How long before taking advanced class?

[ianw2]

Regarding insurance: from the DAN Insurance Coverage Comparison Table:

Planned Maximum Depth Covered
Preferred Plan / No Limit
Master Plan / No Limit
Standard Plan / 130ft/40m

In other words, there is no enforced 60 foot limit through insurance. Some resort Divemasters will not dive below 60 feet with OW divers.



Regarding when to take the AOW Class:

One view that hasn’t been shared before is this: if you have a means of diving with other experienced divers whom you trust, feel free to put the AOW class off as long as you want. If you do not have dive friends with whom you can dive and gain experience, the AOW class might just be the best way to accumulate a handful more dives under some sort of watchful eye.

There was a group of three married couples in our OW class in September(Laura and I were one of the couples) who bonded very closely. At the end of our class, we didn’t feel as though we were ready to dive on our own. So…we all jumped into the next AOW class and were certified in October. One of the other husbands and I went through Rescue together.

We dive as often as we can, usually as a group (including a recent trip to Loretto, BCS, Mexico, diving with the Dolphin Dive Center).

Since our first certs, Laura and I have added Nirox and Wreck specialties. I’ll be doing the Equipment Specialty this next week. We’re looking at the Deep Dive and UW Photographer specialties early next year.


The point is that each situation is different. How capable do you feel? How fat is your wallet? How well do you like your instructor? How many dive friends do you have? Can you gain experience in outside of a class setting? Would you feel more comfortable adding a few more dives with an instructor and a DM you trust? Answer these questions and you answer your own question.

Cheers!

 

[ChrisEdwards]

My Son and I did the AOW about 3 weekends after our OW cert. We did the Nitrox class also at the same time as the AOW.

Being total newbies and not knowing anyone, except our instructors, we decided to do the AOW as a chance to get more dives in with the knowledge we'd have instructors around to keep an eye on us.

We were informed that the OW (NAUI) was only good for 60fsw and that some dive boat operators may not take you if their dive sites were deeper than that.

Both night dives, we got seperated from the other pack of divers, but we stayed buddied up together better than we had done during our day dives. When we surfaced
we regrouped with other folks on the surface.

Our OW dives, in the ocean, were mostly in the 40fsw-55fsw. Our day and night AOW dives were in the 60fsw to 90fsw range. Once buoancy control was established, being a bit deeper didn't feel any different.

The navigation and the search and recovery dives dives were done in a lake with about 10ft visibility, those were fun.

Do it.

 

[tgiscuba]

Excellent advice. Bravo.

 

[bwerb]

Did mine 2 dives after OW...certified in Maui, returned to PNW and did AOW to get some additional training with drysuit and for local conditions.

 

[WarrenZ]

I would recomend about 15 to 30 dives in, then take the AOW class.

 

[lmorin]

The best thing to do is just dive for fun and experience. Then, sometime you might want to take another class, or perhaps not, if it interferes with diving for fun and experience. If I may give a skiing analogy, you can take all the lessons you want and have an instructor show you how to navigate an expert slope. But, you will ultimately have to find you own way down and, with or without and instructor, you should not do so until you feel ready. Personally, I learned to ski with an instructor, but learned to ski well by indulging myself in expert slopes and unusual conditions as often as possible and never with an instructor (unless the instructor wanted to go along too for his own fun). At about 25 dives, my wife and I felt that enough of the newbie worries had disappeared such that an adventure to 100 ft might be fun. It was, and we did it on the Spiegel Grove as the deep dive part of our AOW cert. The skiing analogy only goes so far, however, as I probably have 20-30,000 ski runs under my belt, but still under 100 dives

 

[Tigerman]

I did AOW as soon as I had the chance after OW and I cant see any reason why you shouldnt.. The fact that youre AOW certified doesnt mean that youre finished practicing and polishing the skills you learned in OW, just that you have more possibilities and knowledge and also some insight in the types of diving you choose for your AOW certification..

 

[asaara]

Where I've dived, you don't go past 20m if you don't have an AOW card if you're going on a guided dive, but AOW is usually taken immediately after OW, it's run basically as one course, though you can only take OW if you want.

The exception to that is, of course, if you've got so many dives you don't carry a log book and use your Junior Open Water card for drinking purposes, but... ;-)

 

[JanR]

My 9th dive was the first dive of my AOW and I wouldn't have changed how I did it one bit.

I look at the issue like this:

1. Despite the name of the course, the sad fact is that the Advance Open Water Course, simply isn't...
2. If you are anxious about the few dives you have, proceed with caution. If you feel comfortable about diving, especially knowing that your next dives will be with an instructor who can help you avoid developing bad habits that may be difficult to break later on, go do AOW.
3. Just because you have dove your "Deep" dive once with an instructor, doesn't mean you have to continue going beyond 60 feet if you are not completely comfortable doing so.

For what it's worth.

Jan

 

[dl348]

Back to the original question, I would get at least 10 to 25 additional dives under my belt before I started AOW. You'll get more out of the course that way, IMHO. Good luck.