Learning path after AOWC (SSI)

[stuartv]

Hi there,

As some might know by now I'm a novice diver who's busy getting my AOWC from SSI, the specialties I do are Deep Diving, Underwater Navigation, Peak Buoyancy Control and Nitrox. Besides the courses I've been diving every weekend since I got my Padi Open Water. I like diving but I like learning to and having the feeling of developing and improving my skills so I'm already trying to figure out what learning path I'm willing to take.

Some nice specialties: Drift, Night, Search and Recovery, Wreck, Cave and some others I like a little bit less than the one said: Boat, Digital UW Imaging, Self Reliant Diver.

My opinions:

Don't worry about the agency at all. Take the courses that offer something you want to learn and worry about whether the instructor you'll be training with is good and has a personality/teaching style that works for you.

I would not bother taking Drift, Boat, or Night. If you want to learn about those, go book yourself on some dive charters for those types of diving. Tell them you haven't done those things before and make sure they'll have a DM in the water with you (pay extra, if you need to).

I think Search & Recovery, Rescue, Wreck, Cavern, and (eventually - after you have at least 100 dives) Solo/Self Reliant are all courses that would be good to take and, of course, from a good instructor.

Solo is the one course where I would personally be specific about the agency. I don't know what SSI offers for this or if they do. But, I would personally specifically choose the SDI Solo Diver course over the PADI Self Reliant course. The reason is that I know my local quarry allows solo diving for people with SDI Solo, but they do not allow it for people with PADI Self Reliant. I'm not sure why. The shop that controls the quarry is a PADI, SDI, and SSI shop, so they don't have a reason to shun PADI. I have not heard of any place that allows solo for PADI but not for SDI, so I'm not sure if there is any downside for choosing SDI Solo, but there is at least one dive site that gives a downside to PADI Self Reliant...

If you want to really improve your basic dive skills, also consider TDI Intro to Tech, GUE Fundamentals, or PADI Tech 40. Presuming a good instructor, any one of those should yield significant improvements in your basic dive skills.

If you want to learn about U/W Photography, I would suggest doing two things: One, take one of the aforementioned courses (Intro, Fundies, or similar) to bring your basic dive skills up to a higher level. Until you take a course that challenges your buoyancy and shows you your limitations (however good they may already be), you won't really know what your limitations are and it's VERY easy to THINK your skills are better than they really are. That course should also teach you additional finning techniques (e.g. frog kick, helicopter turns, back kicks, etc. that you may or may not already be proficient with). Really good buoyancy, trim, and technical finning techniques are HIGHLY advantageous for U/W photography. And, two, purchase Martin Edge's book, The Underwater Photographer, and read it. After you do those two things, you will probably be ready to go work on u/w photography on your own. Once you get some experience doing it on your own, THEN you would probably get the most benefit from finding a good u/w photography instructor and arranging some training from them.

 

[Bubblesong]

I am taking every Certification class as I can fit in them into my schedule, but I am also interested in a parallel series of classes in equipment maintenance and repair that might be helpful to you if you are going to be far from service facilities. I was impressed with my night diving instructor who repaired his regulator on the rocking boat in the dark and then had the confidence to dive with it.

 

[Berry Ke]

My opinions:

Don't worry about the agency at all. Take the courses that offer something you want to learn and worry about whether the instructor you'll be training with is good and has a personality/teaching style that works for you.

I would not bother taking Drift, Boat, or Night. If you want to learn about those, go book yourself on some dive charters for those types of diving. Tell them you haven't done those things before and make sure they'll have a DM in the water with you (pay extra, if you need to).

I think Search & Recovery, Rescue, Wreck, Cavern, and (eventually - after you have at least 100 dives) Solo/Self Reliant are all courses that would be good to take and, of course, from a good instructor.

Solo is the one course where I would personally be specific about the agency. I don't know what SSI offers for this or if they do. But, I would personally specifically choose the SDI Solo Diver course over the PADI Self Reliant course. The reason is that I know my local quarry allows solo diving for people with SDI Solo, but they do not allow it for people with PADI Self Reliant. I'm not sure why. The shop that controls the quarry is a PADI, SDI, and SSI shop, so they don't have a reason to shun PADI. I have not heard of any place that allows solo for PADI but not for SDI, so I'm not sure if there is any downside for choosing SDI Solo, but there is at least one dive site that gives a downside to PADI Self Reliant...

If you want to really improve your basic dive skills, also consider TDI Intro to Tech, GUE Fundamentals, or PADI Tech 40. Presuming a good instructor, any one of those should yield significant improvements in your basic dive skills.

If you want to learn about U/W Photography, I would suggest doing two things: One, take one of the aforementioned courses (Intro, Fundies, or similar) to bring your basic dive skills up to a higher level. Until you take a course that challenges your buoyancy and shows you your limitations (however good they may already be), you won't really know what your limitations are and it's VERY easy to THINK your skills are better than they really are. That course should also teach you additional finning techniques (e.g. frog kick, helicopter turns, back kicks, etc. that you may or may not already be proficient with). Really good buoyancy, trim, and technical finning techniques are HIGHLY advantageous for U/W photography. And, two, purchase Martin Edge's book, The Underwater Photographer, and read it. After you do those two things, you will probably be ready to go work on u/w photography on your own. Once you get some experience doing it on your own, THEN you would probably get the most benefit from finding a good u/w photography instructor and arranging some training from them.

Thank you very much, sir. Exactly the kind of replies/advice I was hoping to get. I'll will be diving plenty the coming months and I aim to maybe do every month or every so much dives (maybe something like 30, 40 dives) a specialty course of one or another kind with one or another agency aiming to gradually improve/expand my skills.

 

[DanielRJones]

I have done drysuit and peak performance buoyancy and booked onto nitrox and rescue in the next month . I would not mind getting my master scuba but am not going to do courses just to get it. Boat dives wreck dives and drift dives are readily available to me without a spec card
I do not want to do do deep with padi as I believe the tech 40 gives alot more info and learning and progression and am planning to swap to the tdi route as there are less courses to get where I want to get to.

 

[Berry Ke]

I have done drysuit and peak performance buoyancy and booked onto nitrox and rescue in the next month . I would not mind getting my master scuba but am not going to do courses just to get it. Boat dives wreck dives and drift dives are readily available to me without a spec card
I do not want to do do deep with padi as I believe the tech 40 gives alot more info and learning and progression and am planning to swap to the tdi route as there are less courses to get where I want to get to.

Yeah exactly, the only reason for me to take the AOWC with SSI is because I felt that 4 open water dives, of which 3 dives are really just practicing skill, are not even remote enough to be competent diver.

My girlfriend and I did our OW in tenerife, our first time diving in The Netherlands we did 1 dive with a guide from the diveclub/school and the second dive we did alone. We canceled the second dive because visibility was max. 1 meter, our nav. skills where pretty weak and my girlfriend started to panic a little bit because of those two things.

At least after the AOWC we have some experience and a whole set of additional skills I think every new diver should have. Navigating in The Netherlands is really a different ball game than navigating in Tenerife (1m vis. vs 100m vis.). Hell, diving in The Netherlands general is a real different ballgame than diving in Tenerife. You can't see anything except yourself and your buddy, there's plenty of current, the water is cold.
I think of you're used to diving in The Netherlands diving in for instance Tenerife is most of the time a walk in the park.

Besides this your buoyancy is never going to be as it should after 4 Ow dives so a buoyancy course is never a bad thing I think. I want to do courses to better my skills, just the certificate should never be the motivation, I think.

I think it would be good for almost all divers to do an AOWC right after your OW. But hey, who am I, I got my OW 10 juli

 

[DanielRJones]

Yeah exactly, the only reason for me to take the AOWC with SSI is because I felt that 4 open water dives, of which 3 dives are really just practicing skill, are not even remote enough to be competent diver.

My girlfriend and I did our OW in tenerife, our first time diving in The Netherlands we did 1 dive with a guide from the diveclub/school and the second dive we did alone. We canceled the second dive because visibility was max. 1 meter, our nav. skills where pretty weak and my girlfriend started to panic a little bit because of those two things.

At least after the AOWC we have some experience and a whole set of additional skills I think every new diver should have. Navigating in The Netherlands is really a different ball game than navigating in Tenerife (1m vis. vs 100m vis.). Hell, diving in The Netherlands general is a real different ballgame than diving in Tenerife. You can't see anything except yourself and your buddy, there's plenty of current, the water is cold.
I think of you're used to diving in The Netherlands diving in for instance Tenerife is most of the time a walk in the park.

Besides this your buoyancy is never going to be as it should after 4 Ow dives so a buoyancy course is never a bad thing I think. I want to do courses to better my skills, just the certificate should never be the motivation, I think.

I think it would be good for almost all divers to do an AOWC right after your OW. But hey, who am I, I got my OW 10 juli

I took my aow at 20 dives

 

[Satrekker]

I'd take nitrox first if you haven't already done so, then GUE fundamentals part 1, and then dive, practice, and dive some more until you've got a good handle on buoyancy and skills from GUE fundamentals part 1, then take part 2. After that, I'd look at taking a rescue course then hit SDI solo diver after 100 dives. I'm suggesting that because that's pretty much my route. After solo, I'll take a drysuit course, begin working on doubles, then head towards tech and deep diving/deco/trimix. Goals are great and I'm all for them, but don't forget to enjoy the journey. GL

 

[flatfoot40]

I agree with many of the people who have indicated to "just do it". If you want to take more classes, gear the classes towards the equipment you intend to use. If you are a tropical diver, your gear considerations are much simpler. Gear your classes towards cameras, photography and video because you are going to want to record the cool colors and vibrant marine life. If you are a cold water diver gear your classes towards cold water equipment. Dry suits, BPWs, lighting systems. I have always built my instruction around equipment. This can also help if you want to get more technical.

 

[HantsDiver]

I'd take nitrox first if you haven't already done so, then GUE fundamentals part 1, and then dive, practice, and dive some more until you've got a good handle on buoyancy and skills from GUE fundamentals part 1, then take part 2. After that, I'd look at taking a rescue course then hit SDI solo diver after 100 dives. I'm suggesting that because that's pretty much my route. After solo, I'll take a drysuit course, begin working on doubles, then head towards tech and deep diving/deco/trimix. Goals are great and I'm all for them, but don't forget to enjoy the journey. GL

Respectfully - I think that's terrible advice.

Because: GUE Fundamentals will give someone both nitrox and dry suit training. It even says so on the card. It also includes doubles training if you chose to aim for a tech pass.

You are also encouraging someone to take a GUE course (which includes the philosophy of their diving) and then go and ignore the whole ethos and do a solo diving course.

 

[Doby45]

Respectfully - I think that's terrible advice.

Because: GUE Fundamentals will give someone both nitrox and dry suit training. It even says so on the card. It also includes doubles training if you chose to aim for a tech pass.

You are also encouraging someone to take a GUE course (which includes the philosophy of their diving) and then go and ignore the whole ethos and do a solo diving course.

So you are saying that if you do Fundies, you don't need to get a "Nitrox" card or a "Drysuit" card? So I can show my "Fundies" card when I go to get my Nitrox tanks filled and that is cool and I can show my "Fundies" card to a dive shop in order to meet the requirement of "Drysuit Diver" in order to rent a dry suit? What about Rescue? Rescue is one of the topics under the "Fundies" list of Land Drills and Topics. I think you may be putting more power into the "Fundies" card than there really is and all though the Fundies class may touch on these topics, it does not certify you in the previously mentioned specialties.

GUE Fundamentals | Global Underwater Explorers