How important is Advanced Open Water Certification for Palau diving?

[Mossman]

I had J take AOW during a trip on the Nekton Pilot, which provided plenty of downtime for the "classroom" stuff and the in-water exercises barely impacted her dive trip given the amount of diving we were doing. She never had any previous issues with just a standard nitrox cert and had already logged over 150 dives, but I thought it worth buying the card as we were planning to dive the Spiegel Grove later in the year and I had heard scare stories of dive ops demanding the AOW cert to dive deep. She also had thought about doing a rescue class at some point and AOW was a necessary prereq.

It was sort of funny last week on the shuttle van to our hotel in Cozumel when we were chatting with another passenger about "advanced" dives, which I meant in a completely different sense. She proudly boasted that she was an Advanced Open Water diver as if that settled the matter. I bit my tongue and graciously kept my opinions to myself.

 

[Krazytomdiver]

As a dive guide,working/guiding in Palau/Peleliu with the top three dive operations for a year. The only dive site I know you HAVE to dive below 60'/18m would be the Virgin Blue Hole. It's a must 90'/30m deep,dark,cold,elbow tunnel that usually I come out at 110'/33m on 32%EAN limit. The Blue Holes has a 'window' at 60'/18m so your depth is up to you & percentage of O2 you are using.Exceding your NDL is the most common problem in Palau/Peleliu. The current can be masking ripping at several sites & the 'hooking areas' are usually 45'/15m sometimes require 'double hooking' to extend bottom time without deco.That's (2) 15'/5m 'rock hooks' put together decreasing your depth! The dive shops I guided for require a dive experience questinaire & check-out dives to determine your skills. Remember you can ALWAYS stay above the guide & dive within your limits.Be sure to dive Ulong Channel during out going tide,my favorite in my career. Dive safe,Have fun.....You will never forget Palau/Peleliu's Rock Islands,Jellyfish Lake,and "The Rainbow's END"!

"living life without a hard bottom"
KT