PADI AOW Course

[ibnygator]

I did my AOW dives in October in the St. Lawrence. I had 87 dives logged at the time and really only took the AOW for one reason. Up until now, I have done 95%+ of my dives off of friends' boats and they never needed to see my c-cards to know if I was capable of the dives we were planning. While doing a dive off of a commercial boat in the keys last year, I was asked to produce one of two things to show that I was qualified to dive the wreck at 100'. They wanted to see either an AOW card or my dive log. Luckily, I had my log with me which showed two dives to 100'+ the day before and many over the preceding years. But I decided that I would just go ahead and get the card so that I would not find myself in that situation again.

I did not learn much in my dives, but I also did not expect to. I would have to classify my instructor as very knowledgeable and a good teacher who took the "Adventures in Diving" theme to heart. He was not trying to teach advanced skills so much as expand the diving experiences of those in the class. The course work was actually a pretty good refresher on some fundamentals and I enjoyed that. BTW - other than me, the students in the class were fresh out of OW and none had more than 5 or 6 dives.

I did fall in love with the diving environment in the river though, and plan to get Nitrox and dry suit certified in the spring to lengthen both the season and my bottom time in the St. Lawrence.

:gator:

 

[ibnygator]

ibnygator once bubbled...
...I did not learn much in my dives, but I also did not expect to...

That I didn't learn anything on those dives, because I learn something new on every dive. What I meant was, I was not being taught any new skills during these dives and I didn't expect to be. But I did learn a lot...

I learned about diving:
in a river
in colder water than I was used to
with a full wetsuit and hood
how the weighting is different
what current and vis to expect in the St. Lawrence
what silt is (don't have that in the tropics where I dove)
what some of the fish look like in the river

blah, blah blah...

 

[raybo]

motivation. I got Drysuit & Nitrox last fall to do some work on a Marina for a sail club I work for.

As a result of having bought a drysuit, I can now dive the cooler waters we have much of the year here. Since I had two specialties (PADI, BTW) and wanted to take several others, you pay to get the AOW along the way.

We did an Ice Specialty OW last weekend. You technically have to be AOW to do that. We (the instructor & I) had to go back through the log book to make sure I "qualified". We've been working on what we can when I can get to the site for a couple of months, so we had to be a little "creative" in assigning dives to the AOW cert to allow me to go on the Ice OW. I have plenty of dives logged, just not under the instructor.

I'm also signed up for the Deep, Altitude, S&R specialties. I live at 5000 ft. elevation, and plan to do a little S&R for recreation and maybe a little supplement for the equipment fund, so these were imperative to me. Also Rescue. Master Cert for sure, maybe DM, although I don't know if I want to make my recreation a profession. Had the same issue with becoming ski patrol when I lived in ski areas.

Anyway, I'm fortunate. I could have gotten the AOW in 2 weekends had I been so inclined, but I told the instructor that I wanted to get something out of this besides just a card. So we work on what we can when we can. Propably take a couple more months to get done.

In the meantime, looking to do the DIR-F class if I can. Unfortnately it's going to be over Easter weekend, and haven't asked the family about that yet.

Found an IANTD Adv Nitox/Deco intructor that comes down once in a while, and may look into that as well. Guess one of the sinkholes around hear is 165 FFW at +/-5000 elev.

When I looked at the AOW years ago, I opted not to take it for resaons similar to those expressed by other's. Just not worth it for what you get. Guess I'l know when I get through with all of them if any of it was reallyworth it.

(Oh, the rescue was worth taking no matter what)

 

[ibnygator]

I believe that I'll do the rescue course as well. Although I am comfortable in my own skills for my own safety, I know I should be skilled in helping other divers if I'm truly going to be a qualified buddy.