AOW with different schools?

[Tropical-Diver]

Hello!

I now got 20 dives under my belt and want to take my diving to the next level, going for the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver.

As far as I understand it, you have to do 5 Adventure Dives in order to be awarded the AOW Certification.

I decided to go for these dives - I think they make a good combination:

- Underwater Navigator
- Deep Diver
- Night Diver
- Enriched Air Diver
- Wreck Diver

So my actual question is: Can I make those courses with different schools, e.g. take the first two with one school and the other three with totally different dive operations? What paperwork has to be filled out?

Greatly appreciate some insight into this,
Marcel

 

[xyrandomyx]

Um, sorry, I can't answer your actual question. It sounds like it should be possible -- you can do 'referrals' with your OW course -- but I don't know for sure. But, I thought I should point out that I'm fairly sure you can't do 'Enriched Air Diver' as an Adventure Dive (only as a full, stand-alone 'Specialty' course). I'm busy with my PADI AOW at the moment, it's definitely not in the students' manual.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Even if you can take Enriched Air Nitrogen as an AOW adventure dive, it probably makes more sense to take it separately as a standalone course in order to get certified to use nitrox whenever you want. Use that AOW adventure dive slot for something else. FWIW, the PADI EAN class doesn't even require any OW dives.

Discuss with your AOW instructor which specialties would be a good choice for you. Some locales present unique "adventure dive" opportunities that you might want to take advantage of.

For a novice diver, the Peak Performance Buoyancy adventure dive with a competent instructor can be a good learning experience.

Ask around to get a word-of-mouth referral or conduct your own "interview" in order to get a good AOW instructor. It can make a huge difference in what you learn.

 

[boulderjohn]

As others have suggested, i would simply take the enriched air course separately. There are no dives required for certification.

Search and Recovery is a good choice.

As for doing it with two shops, I think it is possible, but it could be problematic because it is just about never done that way. There is nothing routine about the process of going from one operator to the next. One problem you might face is cost--each operator probably has only full price courses offered, so they would have to work something out that will probably cost you more.

If you told why you wanted to do it that way, someone might be able to suggest an alternative. For example, if the reason is that you are going on a cruise and won't be in one place long enough to do all 5 dives, I would suggest that you contact the cruise line to see if they have an instructor on staff who can handle the whole thing--many cruise ships do that.

 

[eponym]

First off, good solid choices. Stress & Rescue is a great course, often taken as a capstone to the Master Open Water Diver cert.

To clarify, are you asking about taking some courses with one PADI operator and others with another PADI operator, or are you asking about taking some courses with a PADI operator and others with an operation affiliated with another agency (NAUI, SSI, SDI, etc.)?

I ask because some agencies have higher practical dive requirements than PADI for signing off on specialty courses and on the Advanced card. SSI , for example, requires two dives per specialty (except Nitrox), although some combining of dives is possible. SSI also requires a minimum of 24 open water dives before issuing an Advanced cert--but that should not be a problem for you.

Some agencies have an "adventurer" cert that involves only five dives, but it's not the full "Advanced Open Water Diver" cert. In PADI's case I think they are the same. Maybe talking to one of your local training facilities would help to clarify this.

But my short answer is, in our case, absolutely I would be able to give you credit for certs earned at other shops. I would, however, want to see you in the water executing those skills, but that just means more diving, right?

-Bryan

 

[scubamama5]

Tropical..
Short answer is Yes..(PADI)...you can add to your experience..a dive at a time..any time anywhere....and each full specialty certification (PADI) can be counted towards your advanced level...for deep..an Instructor will require some experience with you prior..

A guided dive..does NOT count.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tropical-Diver]

Thanks for the quick answers!

You're right that the Enriched Air Diver should better be made as a certification course apart from the OWD. I'll probably swap this one for another specialty.

The whole idea is that I'm going to St. Maarten and the surrounding isles in April and May. Since the diving experience is quite varied from isle to isle, I thought about making my wreck diver on Statia, for example, while a deep dive could be better on Saba. Every dive operator will probably have at least one PADI Instructor, so I'll go with PADI all the time.

So - if I understand you right it's generally possible, but there are two downsides:
a) For doing an adventure dive and getting "certified" for it the instructor will want to see me doing some standard dives beforehand?
b) I'm paying for every single adventure dive and upon obtaining the fifth of them would have to pay an entire AOW price to my latest instructor for sending in the paperwork to PADI?

Did I get that right?

This way of doing it will definitely be more expensive than an AOW with just one single school, but for the sake of experience and variety in dive sites I think I'd stomach the increased cost.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Meh. The way you're proposing to get the AOW certification will be a lot more expensive than it needs to be. FWIW, I'm not sure how many dive ops would accommodate your one-adventure-dive-at-a-time smorgasbord approach to AOW class.

I'd recommend saving the AOW class for a time when you can do all of the adventure dives with the same instructor -- preferably a good one who'll teach you a few things. Do the dives you want to do on your vacation. Most likely, the boat dives will be led by a DM/guide. Remember that every dive (not just a formal class dive) is an opportunity to learn. Have a great time and don't limit yourself by trying to check the boxes off the adventure dive list for the AOW cert.

 

[spectrum]

Don't try to make the class dives into events. They are about what you do not where. Working with a single instructor that can develop you will be a lot better and cheaper. Often an instructor will have preferred sites for specific classes and they may not necessarily be prime destinations. Do your training, then you can go explore.

Pete

 

[boulderjohn]

Don't try to make the class dives into events. They are about what you do not where. Working with a single instructor that can develop you will be a lot better and cheaper. Often an instructor will have preferred sites for specific classes and they may not necessarily be prime destinations. Do your training, then you can go explore.

Pete

Good advice there.

A real advantage to going with one instructor is that he or she can work with you on skills that are not necessarily related to the topic of the dive as you progress.

When I dived in St. Maarten, I went with one operator for all my dives except for my trip to Saba. I got to know the people. One day I noticed one of the instructors working with a student under water. I knew it was an AOW student, but what she was dong had nothing to do with the class. I later asked her what was going on, and she told me that this AOW student had absolutely HORRIBLE buoyancy skills. She decided that there was no point doing what was supposed to be done in that dive with her unable to do anything, so she basically made up a dive to teach her the skills she should have learned in OW. Over the 5 official dives of the AOW, she tutored the student in a number of ways that were far beyond the supposed name of each dive.

Similarly, I did my AOW immediately after OW. I was the only student in the class. The instructor tutored me for 5 dives far beyond the requirements of each dive. My skills grew tremendously. It would not have happened that way if I had had a new instructor for each dive.