PADI Advanced Open Water: Did you learn anything new?

[guahoo]

First off I apologize if I’m uploading in wrong forum or something that’s been discussed in the past. I searched the forums but didn’t find anything that answered my questions... Still new to ScubaBoard...

I’m in middle of aow certification. Just finished deep dive, navigation and a night dive. My concern/question is whether I’m supposed to learn anything (new skills) from these dives? Are these 5-dives supposed to be just basically an experience in new dive situation under instructor supervision?

I don’t think I learned anything I didn’t already learn through experience of diving more often. The more often you dive, it seems you naturally learn by trial and error yourself (ie buoyancy control on deep dives and ascents, natural navigation) and common sense and logic (ie flashlights and backups in the dark).

Compass navigation was new to me, so that was a new skill. But for most divers I think they learn it in ow certification? And others could easily learn it from an experienced diver friend. It was like a 5-minute review of what I read in the aow manual, but to actually use it to find that coral, rock, and ascent line was a bit of challenge and quite fun!

Am I supposed to go through any classroom time learning any kind of scuba science or whatever like I did in ow certification (ie Boyle’s Law)?

I’m wondering if mine is similar experience as others in aow certification or am I missing out on anything?

Thank you in advance.

 

[northernone]

They are experience based supervised dives. It's as valuable as the instructor is skilled. Often it's a read the manual, do a couple things, come diving. From what you're reading in the manual, does it seem what your being offered during the dives lines up with the scope of the course?

What aspects might be missing?

Sometimes it can be significant having mentorship for refining basic skills in more 'advanced' dive conditions or planning. If that's a paid instructor in a formal course or an old salt that takes you under their wing both can be valuable.

At worst: it's a card that's required for some dive sites and it's a fairly cheap way to get a dive package of multiple dives.

Cameron

 

[npole]

It has been invented for the business... anything you "learn" as AOWD should be already know as "diver".
Unfortunately the card is required by OP's to have access to many dive sites and live aboard, so you "must" pay the bribe.

 

[Photo Girl]

I don’t think I learned anything I didn’t already learn through experience of diving more often.

Compass navigation was new to me, so that was a new skill.

So you did learn something new. AOW introduces you to different types of dives, but there is no substitute for experience.

 

[In2theabyss]

I think AOW is probably the most warranted recreational training offered aside from OW, once certified its pretty much the card you will use until you retire from diving. My AOW was money well spent, great instructor, first time at depth, navigation etc.....coupled with Nitrox...oh yea

 

[BlueTrin]

On my AOW I told the instructor to help me with my buoyancy.

We did a proper weight check and he helped me a lot with my trim by moving the weights around. Then he also gave me a few tips for breathing and corrected a bit my finning and trim underwater.

This made a massive difference for me as I was going through air really fast as I kept finning to compensate for bad buoyancy control.

I spent one week diving with the same shop afterwards, twice a day and made more progress everyday because of the advice the instructor gave me.

So my advice would be to tell the instructor what you would like to get of the dives aside from doing the drills.

 

[boulderjohn]

Are these 5-dives supposed to be just basically an experience in new dive situation under instructor supervision?

In a word, yes.

AOW was invented by the Los Angeles County program and then picked up by NAUI in the mid 1960s. The reason for it was the perception that far too many people were getting the OW certification, doing a few dives, and then quitting. The belief was that by giving them a little more instruction and showing them different kinds of diving, they would find something that would interest them and keep then going. That is why most of the dives are simply designed to give you something new.

Compass navigation was new to me, so that was a new skill. But for most divers I think they learn it in ow certification?

In OW, you only learn to go in one direction, then turn around and come back.

If you pick your dives carefully and have an instructor who is willing to work with you, you can learn quite a bit. When I work with an AOW student, I evaluate the skill level from the start, and I then decide what needs to happen going forward. For that reason, I like to have one of the chosen dives be altitude. All the learning for the altitude dive is academic--nothing happens on the dive itself. That gives me complete freedom to turn the dive into a skills dive doing whatever I think the student needs most.

 

[Bob DBF]

I’m in middle of aow certification. Just finished deep dive, navigation and a night dive. My concern/question is whether I’m supposed to learn anything (new skills) from these dives? Are these 5-dives supposed to be just basically an experience in new dive situation under instructor supervision?

Unfortunately, AOW can be run from a group of fun dives to a great learning experience, dependant on how the instructor runs the class. It sounds like your instructor is towards the fun dive end.

After AOW you may want to shop instructors to find one that will help you work on rounding out your training, or take the specialty training you feel will help your diving the most.



Bob

 

[seeker242]

I didn't learn anything new but I did get a card to show the boats!

 

[Divegoose]

For me, AOW was an introduction to night diving, navigation, deep diving,and recovery. All activities were supervised by the instructor, and if I recall correctly, a divemaster. While some shops want you to take the AOW right after you complete your OW course, I waited until I was comfortable in the water (about 40 dives) before I took the AOW.

Although I don't do it too often anymore, I love night diving. Lots of critters out and about that are not out during the day.

For the most part my navigation skills are good. The odd time I am way off, usually by not taking the current caused by tides into account. For example, I know the heading back to the exit point, but don't compensate enough enough for the current caused by the tidal exchange (not an issue in lakes but most of my diving is in the ocean), leaving me a distance from the exit point.

The deep dive portion gave me the confidence to explore deeper depths without the worry about being too deep. My deepest dive has been to 155 feet to look at gorgonian coral, but the majority of my dives are less than 100 feet. Now I only go deep to check out octopus or wolf eel dens.

As the recovery part of the training, I learned how to rig lift bags properly, and raise items from the bottom. Haven't actually used this skill too much. I think the last item I recovered was from about 20 feet, and was light enough it did not require a lift bag.

As others have stated, a quality instructor will help round out your training, making you a better, more confident diver.

Dive safe,

Divegoose