How useful is AOW for Cozumel?

[GrafCanuck]

More dive training = More dive experiences = A GOOD THING. Just an AOW here but I can't think of any downside of learning more about this sport. PS - I had a blast doing my AOW in Bonaire. I haven't been in Cozumel in 30 years, and at that time I was only a keen snorkeler and I can remember the strong current there.

Dive lots and dive safe!!!!!

 

[AdivingBel]

More dive training = More dive experiences = A GOOD THING.

More diving = More dive experiences...If you want to have an instructor along...Great. If not...that's Great too. You're certified, go dive.

 

[ggunn]

More dive training = More dive experiences = A GOOD THING. Just an AOW here but I can't think of any downside of learning more about this sport. PS - I had a blast doing my AOW in Bonaire. I haven't been in Cozumel in 30 years, and at that time I was only a keen snorkeler and I can remember the strong current there.

Dive lots and dive safe!!!!!

As I have said, I have only an OW cert and I have been diving for 25 years or so. I have very good buoyancy control and my air consumption is good. I know how to dive in current and I have my nitrox papers. I know how to dive my computer and my air. I am comfortable on night dives and I know how to manage deco obligations. If I were enroll in an AOW course, what would I likely learn that I haven't already learned from experience?

 

[ChuckP]

As I have said, I have only an OW cert and I have been diving for 25 years or so. I have very good buoyancy control and my air consumption is good. I know how to dive in current and I have my nitrox papers. I know how to dive my computer and my air. I am comfortable on night dives and I know how to manage deco obligations. If I were enroll in an AOW course, what would I likely learn that I haven't already learned from experience?

Not a dang thing probably.

You grew up in a different time, new divers coming up, the “fear” of liabilities and the few extra bucks of revenue drive that course.

That course is for new or newer divers - your AOW card is your log book.

 

[greeniguana]

I have only had OW (junior at that!) For 30+ years. I've circumvented lots of "AOW only" dive locations by showing my old logs and sometimes begging ops for a waiver. Some of the places I dove years ago didn't require AOW then, but do now....

It's become more of PITA as time goes on and I hate having the uncertainty every time I want to go someplace. So I'm going to suck it up this year and just do AOW. I'll be like Rodney Dangerfield's character in "back to school".

 

[Charred]

Unsure if this has been said, but you could always ask the OP to do AOW at the beginning of the trip. They will charge you for the training but that should cover the dives so it almost becomes a wash.

But, it is best to think of AOW as an guided experienced rather than advanced training.

 

[MargaritaMike]

I'm sure all of you have seen a newbie on their first night in Coz (or any non-training environment) go into task overload when their only light floods or watched them get narc'd below 100' the first time when the weren't controlling their depth due to any number of factors or panic and try to bolt to the surface because they became 'lost' because they went off chasing some fish with great excitement and separated from the group a little. There are a number of other scenarios that exist, but my point is that a student on a night dive becomes aware of complete darkness and at least one element of overload. A controlled narc helps to allow the student recognize what it feels like to narc and be aware of it. I think the OP should take an AOW course from ANY agency to give them more dives in a controlled situation as well as a little more time blowing bubbles and learning to relax a little more underwater, which I think everyone will agree comes with bottom time (for most divers). I also think Nitrox is a worthwhile course. He probably doesn't have to do either. He just asked what we think.
Just my $.02.

Cheers - M²

 

[Esprise Me]

Unsure if this has been said, but you could always ask the OP to do AOW at the beginning of the trip. They will charge you for the training but that should cover the dives so it almost becomes a wash.

But, it is best to think of AOW as an guided experienced rather than advanced training.

I agree, the primary value of AOW is getting to do 5 more dives with an instructor under various conditions (drift, night, deep) or with the task-loading of some new skills (navigation, drysuit, even fish ID) or with a focus on tuning up some basics that might have been rushed through in OW (PPB, also navigation, also really anything, because AOW is 5 dives while OW is only 4 in open water, so a newly-certified diver would be more than doubling their experience.) I would think someone with more than 50 dives wouldn't get much out of it, unless those 50 dives were all in a quarry and AOW was their introduction to ocean diving, or if they haven't dived in years and AOW served as a refresher, or if they just learned and practiced really bad habits (constant finning in vertical trim) and AOW was the first time someone showed them the error of their ways.

 

[GrafCanuck]

Unsure if this has been said, but you could always ask the OP to do AOW at the beginning of the trip. They will charge you for the training but that should cover the dives so it almost becomes a wash.

But, it is best to think of AOW as an guided experienced rather than advanced training.

+1

 

[deepsea21]

As I have said, I have only an OW cert and I have been diving for 25 years or so. I have very good buoyancy control and my air consumption is good. I know how to dive in current and I have my nitrox papers. I know how to dive my computer and my air. I am comfortable on night dives and I know how to manage deco obligations. If I were enroll in an AOW course, what would I likely learn that I haven't already learned from experience?

Underwater Photography, Fish Identification, or maybe some other courses you could pay for that have absolutely nothing to do with making one a better diver.