Advanced water course

[JillGadget]

I am taking the advanced water course in Jan and understand deep water and nav are the required and I choice 3 others. My question is say I choose wreck diving, does that allow me to actually go wreck diving or does it just give me a taste of it so I can take the wreck diving course? Hope that makes sense. Also some people are taking about other advanced courses called "NWGratefulDiver's AOW class". What is that?
Thanks for the info.
Jillgadget

 

[LOOPS]

Doing a wreck dive on the Adv course will not certify you to be wreck certified. However that dive can count as the first dive of your wreck diver certification.The advanced diver course basically takes you further into diving by showing you your different diving environments and options as well as give you further information to help you become a better/safer diver.

 

[rakkis]

If you choose the Wreck Adventure dive as part of your AOW course, you will not be doing any penetration. You only do that in the Wreck specialty.

 

[Tigerman]

I took the AOWD class myself recently. Here in Norway, Im not sure if its required by PADI or just "strongly recommended", but since its not exactly long days here in the winter we add "night dive" to the default topic list, making it Deep, navigation and night dive, plus two that we chose. The two we chose was wreck and search & recovery.
As mentioned, on the AOWD wreck dive you will not be doing any penetration of a wreck, but the basics about how to move around near one. Its also clearely stated in the book that you should NOT try to penetrate a wreck without specific training and equipment..

 

[gomi_otaku]

Also some people are taking about other advanced courses called "NWGratefulDiver's AOW class". What is that?
Thanks for the info.
Jillgadget

NWGratefulDiver is one of the key personalities in the Seattle area sub-board. If you are in that area, check out the Pacific NW Orca Bait board under the regional boards. Even if you aren't in the area, he does have some useful information to pass on to everybody on the board. And I've never even met him (I think)
gomi_

 

[nolatom]

"taste of it" is about right. A good instructor will put the fear of penetration into you so that you are willing to do the easy cavern-like swim-throughs (like a blown-out wheelhouse) but are religiously unwilling to penetrate into a true overhaead wreck environment. That fear will keep you alive until, and unless, you decide to get the tech certification to actually enter the "blind" penetration areas of a wreck.

 

[Scububbs]

I did the wreck dive as one of my optional AOW dives and there was little actual instruction beyond the knowledge review, and certainly no penetration. I later went on to complete the PADI wreck diving speciality and even in that there was minimal penetration. I considered it a brief overview of how to survey a wreck with an emphasis on hazards to watch for. It's a great speciality if you're considering it.

 

[HowDidIGetIntoThis?]

JillGadget, I'd recommend that you talk with your instructor prior to the course so that you have a better idea of what to expect to get out of it and, more importantly, what you won't.

I found the AOW dives to be very much a "introduction to" experience and was quite disappointed that the nav. dive, in particular, did little to help me build skills in that area. It was just a repetition of what we did in OWD. One dive just isn't enough to accomplish much of anything. As one who is fortunate to have a great sense of direction top-side it is immensely frustrating to be such a slow learner below sea level. In hindsight I'd have been much better off to use that time and money to do a nav. speciality course and really focus on building that skill.

Some of the dive topics work better than others as "taste of" experiences.

 

[Tigerman]

JillGadget, I'd recommend that you talk with your instructor prior to the course so that you have a better idea of what to expect to get out of it and, more importantly, what you won't.

I found the AOW dives to be very much a "introduction to" experience and was quite disappointed that the nav. dive, in particular, did little to help me build skills in that area. It was just a repetition of what we did in OWD. One dive just isn't enough to accomplish much of anything. As one who is fortunate to have a great sense of direction top-side it is immensely frustrating to be such a slow learner below sea level. In hindsight I'd have been much better off to use that time and money to do a nav. speciality course and really focus on building that skill.

Some of the dive topics work better than others as "taste of" experiences.

If the navigation dive was nothing more than what you did on the OW class, you either had more navigation than you should on the OW class or less of it than you should on AOW..

 

[The Chad]

Also it depends on where you take it. For example in Mexico it's different than it is here in the state. AOW would likely be: night dive, deep dive, fish ID, nav, boat dive. One dive of each really can't teach you much, but it might make you aware of a few things