Coincidentally, this was just posted on https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/how-answer-what-is-your-highest-certification-level.605267/. This is Open Water training 1970s style.
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There are many threads on this. The term means advanced beyond OW. It is marketed that way too. And no need to PADI-bash, PADI did not invent the course.AOW is also a misnomer. It's a course for novices with an awful misleading name. There's nothing advanced about AOW and it implies that you have more skills than you do.
I fault the integrity of the students and of the instructor, who did not follow standards. Being in an area where it is hard to dive is not an excuse to cheat.I remember my Divemaster class, there were two couples who were pushing through from AOW to Divemaster. Our instructor knew both couples (as all of them were or were related to in the military and the same unit).
If they put on a rig and got their head underwater, they logged it as a "dive", as they just barely had the 40 minimum to start the course, and since we were inland in Texas, in the winter, it was hard to log real dives otherwise.
Do you mean 4 open water dives?
Yikes. I guess your shop (?) was on the cutting edge of modern scuba instructionYes - we did 2 hour lecture + 1 hour pool sessions nights in a row then 2 "Open Water dives" in a local creek with a Maximum depth of maybe 20 feet ( and a water temperature of about 36 degrees F / 2 degrees C - I remember that vividly) on Saturday and 2 boat dives in the much warmer ocean on Sunday.
It has a lot to do with local factors. There's a wreck we dive in Roatan called the Aguila. It's over 100 ft to the sand, but boy oh boy, it must be the easiest wreck to dive. It's no comparison to the Speigle Grove, which while a bit deeper, often has currents that often make diving it a bit sketchy. I would take a rank noob to the former, but I want to see a lot more expertise and strength on the latter.I do not get the logic of restricting people to dive as you can often stay within own certification limit.
Ok fair point I forgot to mention, of course I forgot to mention that there are several boats chartering so, you if you are SD or OWD qualified, you will end up on a boat that charters to shallow/easy dive sites.It has a lot to do with local factors. There's a wreck we dive in Roatan called the Aguila. It's over 100 ft to the sand, but boy oh boy, it must be the easiest wreck to dive. It's no comparison to the Speigle Grove, which while a bit deeper, often has currents that often make diving it a bit sketchy. I would take a rank noob to the former, but I want to see a lot more expertise and strength on the latter.
But hey, if you want to dive a site or wreck with no restrictions: take your own boat and have at it.
It has a lot to do with local factors. There's a wreck we dive in Roatan called the Aguila. It's over 100 ft to the sand, but boy oh boy, it must be the easiest wreck to dive. It's no comparison to the Speigle Grove, which while a bit deeper, often has currents that often make diving it a bit sketchy. I would take a rank noob to the former, but I want to see a lot more expertise and strength on the latter.
But hey, if you want to dive a site or wreck with no restrictions: take your own boat and have at it.