PADI AOW through specialties

[oly5050user]

Hi,

I have an SSI open water cert, the GUE Primer and I have taken the PADI PPB and Nitrox specialties, and one PADI dive propulsion vehicle dive. I have 87 dives under my belt since beginning diving in July 2012. I wanted to take Deep diving but they want me to take the AOW course and that will cost me 400.00.

N

ow clearly that is a waste of money if I can just do one more adventure dive and qualify for deep. Now they are telling me that the books and material are still required. My questions are can I just take the specialty course for navigation (for 125), then do I automatically hold the AD rating? This would qualify me for deep diving (225) and I could still take one more specialty and pay just 75 more and have more training and get AOW?

Yes you can do the adventure dive "deep" alone..but still required to have read the adventures in diving text and complete the knowledge reviews.Then do the adventure "navigation" dive,again read text and do kr's..if you already have 3 of the dives documented as adventure dives or as you wrote completed specialties with associated cert card, all signed off by a PADI instructor the LDS should simply offer you to do the deep and navigation adventure dives ..what they charge is what their market will bear. Probably around here in the north east it would be around $100.-$125. per dive plus any entry/boat fees and rentals.

I can't seem to find if this is the case. I did do a lot of searches and most people hint that this can be done but advise to take the AOW. I don't feel this best fits my circumstances.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jerrod

May be more cost effective to do advance. At $400. sounds high. We charge $189. here in NY. Perhaps its that costly because of boat fees and or rentals are included.

 

[boulderjohn]

May be more cost effective to do advance. At $400. sounds high. We charge $189. here in NY. Perhaps its that costly because of boat fees and or rentals are included.

I just want to add that you may want to check into the details of the course to find out what you get for that $400. The AOW course requires 5 dives. If you went to Cozumel and just did 5 boat dives, depending upon the operator you could be looking at about $250. If you went to Hawai'i and did 5 boat dives, it would cost much more than that. $400 for the course could be anything from a ripoff to a bargain.

 

[Ste Wart]

Hi,

I have an SSI open water cert, the GUE Primer and I have taken the PADI PPB and Nitrox specialties, and one PADI dive propulsion vehicle dive. I have 87 dives under my belt since beginning diving in July 2012. I wanted to take Deep diving but they want me to take the AOW course and that will cost me 400.00.

Now clearly that is a waste of money if I can just do one more adventure dive and qualify for deep. Now they are telling me that the books and material are still required. My questions are can I just take the specialty course for navigation (for 125), then do I automatically hold the AD rating? This would qualify me for deep diving (225) and I could still take one more specialty and pay just 75 more and have more training and get AOW?

I can't seem to find if this is the case. I did do a lot of searches and most people hint that this can be done but advise to take the AOW. I don't feel this best fits my circumstances.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jerrod

PPB would count towards your AOW, as to would the DPV dive as long as you filled in the requisite Knowledge Review and it was signed off as an adventure dive. The Nitrox Specialty is tricky, as it can be run as a dry course. If you did not take any dives during the Nitrox course then they cannot be counted as an Adventure dive for AOW.
So without knowing this you only have 2 adventure dives possibly 3. You need 5 for AOW, so you can take 2 more but they have to be Deep and Navigation. Now to circumvent the manual requirement you can request to these as seperate Adventure Dives, don't ever mention the words Advanced Open Water course; as soon as you do they shop is obligated to sell you the Manual.
My advice. Find two seperate dive centres, do one adventure dive at each. Then after the 2nd, turn around in the shop gobsmacked and say 'hey, what d'ya know, that's 5 adventure dives!' ask them to certify you as AOW.

 

[DevonDiver]

My advice. Find two seperate dive centres, do one adventure dive at each. Then after the 2nd, turn around in the shop gobsmacked and say 'hey, what d'ya know, that's 5 adventure dives!' ask them to certify you as AOW.

As mentioned in post #10, he already holds equivalency to Adventure Diver. He is eligible to enroll directly onto Deep Diver already.

Once Deep Diver is completed, it would 'trump' AOW anyway... he'd never 'need' Adventure Diver or AOW as proof of training for the dives he wants to conduct...

 

[oly5050user]

PPB would count towards your AOW, as to would the DPV dive as long as you filled in the requisite Knowledge Review and it was signed off as an adventure dive. The Nitrox Specialty is tricky, as it can be run as a dry course. If you did not take any dives during the Nitrox course then they cannot be counted as an Adventure dive for AOW.
So without knowing this you only have 2 adventure dives possibly 3. You need 5 for AOW, so you can take 2 more but they have to be Deep and Navigation. Now to circumvent the manual requirement you can request to these as seperate Adventure Dives,

don't ever mention the words Advanced Open Water course; as soon as you do they shop is obligated to sell you the Manual.

Still need the text for the adventure dives to be credited towards advance. Need to complete the knowledge reviews for each dive done. Or do it online via PADI eLearning.

My advice. Find two seperate dive centres, do one adventure dive at each. Then after the 2nd, turn around in the shop gobsmacked and say 'hey, what d'ya know, that's 5 adventure dives!' ask them to certify you as AOW.

That can work.Would need to give the shop proof that the dives were done and signed off by a current PADI instructor of course and then pay the certification card fee that can be around $25.

 

[DevonDiver]

Now to circumvent the manual requirement you can request to these as seperate Adventure Dives, don't ever mention the words Advanced Open Water course; as soon as you do they shop is obligated to sell you the Manual.

To complete any adventure dive, you need to complete the appropriate knowledge review. That means either:

1) You buy an AOW manual.

2) You buy the corresponding specialty manuals.

3) You complete the relevant eLearning.

Either way, you gotta pay PADI for materials, if materials exist. I've had that confirmed by PADI before. Changes to the PADI stanards (announced this year) make it obligatory for the instructor/center to sell the manual for every course:

"Announced in the Third Quarter 2012 Training Bulletin, as of 1 January 2013, student divers must have a personal set of current PADI materials for study and use during the course and for reference afterward, to include, at a minimum, the course manual (book, multimedia or online version) unless unavailable in a language understood by the student diver. This requirement applies to all PADI and EFR courses supported by materials (including specialty courses)."

The way around manuals is to undertake specialty/adventure dives that don't have a manual in the required materials list. Sidemount doesn't yet have a manual. Not sure what others...? Instructor-authored 'distinctive' specialties are the obvious choice - some (all?) of those can be offered as 'Adventure Dives' - and none have manuals.

 

[Peter Guy]

Andy ---

Instructor-authored 'distinctive' specialties are the obvious choice - some (all?) of those can be offered as 'Adventure Dives' - and none have manuals.

Are you sure about that? I'll confess I'm not looking that up but I have this vague recollection that Dive One of a Distinctive Specialty can not be an Adventure Dive. Not even sure where to look for that however.

 

[boulderjohn]

Andy --- Are you sure about that? I'll confess I'm not looking that up but I have this vague recollection that Dive One of a Distinctive Specialty can not be an Adventure Dive. Not even sure where to look for that however.

The PADI manual says that to get the AOW certification, you have to complete 5 "adventure dives." It then lists all the possible adventure dives by name.

I teach two distinctive specialties. There is nothing in the wording of the distinctive specialty format that lists one of the dives as an "adventure dive."

I therefore conclude that the first dive of a distinctive specialty does not count toward AOW. Of course, you can contact PADI and get a definitive answer in a couple of minutes.

 

[DevonDiver]

I'll concede that if I'm wrong. On retrospection, it's quite possible that distinctives aren't permitted as being applicable for recognition as Adventure Dives.

PADI do have some 'standardized' distinctives, maybe that's what I was thinking about...

 

[Ste Wart]

To complete any adventure dive, you need to complete the appropriate knowledge review. That means either:

1) You buy an AOW manual.

2) You buy the corresponding specialty manuals.

3) You complete the relevant eLearning.

Either way, you gotta pay PADI for materials, if materials exist. I've had that confirmed by PADI before. Changes to the PADI stanards (announced this year) make it obligatory for the instructor/center to sell the manual for every course:

"Announced in the Third Quarter 2012 Training Bulletin, as of 1 January 2013, student divers must have a personal set of current PADI materials for study and use during the course and for reference afterward, to include, at a minimum, the course manual (book, multimedia or online version) unless unavailable in a language understood by the student diver. This requirement applies to all PADI and EFR courses supported by materials (including specialty courses)."

The way around manuals is to undertake specialty/adventure dives that don't have a manual in the required materials list. Sidemount doesn't yet have a manual. Not sure what others...? Instructor-authored 'distinctive' specialties are the obvious choice - some (all?) of those can be offered as 'Adventure Dives' - and none have manuals.

Andy

the grey area with AOW is that it's not a course as such, because there are so many options in completing it . It also doesn't count as a core PADI course, unlike OW and Rescue. If you book on to an AOW course, then yes a manual must be purchased. If you keep doing adventure dives then there is no need to buy the manual, the shop can loan you the book to complete knowledge review.