AOW and/or Nitrox

[verybaddiver]

i did the AOW directly after i finished my OW course, after my dive centre assured me it was the right course. I've personally come to the conclusion that the only benefits for me was that the AOW introduced me to deeper diving and dry suit diving, (since the ow doesn't incoorporate dry suit diving, it was worth it for this alone). But for people diving in shortie/wet suit weather i can see little benefit from doing the AOW, and think it would be better doing night diving or something which would be much more interesting? also have you considered just doing 5 dives? (which would be much cheaper and actually let you do what you are actually doing diving for?) a secondary consideration and i'm not endorsing this, is the fact that most holiday dive centres will rarely bother about whether you actually have the AOW cert or not, and consider even if you do, my AOW deep dive was at a measly 19metres. the benefits are, you get tuition to make sure you are watched by a professional. you will on paper be able to dive to 30m, even if you have never even broke 20m. and lastly it enables you to do the rescue diver course, which i think is so much more important that any other course.

About the enriched air nitrox course. again i did this course very early. (my reason was that i eventually want to get into tech diving, so did eanx + deep very early, to get the number of these two up). but i find that i rarely run out of ndl and air is always my concern(yes i know all the ways to conserve air) upto 30m (which is ~ limit of eanx anyways) after that ndl came into play. so what i'm saying don't expect the EANx course to increase the lengths of your dives.

So in conclusion:-

AOW = 5 dives ~ $350
normal diving $350 = ~ 12 dives (this is with hiring equipment, and guided)

in my opinions the amount of dives you do will determine how good you are so i;d sugest ignoring the EANx and AOW course and doing the dives.

 

[Damselfish]

I'm not sure I see why AOW would be less useful for someone diving "shortie/wet suit weather"? Aside from it being required for Rescue and by the occasional dive op (which are decent reasons themselves) - there's lots of useful things that can be taught besides drysuit. "Just diving" is good too, but if you get a good AOW class you should learn a bunch of stuff, and more quickly, than you would by just doing normal dives.

As far as Nitrox, many people are indeed limited by NDL rather than gas so Nitrox does increase the length of their dives, especially on repetitive dives. (Or increases the safety factor, or some of each.)

 

[verybaddiver]

"I'm not sure I see why AOW would be less useful for someone diving "shortie/wet suit weather"? Aside from it being required for Rescue and by the occasional dive op (which are decent reasons themselves) - there's lots of useful things that can be taught besides drysuit. "Just diving" is good too, but if you get a good AOW class you should learn a bunch of stuff, and more quickly, than you would by just doing normal dives."

i think experience is so much more important than the extra tidbits of info you may/maynot pick up in the AOW, i was assuming he was a newer diving here. ofcourse if you are comfortable with diving, doing AOW which allows you to dive deeper and do other things would be useful.

"As far as Nitrox, many people are indeed limited by NDL rather than gas so Nitrox does increase the length of their dives, especially on repetitive dives. (Or increases the safety factor, or some of each.)"

1. i was assuming he was a novice diver and the fact he is only a OW diver means he is only certified to 18m, 48 minutes ndl (since he isn't trained to make a safety stop). like i said i was assuming he was a novice diver, who would last about this long before running out of air. yes if he was more experienced this is a very useful course to do.
I would say this is far more valuble than the AOW course, but only a consideration if your extra air reserves are large enough to bother. the course also helps newer diver become better knowledgable with dive planning, so i suppose this is another useful reason for this course.

ok cheers Damselfish, you made me think abit.

Ii didn't properly think what the courses added. But i remain positive if he is still a beginner diver(like me :/) then just diving would be far cheaper and more useful than the two courses.

man, this is troubling me now :> cause i keep thinking EANx is more valuable, but then keep thinking that as only OW you aren't allowed to wreck or cavern dive.

BLEGH, do both of them, they are both useful!!!

 

[dlegros]

1. i was assuming he was a novice diver and the fact he is only a OW diver means he is only certified to 18m, 48 minutes ndl (since he isn't trained to make a safety stop)

Where did you get this info from?

The topic so far seems to indicate the OP is PADI certified - where does it say that PADI OW divers are time limited to 48min?

They are depth limited to 18m, but can stay to the NDL and are trained that a 3 minute stop should be considered on any dive, but should be undertaken on any dive coming within 3 pressure groups of the NDL for that depth - it's all printed on the RDP.

We average four dive trips a year and that pretty much maintains my level of competency. The people at the dive shop implied it would "look" better - that I would have a card that would match my ability level. So I have to ask...is having an AOW card a big deal? So far, the people I've been diving with who were AOW certified were all really "beginners". Go figure! I hate the thought of throwing money away...but is having that AOW really so important?

A simple reason for AOW is insurance. When you go diving, are you insured?

If so, does your insurance stipulate a max depth - particularly, does is stipulate you are only covered to depths you are qualified for?

My travel insurance is 30m or rated depth (whichever is shallower), my dive insurance is to rated depth.

If you get DCS on holiday on a 20m dive, who's going to bay the very hefty medical bill?

Dom

 

[verybaddiver]

ok my bad...

its been so long since i did the open water course i just assumed it didn't involve training to do safety stops? so you are advised to dive within the non grey section. ofcourse this didn't matter to me cause i did the AOW so soon after the OW they blended together

 

[parrotman]

It seems to me that the certifiying agencies should rethink how these certs are issued.
As many on this thread have pointed out, taking the AOW course does not make you an advanced diver. Just as not having a card stating "AOW" on it does not make you any less of a diver. I only carry an OW card yet I have close to 350 logged dives. I took my OW certification dives in Oregon in the middle of winter. The water was 42 degrees. In the following years I have done hundreds of deep dives, I do underwater photography, heck I even do underwater photography on deep wrecks at night
So my point is, what would be the purpose of paying for the AOW card? My insurance covers up to 120ft so that is a non issue also.
And yet recently I ran into the problem where the dive op was not going to let me do a certain dive because it was deeper than 60 feet and I was not AOW and a friend of mine was actually denied a trip on a live aboard unless she took the AOW course before hand because most of the dives on the itnerary were deeper than 60 ft.
I am all for continued education but having to pay money for something that is not of any benefit to you is not the way to do this.

 

[verybaddiver]

i agree with you fully, and being certified as a master scuba diver after only fifty dives is abit quick as well. :>

i mean, i think its a terribly lame qualification to have (you have to pay to get it) unless you get it free with the padi dive society. but even then would you consider this person a master diver:-

49 dives at 12 meters . 1 dive at 19 meters. specialies in boat diver, underwater naturalist, project aware, coral reef conservation , aware fish id.

 

[taurus7690]

Nitrox does not increase the length of your dive. A tank of Nitrox lasts just as long as a tank of air. Nitrox does, however, give you a longer bottom time by decreasing the amount of nitrogen absorbed by your body.

I'm not sure I see why AOW would be less useful for someone diving "shortie/wet suit weather"? Aside from it being required for Rescue and by the occasional dive op (which are decent reasons themselves) - there's lots of useful things that can be taught besides drysuit. "Just diving" is good too, but if you get a good AOW class you should learn a bunch of stuff, and more quickly, than you would by just doing normal dives.

As far as Nitrox, many people are indeed limited by NDL rather than gas so Nitrox does increase the length of their dives, especially on repetitive dives. (Or increases the safety factor, or some of each.)

 

[verybaddiver]

Nitrox does not increase the length of your dive. A tank of Nitrox lasts just as long as a tank of air. Nitrox does, however, give you a longer bottom time by decreasing the amount of nitrogen absorbed by your body.

which is what he said... i'm sure we all all EANx qualified ffs, apart from the OP

 

[jakubson]

It seems to me that the certifiying agencies should rethink how these certs are issued.
As many on this thread have pointed out, taking the AOW course does not make you an advanced diver. Just as not having a card stating "AOW" on it does not make you any less of a diver. I only carry an OW card yet I have close to 350 logged dives. I took my OW certification dives in Oregon in the middle of winter. The water was 42 degrees. In the following years I have done hundreds of deep dives, I do underwater photography, heck I even do underwater photography on deep wrecks at night
So my point is, what would be the purpose of paying for the AOW card? My insurance covers up to 120ft so that is a non issue also.

Right on! I challenged my LDS to articulate the worth of AOW to people like us (diving 20+ years, multiple hundreds of dives, experience in cold/deep/wreck/boat/night/drift/navigation/current/... No one has yet come up with enough reasons to convince me to take AOW.

And yet recently I ran into the problem where the dive op was not going to let me do a certain dive because it was deeper than 60 feet and I was not AOW and a friend of mine was actually denied a trip on a live aboard unless she took the AOW course before hand because most of the dives on the itnerary were deeper than 60 ft.

Choose another dive op. Choose another liveaboard. Vote with your wallet.