AOW courses to take?

[thebird36]

I have 10 dives logged and thinking of taking advanced open water through PADI. I'm going down to Key Largo in 2 weeks. I'm reading through the courses and obviously the navigation and deep dive are required and then there's a list of the other electives I'm required to take. Which courses would be ideal to take for my AOW? For those of you that don't know what is offered you have to take 3, which include:

Night Diver
Fish I.D.
Photography
Videography
Wreck Diving
Boat Diving
Peak Performance buoyancy
Search and Recovery
Deep Diver
Drift Diver
Underwater Navigator
Underwater Naturalist

Thanks,

-Paul

 

[Wineaux]

I did naturalist, navigation and boat. My preference would have been to swap boat and naturalist with search/rescue and peak buoyancy.

 

[Karibelle]

I strongly recommend Peak Performance Buoyancy.

Then choose the two others based on your interests. Note that if you choose Digital Underwater Photography, it is the second dive of the specialty course that counts toward the Advanced Open Water (as opposed to the first dive, in the other instances) so if you choose that, you would also get that certification (and it may have an additional cost associated with it.

Night is a popular choice, and after that my two favourites for students are Underwater Naturalist and Fish ID. I'm a fish geek.

Whatever you choose, familiarize yourself with the performance requirements, and make sure you get everything you deserve out of your course! and have fun!!

kari

 

[al248005]

With your location I would strongly suggest a drysuit course and limited viz/night course. If you plan on diving predominately in the north based on your location the water will be cold. I dove 3 years wet in mid 40 degree water and finally couldn't take it no more and took the drysuit class. I believe its a very good class to take if you think you will ever dive in one. A drysuit is not something you can just jump right in with. Things can go very bad really fast if you don't know what your doing. For the remaining 3 I think drysuit, limited viz, and search and recovery would be most beneficial to the type of diving that is in the north.

 

[Bigd2722]

I would choose Night, Navigation, Deep, and Peak Performance Bouyancy

 

[aceupmysleeve777]

I think you have to take Deep and Nav by PADI standards. I would also recommend peak performance buoyancy. If you want to take the class in Key Largo check out Florida Diving & Scuba Diving | Horizon Diver Myself and my wife took a class with them just last month and they were great. Walk right out the back of the shop onto one of two boats, can't get easier than that.

 

[uncfnp]

Absolutely recommend night as one of the three. The other two is need/preference. I did wreck and Fish ID. If buoyancy is at all an issue, then I recommend that.

 

[Imla]

Deep and Nav. And for elects: Peak Performance Buoyancy, Night and then either Nitrox, Drysuit or Wreck.

 

[rickym96]

Night. It is a completely different dive.

 

[Wineaux]

Grrr, I meant to say i did night, not nav. I did really enjoy the night dive actually. I definitely recommend that.