Is it worth it?

[TMHeimer]

iluvtheocean, I agree. A little off topic, but sometimes the "AOW doesn't at all mean you're Advanced" topic is beaten to death. Of course you're not advanced with a possible minimum of 9 dives with an Instructor for AOW cert.! Have to admit, at one point I thought for a split second "Hmmmm..does this really mean I'll be Advanced"? After 15 total dives and completing my AOW I STILL didn't think I was Advanced....... But yeah, a name change for AOW may be in order.....

 

[Cpt. Jack]

+1 with what TSandM says above, it's all about the instructor, which is why I would disagree with Spectrum about Underwater Naturalist as I did that course many years ago with an instructor who is a marine biologist and that was well worth it as I learned a lot from him regarding fish habits etc that has paid off when stalking various creatures to photograph.

I cannot imagine what a boat diving course would teach you other than what common sense tells you, but if you have never been on a boat ......

Do the AOW, make sure you do Peak Performance buoyancy as part of it and master it, get Nitrox certified and then do lots of diving

Agreed....

 

[iluvtheocean]

iluvtheocean, I agree. A little off topic, but sometimes the "AOW doesn't at all mean you're Advanced" topic is beaten to death. Of course you're not advanced with a possible minimum of 9 dives with an Instructor for AOW cert.! Have to admit, at one point I thought for a split second "Hmmmm..does this really mean I'll be Advanced"? After 15 total dives and completing my AOW I STILL didn't think I was Advanced....... But yeah, a name change for AOW may be in order.....

while agree the name change might be good.. my point was that AOW is worth getting but you need to choose the specialties like peak & nav based on certain keys and what you are interested into expending into and make sure to get it from a good instructor. (ie i think the buoyance, nav, deep, night, and nitrox are the ones worth it) photo/video maybe as part of it if you think you'd be interested in it. if you want to continue with certain areas, getting the specialty is one path, a mentor, practice, and observation are others.

 

[Derek S]

As others have said, you will get out of the training what you and the instructor put into it. If the instructor is good and you like working with them, I see no harm in taking more classes. These classes are a good opportunity to try new things under the umbrella of training with an instructor close by. I was in a similar situation shorty after getting certified myself. There weren't a whole lot of close-by local spots, so in order for me to dive more, I took more classes. Some were more worthwhile than others, but I welcomed the chance to get wet and log more dives.

I say go for it.

 

[dmoore19]

Why change the name? Is it because it angers member of Scubaboard? The only place I have ever heard anybody complain about it is here. YMMV

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Wow, this thread went all over the place so I skipped about 5 or so pages of boat diving arguments and would like to ask an on-topic question.

I'm not completely clear on the goals of AOW. From what I can understand, there are the 2 main courses, Deep and Navigation then a few other elective courses from which you choose 3. So when you take an AOW course are you getting a sample or lite version of these specialties or Adventures or whatever they are calling them? Would you need to take additional, separate courses of those specialties for proficiency?

Of the choice of skills, the only ones that are of any interest to my wife and I would be Peak Buoyancy, Wreck, Navigation, Deep, Search and Rescue, and Night. Boat, Drift and even Deep are not new to me. Some of the others like Fish ID and UW photography are trivial IMHO.

 

[industrious95]

Talking about specialty courses, I'm remembering the Bernie Chowdhury book "The Last Dive." He writes about some divers who have died while diving the Andrea Doria. I read it when it first came out, so don't recall the specifics, but one of the divers described had about a dozen certifications, including Tri-Mix, Technical diving and deep diving. And he had only done 100 dives.

Point being, stacking up on certifications doesn't make you safe or experienced. So if you want the classes out of academic curiosity or interest in the topics, that's a great reason to take a class. Just don't let those extra two dozen dives make you think you're experienced as well as educated. Go slow, build up your bottom time and get some experience, which will do you much better than a course on how to dive from a boat. (I thought that was just a joke when I first read it.) I dive from half a dozen different local boats and each boat has its own entry/exit strategy. Each captain wants you to descend and ascend a different way. Each toilet works differently. And some won't let you bring bananas on board. Sounds to me like a PADI boat specialty is truly a class in taking your money, and making it PADIs.

 

[gcarter]

Wow, this thread went all over the place so I skipped about 5 or so pages of boat diving arguments and would like to ask an on-topic question.

I'm not completely clear on the goals of AOW. From what I can understand, there are the 2 main courses, Deep and Navigation then a few other elective courses from which you choose 3. So when you take an AOW course are you getting a sample or lite version of these specialties or Adventures or whatever they are calling them? Would you need to take additional, separate courses of those specialties for proficiency?

Of the choice of skills, the only ones that are of any interest to my wife and I would be Peak Buoyancy, Wreck, Navigation, Deep, Search and Rescue, and Night. Boat, Drift and even Deep are not new to me. Some of the others like Fish ID and UW photography are trivial IMHO.

Post 101

 

[Redshift]

I felt from the beginning that it was supposed to just introduce me either to some "new" skills or help refine certain ones and expose me to different dives. After that it's up to me to expand on that.

That's what diving should be for. An OW diver is certified to dive independently in conditions similar to those during training. Then when going to different places, with different conditions, different procedures, etc the diver is supposed to have at least a DM giving guidance, who can brief them, explain the particularities of that dive and the differences and then be with them in the water.
The AOW is taking what is a natural progression in diving and bringing it forward in a condensed way "no need to go out diving and wait, you can do it straight after OW!" and charging for it.
What would make sense would be to actually do the specialties (some of them).

 

[Bob DBF]

That's what diving should be for. An OW diver is certified to dive independently in conditions similar to those during training. Then when going to different places, with different conditions, different procedures, etc the diver is supposed to have at least a DM giving guidance, who can brief them, explain the particularities of that dive and the differences and then be with them in the water.
The AOW is taking what is a natural progression in diving and bringing it forward in a condensed way "no need to go out diving and wait, you can do it straight after OW!" and charging for it.
What would make sense would be to actually do the specialties (some of them).

Although in conditions similar to those during training is added by the instructor or Agency, the RSTC guidelines that many US Agencies are members, do not have that caveat.
It may just be a quick shortcut using words, rather than training, to insure your safety

Open water certification qualifies a certified diver to procure air, equipment, and other
services and engage in recreational open water diving without supervision. It is the intent of this
standard that certified open water divers shall have received training in the fundamentals of
recreational diving from an instructor (see definition). A certified open water diver is qualified
to apply the knowledge and skills outlined in this standard to plan, conduct, and log open-water,
no-required decompression dives when properly equipped, and accompanied by another certified
diver.

As for the usefulness of AOW, and for that matter Nitrox and Deep, is that some dive operations use a zero tolerance policy of restricting dives dependent on those certifications, for that reason alone makes those certs quite useful to complete. I finally picked them up after 46 years of diving for this reason.



Bob
--------------------------

That's my point, people, by and large, are not taught that diving can be deadly, they are taught how safe it is, and they are not equipped with the skills, taught and trained to the level required to be useful in an emergency.