Aow

[reel-wild]

someone please tell me whats the big deal to have AOW card as i see it you have 24 dives a couple extra skills classes be it photo or computer diving or boat diving plus equiment and they give you AOW card there is no special class

 

[Dive Junky]

I guess every agency and region is different but, in Jersey we introduce students to advanced navigation, proper wreck reel use, lift bag deployment, diving to depths beyond 80 feet,etc.

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

I guess it's as big a deal as you make it. I'll have over 50 dives by the time I get my AOW cert the end of May. No wrecks to dive on hereabouts but I'll be doing advanced UW nav, deep diving, night diving, and I haven't decided on the other two yet.

Do I need the AOW certification to do any of these dives? No. I have the good fortune of diving with some knowlegable people that are good about sharing information with newbies like me.

Do some dive boats and trips require an AOW cert to go on certain dives? Yes. I may want to go on one of those someday. A friend of mine wants to dive on a wreck that requires the diver to have 60 cold water dives.

The point is that diving is what you make of it. If you go out only a couple times a year, who cares if you ever go to AOW. On the other hand if you do 3-6 dives almost every weekend (like some of us) the skills learned in AOW will be usefull. The other thing to remember is that getting the cert is just the first step in learning to dive.

 

[almitywife]

alot of charters here wont allow you do to particular dives unless you have a AOW card, its an insurance thing. last week we saw a friend of ours on his AOW and he has been diving for almost 20yrs but now getting grief when on a boat ect

hubby was teaching aow last night and quite a few of his students were asking about the next course he is teaching. after all the paperwork was done, last thing he said to his students was 'im a believer in balance and you need to be out there diving, not just doing courses'

cheers

 

[jpsexton]

Just like your OW certification, how good of an AOW class you have depends entirely upon the instructor. Just the card itself has very little value but the knowledge you gain form a good AOW class is invaluable.

 

[The Logic Theorist]

The main reason for the AOW is to require you to have done a supervised deep dive before diving deeper than 60'. I believe the idea is for you to experience narcosis for the first time in a monitored setting, so you're familiar with the feeling and can identify it on subsequent deep dives. Most charter boats and dive ops will not take you to a site deeper than 60' on a basic OW cert.

The rest of the dives, the electives, can be either total BS or very challenging and beneficial dependant on your instructor/shop/class. Two of mine were navigation and search and recovery. Both of these dives introduced a lot of very useful skills, from reel work and teamwork and use of a lift bag for the search and recovery, to more advanced navigation than the simple out and back straight line that's taught in OW. Add to that the fact that my class was in a quarry, and my first time diving in cold water and low viz, and I would say it was very beneficial.

 

[perdidochas]

someone please tell me whats the big deal to have AOW card as i see it you have 24 dives a couple extra skills classes be it photo or computer diving or boat diving plus equiment and they give you AOW card there is no special class

It's a good way to get to try a variety of different types of diving with supervision. I personally would probably have never tried a night dive if it weren't for an advanced class I took (this was the old NAUI Advanced, and did include much pool/classwork in addition to dives).

 

[seaducer]

Your non-diving friends and family will think you are really really good...

 

[pacchill]

Like most have said here it is what your teacher makes it. When I did my AOW, in addition to the NAUI standards, I requested some other skills. I was just getting into diving a BP/W and long hose so we did some long hose drills, valve drills, bag shooting... things I wanted to learn and practice for Tech. So we did it. Other than that... You need it to progress with training (in most cases) and when diving with charters and stuff. My buddy and I had to sign a waver in Thailand cos we didn't have AOW cards. The DM was afraid to take us diving... even more afraid when we whipped out the long-hoses LOL. Funny thing was... we schooled the DM. He had just started diving a few months before and fast tracked to DM. SO... point here is, it's not what cards you hold, it's how you are trained and what skills you have. Nun chuck skills, computer hacking skills, bow-staff skills.. you know SKILLS.

 

[h2odragon1]

AOW is like a bufet, a little of this, a little of that. It introduces you to 5 areas you can learn more in. PADI requires a deep, navigation, and night dive in their AOW cert, the other two may be set by the instructor, or by you, the student. I have heard that many places will make it dificult to dive if you have only OW cert.
As has been stated OW 60 ft max. Dive operators will not take you deeper. AOW, 100 ft max. this opens up 66% more dive opportunities, since you can go 66% deeper. If you take the Deep Diver cert., (separately) you will then be allowed to go to 130 ft, the limits of rec diving.