What does SDI consider "AOW"?

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Vislor

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Location
Jacksonville, FL
# of dives
100 - 199
SDI has two "advanced" certificates: Advanced Adventure Diver and Advanced Diver Development Program. Which one is considered AOW (for example, if a boat / charter is running a trip that requires "advanced" certification which one would they want?)

To me it seems Advanced Diver Development should be the "advanced" one as it actually requires some experience to get (25 dives) whereas the Adventure one does not. Additionally, the Adventure Diver is (from what I can tell in the rather lacking literature on the SDI site) a specialty and not a "rating" per se.

But if this is the case then why doesn't the Advanced Diver Development Program require deep and navigation? One reason most boats and charters seem to require the advanced rating for some trips is that they want some assurance the diver in question has experience on deeper dives (below 60 fsw). From what I can tell you could get the SDI Advanced Diver Development certificate and never have done a single deep dive (again, since I can't see the actual requirements on the SDI site maybe this isn't the case, but from what I *can* see the Advanced Diver Development only requires 25 dives and any 4 specialties, of which the only restriction seems to be that only at most 1 specialty can be a non-diving one like Nitrox.)
 
The Advanced Adventure Diver is the equivalent of the PADI AOWD, it should be considered equivalent, period. The name is unfortunate.
 
The Advanced Diver Development Program is simply part-way to Master Scuba Diver. The latter requires all of the former, plus rescue plus 50 dives instead of 25.
AAD is exactly like PADI AOW. (Plus, as you note, it is a specialty rating, not a certification level.)
MSD is almost like PADI MSD, except PADI requires 5 specialties, not 4.

In my view, all those "advanced" words simply mean advanced beyond basic. Until you get to MSD (AOW or AAD, 50 dives, 4 or 5 full specialties) you aren't really very advanced. And I'd prefer that the specialties (full specialties, not just single adventure dives) include Deep, Nav, Night, S&R, Nitrox, as a minimum. Now we are talking!
 
The Advanced Diver Development Program is simply part-way to Master Scuba Diver. The latter requires all of the former, plus rescue plus 50 dives instead of 25.
AAD is exactly like PADI AOW. (Plus, as you note, it is a specialty rating, not a certification level.)
MSD is almost like PADI MSD, except PADI requires 5 specialties, not 4.

In my view, all those "advanced" words simply mean advanced beyond basic. Until you get to MSD (AOW or AAD, 50 dives, 4 or 5 full specialties) you aren't really very advanced. And I'd prefer that the specialties (full specialties, not just single adventure dives) include Deep, Nav, Night, S&R, Nitrox, as a minimum. Now we are talking!

I guess being a licensed pilot for the last 17+ years makes all this scuba certification stuff seem confusing lol. With the FAA you know exactly what you're licensed / rated for, there's no question.

And even though I'm a relatively new to diving it seems logical that the advanced rating should require at least deep, night, and nav, or some "baseline" group of specialties (being new I'm probably not the best person to say what they should be lol). Either that or boats / charters should start requiring the specific specialties for those dives.

It would be nice if SDI simply issued a new card with every specialty that listed your most advanced "rating" (OW, advanced, master, instructor, etc.) and then any specialties you had. That way boats and charters could easily see who was trained for various dives without divers having to carry a pile of cards around.
 
The SDI Advanced Adventure Diver rating is comprised of five dives from five different specialties. Deep and Navigation are both required while typically the other three specialties are decided by the instructor/store.
Once an individual completes the Advanced Adventure Diver program they can apply that as one of the four required specialties required for the Advanced Diver Development level.
Many locations that are familiar with the program will accept it for an advanced rating comparable to other agency's advanced ratings.
 
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