Advanced open water? is it too soon? or my own BCD

[craigowen89]

I have recently completed my open water course in the uk, and have completed 2 dives with just me and my buddy and love it!. I have just been contatced by my dive school and they have an offer where i can compete my AOW for £179 inc cert. Which is a great deal!

Is it best for me to go off and get some experience and then complete it in years to come? or will the skills i learn during the course benefit my diving? I took to diving well and was very comfortable on my OW and had better control than others on my course. However i am worried that all the divers on the course will be much more experienced than me and i will struggle to keep up.

If i decide against it i will spend the money on my own BCD.

all opinions welcome!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I do not allow students into my AOW course with less than 10 dives post OW cert. They also need to be able to perform basic skills neutral, horizontal, and in midwater. But then the AOW class I offer is not typical and it is not a tour or taste of what could be called advanced dives. A course that bills itself as such to me is not worth much. The reason being that an AOW card will give you access to sites that actually require new skills and if you don;t have them you could end up in a world of hurt. You don't need to wait years. Get a dozen or so more dives in and work on the skills you just learned in OW. Then look around for an AOW class that will give you those new skills. Interview various instructors and compare programs. Who decides what dives are in the AOW class? You or the shop? Are they all dives that will benefit you and the types of diving you want to do? Are there any fluff dives that don't offer new skills? I'd stay away from those. I have an entire chapter in my book on how and when to choose further training. Most people don't know any more than they are told by their shop or instructor. I don't see that as a good thing.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It depends on what you want to get out of AOW ... and, of course, how it's being taught. There are two significantly different schools of thought on that class. One is that taking it straightaway out of OW gives you more dives with an instructor who can provide more supervision as you hone your skills. The other is that holding off until you have some experience gives you more "bandwidth" to focus on the new skills and environment the class (supposedly) teaches you.

My personal opinion is that if you have a buddy to dive with, and if the two of you are comfortable doing relatively simple dives while you work on getting comfortable with your newfound skills, then you should spend your money on the BCD and stay at the level you're at until you feel a need for more challenging environments.

A lot of people who go straightaway from OW to AOW end up coming out of the latter feeling like they didn't learn anything ... and that's just not money well spent ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TMHeimer]

Well, the 2 previous posts (guys WAY up the ladder from me) make excellent points. Your question is asked often. My own story is I bought all of my stuff pretty much during or right after OW course. Did 2 dives, then did AOW in Florida. It was the ONLY way I was going to get any diving in down there (North Florida) during winter. I think it went well. I had a good instructor (eventually did MSD with him the next winter). My skills improved--buoyancy in particular. When I did Rescue Diver I had 26 dives and think I should have had maybe 20 more before doing that (excellent instructor also). Maybe things caught up to me a bit there. Everyone's different and of course, it depends on the instructor. If it's a choice of AOW or BCD, I vote BCD. My first thoughts during & after OW were to get my own stuff and get used to it. Didn't even know AOW existed.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I usually don't post after Jim or Bob, I just read and learn.

I do agree that it might be a good idea to buy your own gear and get some dives getting things configured the way you want. Then take the advanced class with your dive buddy.

Gear, experience diving...then more training.

-Mitch

 

[eelnoraa]

Between the 2, I will go with a BCD first. There are lots of dive sites, lots of things to see even without AOW skill set. Why not do a few more dives, in fact a few more dozens, then decide if more training is needed.

 

[g1138]

Getting dives in to prep for taking the Adv class does nothing for you unless have a mentor or are learning something useful through each dive. If you're not actively learning or trying to improve then it might be better to just take the class to get some instructor input and help.

Some Adv classes are inadvertently tailored more to divers who already have a hand on their basic skills (ie. buoyancy, trim etc)
PADI I think is a prime example, although it seems the exact opposite at times. In PADI (anyone correct me if I'm wrong) you select several specialties and take one dive for each specialty. You don't really have time to improve or focus on your basic skills because you're constantly working on something new. This type of class structure I would recommend to those who are already pretty sharp with their skills.

On the other hand you have Adv classes that don't focus on specialties so much, such as the NAUI Adv class I took at my university. There you do 4 dives at local sites, all above 50ft. Basically they're to help you get more experience in your basic skills. Most students there are fresh out of Basic from the previous school quarter. A lot only have 4 cert dives (skills followed by fun dives). So the first 4 Adv dives are to let them fiddle around and find their pace. The 5th and 6th dives are a boat dive to 60-70ft, followed by a night dive at the common training site; these are more on par with PADI's specialties in their Adv class. Navigation is always a present factor for us, even during our Basic checkout dives.
I would recommend this type of structure for some one of your experience.

Either way you get a card and it is up to you whether you think you're ready to use it. Cards in my mind don't show experience or skill sets but rather act as a support for liability waivers and diver bravado.
If you feel like you can gain more experience and improvement taking a class with instructor guidance then I would say take it. Just don't get your head focused on the title or the card.

 

[Thalassamania]

Go get your BC, it'll teach you more than most advanced classes.

 

[dbulmer]

To the OP,
Where do you live?


Do you wish to dive in the Uk?

If you wish to dive in the UK I'd suggest getting your BC first and then joining a BSAC/SAA club for further training.

If warm water is what you intend to do then I'd suggest doing it abroad or right now in the UK. Doing AOW in the UK at the moment would be ok since the water is not far from being the warmest it can get.

 

[TSandM]

I don't really know how these classes are run in the UK, but in the US, AOW is designed as an immediate follow-on to the OW class. People who wait and take it significantly later are often disappointed at the content.

If you have a buddy and accessible local sites, I'd recommend buying your gear and diving. Practice the things you already know, and incorporate principles you can gain from perusing threads on this site, and watching YouTube videos like the 5thD-X ones. You'll have fun, which is very important, and improve from the best way of improving, which is diving with a good picture in mind of what you are trying to achieve.