The Advanced Course I offer is one that, while within and meeting all agency standards, is one I wrote myself and actually have a book about. Most by the agency book Advanced courses leave much to be desired. It does depend on the instructor. All instructors are free to add material and skills to a certain point. Some are permitted to require those additions to be met to issue the card. It depends on the agency.
I don't believe in using the advanced class to remediate basic skills. They should be pretty much nailed down before taking the class. The reason for this is that in many places the advanced card is used as a liability waiver by operations to put people on dives they may have no business being on.
I was out on the Spiegel Grove with an op and there was a couple with AOW cards. And a total of 12 -15 or so dives under their belt each. They had trouble setting up their gear, difficulty with the entry, and then burned through their air by the time they reached the deck at 95 feet. Then the wife complained that her computer had the previous day so while she was wearing it, it was non-functional and she was just following her husband's unit. But no one asked about anything more than that AOW card to let them on the dive.
My own personal belief is that if you are going to take an AOW class to get access to different dives like that, the course should not be a taste or tour of those dives. If should give the information and skills necessary to do them safely and with an understanding of when, even with the card, you should just say no and not do the dive. An AOW course generally has a training limit of 100 feet but the card will get you on dives to 130, or more depending on the site. So you should have a good understanding of gas planning, use of a redundant air supply that you carry, emergency deco procedures, and excellent buoyancy and trim.
For this reason and for the other dives in the course, I have minimum entry requirements.
1. All basic skills able to be done neutral and horizontal with less than 2 feet change in depth. By the end of the class, we'll get it down to one foot. I may require a non-cert workshop with me to address this.
2. 10 - 12 dives post-OW certification outside of a class if I wasn't your OW instructor.
The dives I do I choose and are in this order for a reason. The subsequent ones build on those that come before it.
1. Advanced Skills - Anti- Silting kicks, Stage bottle use, DSMB from depth, non-silting kicks, buddy skills, and communication
2. Underwater Navigation - Compass use, line and reel use, measuring distance via kicks, time, air consumption, or line. Buddy awareness, task sharing, communication. Attention to detail and selection of landmarks. Planning limitations.
3. Night/Low Vis - Buoyancy control and trim, light use and selection, touch contact and communication, lost diver procedure, navigation, site choice and hazards.
4. Deep dive -Max Depth -100 feet. buoyancy control and trim, horizontal descents and ascents, rate of ascent and descent control, narcosis exposure, and determination by task loading using actual dive skills including reel and line, air share at from max depth to 50 ft, and deploy stage bottle.
5. Search and Recovery -dive is done at 25 feet or less, patterns and risks, communication, use of line and reel for circular pattern search as buddy pair, raise object using lift bag, and swim it horizontal 100 feet. Then bring to the surface under control and return it to depth under control while maintaining neutral buoyancy of the object and diver.
6. Buddy Skills and Assist - depth 30 ft or less. 100 foot no mask swim with buddy leading, 100 ft no mask air share swim, 100 foot no mask air share swim and ascent. Loss of buoyancy ascent assist and support at the surface. Non-responsive diver from depth (not to exceed 25 ft). Rescue tow of the non-responsive diver to shore or boat.
There is a lot more to this class and while using the agency text, I also supplement it with my own book. Especially the chapters on gear selection and gas management. The class is not for everyone. It was never meant to be.
I don't believe in using the advanced class to remediate basic skills. They should be pretty much nailed down before taking the class. The reason for this is that in many places the advanced card is used as a liability waiver by operations to put people on dives they may have no business being on.
I was out on the Spiegel Grove with an op and there was a couple with AOW cards. And a total of 12 -15 or so dives under their belt each. They had trouble setting up their gear, difficulty with the entry, and then burned through their air by the time they reached the deck at 95 feet. Then the wife complained that her computer had the previous day so while she was wearing it, it was non-functional and she was just following her husband's unit. But no one asked about anything more than that AOW card to let them on the dive.
My own personal belief is that if you are going to take an AOW class to get access to different dives like that, the course should not be a taste or tour of those dives. If should give the information and skills necessary to do them safely and with an understanding of when, even with the card, you should just say no and not do the dive. An AOW course generally has a training limit of 100 feet but the card will get you on dives to 130, or more depending on the site. So you should have a good understanding of gas planning, use of a redundant air supply that you carry, emergency deco procedures, and excellent buoyancy and trim.
For this reason and for the other dives in the course, I have minimum entry requirements.
1. All basic skills able to be done neutral and horizontal with less than 2 feet change in depth. By the end of the class, we'll get it down to one foot. I may require a non-cert workshop with me to address this.
2. 10 - 12 dives post-OW certification outside of a class if I wasn't your OW instructor.
The dives I do I choose and are in this order for a reason. The subsequent ones build on those that come before it.
1. Advanced Skills - Anti- Silting kicks, Stage bottle use, DSMB from depth, non-silting kicks, buddy skills, and communication
2. Underwater Navigation - Compass use, line and reel use, measuring distance via kicks, time, air consumption, or line. Buddy awareness, task sharing, communication. Attention to detail and selection of landmarks. Planning limitations.
3. Night/Low Vis - Buoyancy control and trim, light use and selection, touch contact and communication, lost diver procedure, navigation, site choice and hazards.
4. Deep dive -Max Depth -100 feet. buoyancy control and trim, horizontal descents and ascents, rate of ascent and descent control, narcosis exposure, and determination by task loading using actual dive skills including reel and line, air share at from max depth to 50 ft, and deploy stage bottle.
5. Search and Recovery -dive is done at 25 feet or less, patterns and risks, communication, use of line and reel for circular pattern search as buddy pair, raise object using lift bag, and swim it horizontal 100 feet. Then bring to the surface under control and return it to depth under control while maintaining neutral buoyancy of the object and diver.
6. Buddy Skills and Assist - depth 30 ft or less. 100 foot no mask swim with buddy leading, 100 ft no mask air share swim, 100 foot no mask air share swim and ascent. Loss of buoyancy ascent assist and support at the surface. Non-responsive diver from depth (not to exceed 25 ft). Rescue tow of the non-responsive diver to shore or boat.
There is a lot more to this class and while using the agency text, I also supplement it with my own book. Especially the chapters on gear selection and gas management. The class is not for everyone. It was never meant to be.
