PADI advanced

[Becca65]

ok - I know the first thing everyone is going to say is ask your local dive center - we loved the center where we took our OW classes but have recently been given a bit of a "cold shoulder" from them - we've asked this question but still waiting on an answer so...

We have our OW certification - thinking of getting AOW - it's pretty easy to find the dives required for AOW but we have a couple questions:
if we do some of the "adventure dives" just because they become available (for example - dive center mentioned above is hosting a night dive soon) can we then apply those toward AOW or do we have to first sign up for AOW and then do those dives? Or is this something that will depend on the dive shop?

Also, in the AOW - do you just do the book work and the dives - or do you have to do skills like in OW (mask flooding, reg removal etc.) just curious because I like to know things before I get in the middle of them.

 

[Freewillow]

AOW was tens of years ago. At least then, it was no exercises like OW, but more practice on different diving environment - deeper, wreck, photos, night ....... Drills start again for rescue

 

[parzdiver]

There aren't as many small skills in AOW as in OW, but there are still things you will need to do under the supervision of an instructor. Just doing a night dive won't count towards and AOW class. There is a combination of classwork, practical skills on land, and skills under water.

 

[RJP]

We have our OW certification - thinking of getting AOW - it's pretty easy to find the dives required for AOW but we have a couple questions:
if we do some of the "adventure dives" just because they become available (for example - dive center mentioned above is hosting a night dive soon) can we then apply those toward AOW or do we have to first sign up for AOW and then do those dives? Or is this something that will depend on the dive shop?

Also, in the AOW - do you just do the book work and the dives - or do you have to do skills like in OW (mask flooding, reg removal etc.) just curious because I like to know things before I get in the middle of them.

You can't just "apply the dives" to AOW, but I'm certain that if the shop is hosting a night dive there will also be instructors there to dive with folks and sign-off on the Night Adventure Dive. There are a few skills involved (see below, from Instructor Manual) but nothing that you wouldn't do in the ordinary course of a night dive anyway.

Talk to the shop, sign up for AOW, and then "apply" the Night Adventure dive to the course.

Night Adventure Dive

Performance Requirements

1. Descend using a reference line or sloping bottom.
2. Communicate on the dive using both hand signals and dive lights.
3. Demonstrate how to use a dive light, submersible pressure gauge, compass, timing device and depth gauge at night.
4. Navigate to a predetermined location using a compass/natural features and return to within 8 metres/25 feet of the starting point. When necessary, surface for orientation.
5. Maintain buddy contact throughout the dive.
6. Ascend using a reference line or sloping bottom.

---------- Post added October 15th, 2014 at 03:48 PM ----------

There is [-]a combination of classwork, practical skills on land, and[/-] mostly skills under water.

In AOW there are only a few (2?) dives which require "classwork" or academic sessions per se, beyond the simple Knowledge Reviews that the diver must complete. And even that "classwork" can be done during the dive briefing. Most AOW dives have nothing in the way of "practical skills on land" either, unless your're counting things like dive planning and debriefing, setting up your camera before a Photography or Video Adventure Dive, etc. PS - Drysuit is the only one that actually requires a confined water dive prior to an OW dive.

 

[tursiops]

There are definitely skills on some adventure dives that need work on land first, like Search and Recovery, and Digital Underwater Photography, and probably Navigation.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

 

[nimoh]

If you are able to sign up for OWish adventure dives with your dive center, without going through AOW, then I would sign up for them and not bother with AOW.

Not sure what the cost is for these adventure dives, but if it is going to approach what AOW would cost, then might be better to do AOW and get a card at the end.

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

A normal fun dive at night will not count as an adventure dive. You're adventure night dive needs to be completed by an instructor who will take you through the guidelines/skills as mentioned by RJP in post #4. You should also be asked to review the night dive section knowledge review in the PADI Adventures in Diving manual. On completing your dive your instructor should log it with you as a night adventure dive - most dive centres will give you a training record in addition to this which you can add to your log book at proof of completion. Any further adventure dives you take that are completed the same way can be used towards your advanced certification.

Skills wise, it depends on which adventure dives you select, as some are more skills based than others - but none involve the basic mask/reg skills etc that you learnt in your open water (although obviously being confident with all of those before you progress from OW to AOW should be a prerequisite!). Deep & Navigation dives are mandatory, the others optional. Although personally I always recommend that students take the peak performance buoyancy and night dives.

 

[Scubagolf]

Rant deleted.

 

[Becca65]

I suppose I should have mentioned that the dive center has said people who sign up for the night dive they are planning can either come and dive for fun, or pay an additional amount and do the night dive "course" and get that certification. So, my question is - if we do that and get night dive certified, then later sign up for AOW can we count that night dive course as one of the adventure dives for AOW even though we took it prior to signing up for AOW. I've left a message asking the instructor if we need to complete any book work before the night dive, but as of yet haven't heard back from him.

I would think - but maybe I'm wrong - that when we sign up for AOW we would pay a certain amount for that, but then have to pay separately for the adventure dives (night, buoyancy, navigation etc) Or am I wrong - do most dive shops include those prices in the cost for the AOW course?

We're just wondering if we have to "declare" we are AOW students before we take any of those classes - or could you take night diver, or buoyancy, or whatever just because they happened to be offered at the dive shop - and then have those "checked off" when we do sign up for AOW because we've already done them? And would it matter if they weren't all done at the same dive center? I know Nitrox doesn't count toward AOW, but we took that at a different dive shop just because we heard they were offering it at a time when we could attend class - what if we did one of the other dives like that - just happened to hear that another local dive shop is doing a photography dive or whatever...or would the dive shop get angry that you had done that with another shop?

 

[DivemasterDennis]

If you want to do AOW, then do it properly. Book, pool, and open water all as a part of the course. In advanced open water, there is a lot more compass work and navigation skill development, and also much more dive planning and working toward competence as an independent diver. In our course , we feature task ,loading. That is, not just doing a dive, but doing something on the dive: deploying and smb, attaching and unreeling and reeling a line; retrieving an item with a lift bag, and so forth. Properly done, the AOW certification is to mind the biggest step up in the progression of courses. It is not something that you should try to shortcut just to get a cool patch or new card. "Advanced" should mean more than that you did five more dives after your open water certification. And as noted above by some, I think if you get some dives in you log before taking the AOW course you will get more out of it. Get 20 non-training dives logged, and then take AOW. That is my suggestion.
DivemasterDennis