AOW Disappointment

[southernblue]

Hello all i thought i would tell you about my AOW course i completed on the weekend.

To start the day off, we were told that since we had booked and paid a deposit the day we got OW certified, the course had changed from 3 boat dives to 2, there was no night dive, and that we would have to pay for the extra boat dive:shakehead

My brother and i politely told the instructor that we had paid a deposit on 3 boat dives and thought it a bit rough we should have to pay extra for the boat dive, in one ear and out the other, we didn't argue the point and let it go at that.

We started the classroom session with the plan to dive the afternoon fom the shore for some nav skills that we did, and also had a play with some scooters off the pier, and looked forward to the boat dives the next day for the deep dive and another boat dive for the search and recovery/naturalist part of the course.

The next day the deep dive was canned as there was not enough people for the boat, so we did a search and recover again from the shore and waited for the afternoon boat dive.

The boat dive was at a depth of 22m which wasn't what we had paid for and was disappointing not to get down to 30m as the course had outlined.

My brother and i felt ripped off and not happy at all with the dive shop and the standard of training we got for our AOW, seems we have just paid the money to get certified without any real benifit from learning new skills.

Am i asking too much of the advanced course, or have we been dudded?

 

[fisherdvm]

You have been dudded. At minimum, you should have went to below 60 ft, went through mental skills at depth. At minimum, you should have done navigation with a compass so you know how to measure distance, and use the compass to navigage in a rectangle or square. At minimum, you should demand a night dive (eventhough it is no longer required per PADI), so you can be familiar with the safety aspects of night diving.

I would threaten to report them to PADI or the BBB.

 

[zackalack8999]

I wouldn't threaten, I would report them, that's a blatant ripoff.

 

[The Chad]

AOW in my eyes really isn't big on teaching you a whole lot. To me it's more like diving in the company of an instuctor if you do ie nav, deep, fish id...that sort of thing. It does sound like you got ripped off b/c you paid for some services that it sounds like were not rendered. Post their name, maybe talk to PADI and let them know your feelings. Overall, sorry you had a bad deal, but there are some really great ops and instuctors out there.

 

[Walter]

At minimum, you should have went to below 60 ft

22 meters is deeper than 60 ft.

Am i asking too much of the advanced course

No, but then AOW isn't an advanced course. I'm not sure it even qualifies as a "course."

 

[rakkis]

So... you did:
1. Navigation
2. DPV
3. Search and Recovery (again? you didn't mention it before)
4. Deep dive - over 60 feet (... barely, i know)

For a total of 4 dives? Your instructor appears to be breaking standards. You should report him to your certification agency if this is so. PM me if you need help on how to do that.

 

[Divedoggie]

You were dudded.

AOW can be and should be a great course. You are provided the opportunity to explore a few new and different segments of diving. If the course is done correctly, you should read the entire book, and then choose to gain some experience in specific areas of interest, as well as the required areas. Deep, Nav, PPB.

If you gain experience and confidence, and additional knowledge of diving, then you are more "advanced."

Its not an "Expert Diver Course." Just an experiencial course which advances a diver beyond basic O/W.
All of my students come away from AOW feeling like they improved their skills, learned something, and are now more capable divers.

IMO:
If the Op cannot meet standards, then they shouldn't teach AOW courses.
2 S+R dives, and a 60 foot deep dive? Thats pushing it. They were just "getting it done", and collecting the money.
If you signed up for a night dive, and they didn't take you, but still charged you for your deposit, then they owe you!

Thats my $.02

 

[Dive-aholic]

So it appears that you did the following dives:

Nav, DPV, S&R, Deep

Did you also do a Night dive?

If you did complete 5 dives, then there's not much you can do as far as PADI is concerned. From what you posted, it appears the instructor could have met standards. It's unfortunate, but it happens. I've heard of and have seen worse courses than yours, both that met and didn't meet standards.

But you did get dudded. If you have something like a better business bureau you might want to try reporting this to them. If you paid by credit, you may want to try to dispute the charge with them as you didn't get what you thought you paid for. But what you can definitely do is not go back to that shop. Find another shop or, even better, an independent instructor that will give you the type of courses you want.

 

[Walter]

If you did complete 5 dives, then there's not much you can do as far as PADI is concerned. From what you posted, it appears the instructor could have met standards. It's unfortunate, but it happens. I've heard of and have seen worse courses than yours, both that met and didn't meet standards.

That's all it's designed to do.

But you did get dudded.

I haven't seen which agency this is through, but if he was dudded, it was by the agency whichever one it was.

 

[Steve R]

You received what I would call your typical AOW course.

Does that mean you were duped?

No worse than anyone else I would suspect.

Was it worth the money? Probably not, but what's that got to do with mainstream training most get?


Rakkis:

As soon as the shine wears off that Instructor's card you have, you'll realize that most agencies (Padi anyway) doesn't give a rats-behind about their own standards really.

I've been giving them (Padi) point blank, cut and dried and current examples of this sort of thing for a long time now, and if there's one thing I know for sure, they don't care, as long as the cash is rolling in.

When they can't argue that in fact you are correct in your assesement, they'll toss the mother of all "go away we've looked at it" excuses and tell you that the investigation has been done, and they are not at liberty to tell anyone anything more than that.

That's double-speak for we did nothing, we don't care, and please go away, you're making us look like the incompetents we are.

My hat's off to you buddy, you're doing the right thing, but you think the agency is in your corner. Sorry to tell you bud, they're not.

Please prove me wrong and help the student file that complaint after you've verified that in fact there really was a standards violation in your opinion.

I would love to see the good-guys win for a change.