossible, but we tried which is the idea. I ended up doing an extra dive with my instructor (only the two of us) after AOW, putting into practice many things. All in all, I am, after my AOW, much more aware on how to slowly, with practice, become a better diver. If I add that "formal" training, with all the reading I do in ScubaBoard, if I had water close by, I am sure I would become a proficient diver in no time

 

[TMHeimer]

I voted "for the most part". I had good instructors both OW & AOW. I feel as many do that PADI should include at least some nuts and bolts Rescue stuff in the OW (as apparently was the case with many agencies years ago?).