How many of you have your OW with no intention of getting further qualified?
Qualifications beyond OW?
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Taken the ones I think would help my diving-navigation, buoyancy, night diving, drysuit. I did get my AOW, but it kind of happended along the way to taking the Specialties I was interested in.
Some to me (SSI) are not of interest, like Boat Diving. Half my dives are from boats. And I have two full photos rigs (DSLR and M4/3rds), with thousands of UW photos, so I think I'll pass on UW photography.
Some to me (SSI) are not of interest, like Boat Diving. Half my dives are from boats. And I have two full photos rigs (DSLR and M4/3rds), with thousands of UW photos, so I think I'll pass on UW photography.
Like any educational situation, it also depends on the instructor's level of actual experience vs the instructor's certification ratings. Sure you can have an instructor who is qualified to teach search and recovery diving... But how many of them do it practically in real life? Same goes for any of the ratings. Even an experienced photographer can learn about underwater photography... from the right instructor. Regardless of what agency's brand is attached to the certification.
Actually, My Stress & Rescue course was taught by a Fire Department Rescue Squad Member/Trainer. Also works training with a number of the Federal Agencies in DC. Absolutely great insight to the process. He made the course tough, but I got a lot out of it.
I have also taught photography and take 30-40,000 photos a year, and have been doing so for a number of decades (not that many clicks in the film days
), so the mechanics were not difficult to pick up. And one of my Buddies is a published UW photographer, so I am in good hands there (He is helping me with UW photography, and I am helping him with terrestrial photography).Bottom line, everyone who I have been fortunate enough to have as instructors are extremely well qualified, well beyond the basic requirements to teach. Even in respect to the Equipment Specialty- I found the bookwork pedestrian, but the guy who taught it had been working on equipment for the shop for 15 years, and was a great instructor.
Coming from a family of teachers, I am a firm believer that it is the teacher that makes the difference.
Bob DBF
Contributor
First of all, just because you are an OW diver does not necessaraly mean you do not study and improve your skills. There are ways to improve yourself without Formal training and certification.
That being said, I did pretty well as a carreer OW diver ( '63 - '80 no cert '80 - '09 cert ), but I found that certain dive operations required higher certification for some dives I wanted and my smiling face, well used gear, and sea stories would not get me on the boat. Kind of like when dive shops started wanting to see cards in order to get a fill, there were places it would be no problem but it limited my diving so I got my OW card.
I continued with other certs which had nothing to do with my diving, but motivated my daughter to certify as a SSI DiveCon and PADI DM and is getting her Scientific Diver certification.
The book may cover the same material as before, but the requirements to start, pool time, and OW time have been lowered from my experience and may be why new OW divers are more tentative than the crowd I trained with and the ones I met then. Thats why I encourage new divers to make enough dives to sort all the OW skills out before moving on to more training, just Rescue if nothing else.
Bob
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I may be old but I'm not dead yet
That being said, I did pretty well as a carreer OW diver ( '63 - '80 no cert '80 - '09 cert ), but I found that certain dive operations required higher certification for some dives I wanted and my smiling face, well used gear, and sea stories would not get me on the boat. Kind of like when dive shops started wanting to see cards in order to get a fill, there were places it would be no problem but it limited my diving so I got my OW card.
I continued with other certs which had nothing to do with my diving, but motivated my daughter to certify as a SSI DiveCon and PADI DM and is getting her Scientific Diver certification.
The book may cover the same material as before, but the requirements to start, pool time, and OW time have been lowered from my experience and may be why new OW divers are more tentative than the crowd I trained with and the ones I met then. Thats why I encourage new divers to make enough dives to sort all the OW skills out before moving on to more training, just Rescue if nothing else.
Bob
--------------------------------------
I may be old but I'm not dead yet
tplyons
Contributor
I got my OW and AOW so I could get onto boats. I got my Nitrox because it's necessary to get fills.
I'll collect cards as they come along, but am not chasing them down just to get my Master Diver card.
I'll collect cards as they come along, but am not chasing them down just to get my Master Diver card.
BDSC
Contributor
I took OW in 91 and about a year later I took AOW because I was told I had to have it to do certain dives off our coast. Can't say that AOW was worth it really. The only other thing I have is Nitrox. I think most all the other typical certs you can learn without taking the course but if I wanted to get into cave diving I'd for sure take the required courses.
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I've taken a few follow-on classes ... and I can still say with confidence that the most important lessons I've learned about scuba diving did not come from a class ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
OldNSalty
Contributor
All that training Bob and you are still not qualified to be a PADI Master Diver 
Sorry...Had to say it.
Sorry...Had to say it.
Scuba-dan
Contributor
I only have my OW and I do not plan on going further. My reasoning is that every time I dive down south, I'm stuck with a Vacation diver who knows nothing, poor air consumption and really don't trust them, so I'm not interested of going beyond the 60 feet limit as I feel I'm a solo diver so I want to dive more shallow. Back home all the boat dives that are AOW are on the weekend which I work so I can't do those, therefore no need to spend the money. Also down at those resorts, they really don't care if you are OW or AOW, as they still want you to dive anyway. So I keep diving within my limits and continue to get better and maybe 1 day I'll make the move but for now I'm just having fun.
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