Question about certification

[jfrye]

I am new to the sport and have my ow c-card. My question is what do you have to do to obtain your advanced open water certification and what are the limitations put on a diver with an ow c-card as oposed to an aow. Thanks in advance for any answers!

 

[muddiver]

Some charter boat operators will only allow divers with an Advanced Open Water certification on some of the trips to dive locations that are considered advanced diving.

Every agency has it's own requirements to complete an advanced certification course. PADI is one agency and they offer the course to Basic Open Water divers and require you complete a small number of dives doing various skills from the class during each dive. One of the dives is a deep dive which can be between 65' and 100'.

 

[Thalassamania]

See: link

 

[scuba_frog]

My understanding is that an OW cert "allows" you to dive up to a 60 ft depth during daylight hours. AOW let's you go to 130 ft. And as jfrye mentioned, so charters require an AOW. I did a dive in Cozumel that required an AOW card because we went to 85 ft.

Plus, why not expand your diving knowledge. The more you know and are aware of, the less chance of running into problems underwater...like navigating with a compass or searching and finding a lost weight pouch or even night diving or charting a wreck. All these add to your diving knowledge and experience.

 

[Sas]

On the charters I have been on, OW lets you go on sites up to 18m, AOW up to 30m (not 130ft as someone said before, that requires Deep usually), Deep up to 40m, various technical certs to go beyond that. I have had my card checked when I was OW and then for Deep (I got that before AOW). They have never asked for my AOW card after I showed I had the Deep specialty so I didn't really need to get it for the type of diving I do now, but the courses were fun and I met some regular diving buddies that way.

To get AOW depends on what agency you do the course with. The only two agencies I know the AOW requirements for are PADI and SSI and they are (just to give you an idea):
SSI: Four specialties and 24 dives logged
PADI: Five dives, one needs to be navigation and one for deep. The three others can be in different specialties like night, wreck, buoyancy, etc.

So they are quite different, one has more dives so is more thorough and gives you more practical experience (imo) but takes longer and also works out to be more expensive. The other one has less dives but is quick and cheaper. Depends what you are after really

 

[spectrum]

My understanding is that an OW cert "allows" you to dive up to a 60 ft depth during daylight hours.

I have never caught daylight as a stated restriction.

It's true that many AOW programs include night diving as an option but I know nothing that prevents divers from doing it beforehand. Guides and boats may decline to take an OW card holder on night dives but this is not a standards limit, it the lawyers.

For OW the line is drawn at 60 feet. There is nobody to enforce this so if you are not in a hurry to collect the AOW card it's not uncommon for divers to eventually exceed that depth with good mentoring. Do not count on the card to keep you from diving beyond your limits and training. Many warm water dive masters will routinely take divers well beyond where they belong.

The 60 foot limit has a number of justifications. It's hard for a new diver to exceed the no decompression time at this depth. If all else fails a CESA is still a reasonable option. At 60 feet we are all impaired to some extent significant narcosis is highly unlikely. As you creep past 60 feet a screw up can quickly put you into a decompression scenario, hopelessly away from surface air or narced out of your gourd.

Other than the desire to be further trained the big catch is charter operators. There will be boats, dives, sites that AOW will be required for. Just collecting the card may not be enough. Some will want to see reasonably current log book activity of comparable dives. So once again the key ting is to dive, dive, dive.

Pete

 

[scuba_frog]

Saspotato - I double checked, you are correct...it is 30m or 100 ft.

Only time I have been asked for an AOW card was for the dive I mentioned in Cozumel. Then again, I have also been on dives where they never asked to see even a C-card.

 

[robint]

Saspotato - I double checked, you are correct...it is 30m or 100 ft.

Only time I have been asked for an AOW card was for the dive I mentioned in Cozumel. Then again, I have also been on dives where they never asked to see even a C-card.

yes, the AOW gives you your first Deep dive and certifies you to 100'. Then you are able to do the Deep Specialty cert. which will then qualify you to 130'.

That doesn't mean that you can't do it right out of OW.... many people don't care, neither do the dive ops as they are a business and most interested in getting your money. I have seen newly OW certified divers go over 100' depth without thinking twice about it. Personally, I think they need a bit more experience before attempting those depths but I don't think the c-card is a requirement.

Back to the original question, I think every one should do the AOW class soon after OW just so they get additional time with an instructor and explore various diving conditions (deep, night, navigation, etc.)

robin

 

[The_DivePirate]

As stated above, most advanced open water certs allow you to a 100' depth, some are easier to get than others. Through SDI you can get what is called advanced adventure diver cert. which is the equavilant of PADI's AOW.(5 more dives, 1 of which must be deep and 1c must be nav. the other 3 are up to the student) But hardly makes you an advanced diver. Like SSI, SDI requires you to have four specialties and at least 25 dives. In my opinion,(for what it's worth) 5 extra dives does not make an advanced diver, but 25 more dives and four different specialties, at least gets you on your way. Just remember, NEVER dive beyond your abilities:no the life you save may be your own!
Joe

 

[rsigmund]

the PADI prerequsites are below...
Must be a PADI Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification from another training organization) and 15 years old (12 for Junior Advanced Open Water Diver)
Number of dives: Five dives
Adventure Dive options include altitude diving, AWARE-fish identification, boat diving, deep diving, diver propulsion vehicle use, drift diving, dry suit diving, multilevel and computer diving, night diving, peak performance buoyancy, search and recovery, underwater nature study, underwater navigation, underwater photography, underwater videography and wreck diving
Each Adventure Dive in the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course may credit toward the first dive of the corresponding PADI Specialty Diver course

As stated above, the differance between OW and AOW are basicly Depth allowed 60 vs 100; boyancy control, and navigation, pus whatever adventure dives that you complete.