Worth pursuing AOW?

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@doctormike says it better than I.

DCI and the perils of diving in a mixed EAN/Air Group

"Nitrox doesn't make you less likely to get bent unless you are gas limited. If you are doing dives where you are ascending when your NDL gets close to zero, nitrox will give you a longer dive, but your decompression stress and tissue loading will be the same. If you want to build in a DCS buffer, then you need to load less inert gas or extend your decompression profile."

This is great, and at the deeper end of recreational depths
I'm far happier and far less tingly if I follow a square profile



THE FIVE WAYPOINTS AND SIMPLE ASCENT BEHAVIOR

This must be incorporated into learning sooner
welded in your head there it is computer or not

full.jpg
 
I’ve seen that many dive operators will require you to have an AOW card no matter how experienced (or inexperienced) you are, or if you have other specialties etc.

I enquired my local SSI shop and they said they don’t like to do this kind of thing (5 taster dives) and try to push people to full specialties instead, as you learn more. This makes a lot of sense to me, but is it a moot point if you need an AOW card anyway?

I’d like to do a night dive, dry suit specialty and a deep dive just to have my options open for future dives, but I’m not sure if I should just get an AOW and focus on practice, gear and actual dive trips instead.
I had almost 100 logged dives before I did the AOW class. I did it with a group of friend with my local shop, but we did it at UNEXSO in Freeport and I was a fun class, so I say get lot's of practice, then do it...
 
@DeepSeaExplorer, I agree with your second point, but wonder if your first paragraph is entirely correct given the increasing availability of 100 cf rental cylinders and the number of recreational side-mount divers I see.

Most divers I know can get 60+ minutes at 60' on a 100cf cylinder in warm water (an RMV around 0.6 cfm). IIRC thati is the NDL on the US Navy table (my memory is shaky, so I could well be wrong).

I think you’re looking at an air table, rather than Nitrox.
 
I think you’re looking at an air table, rather than Nitrox.

You are correct, I was looking at (actually remembering, and not looking at, which is why I did not catch my error myself) an air table, not an EAN table. That was just a lesson relearned about relying on memory.
 
You are correct, I was looking at (actually remembering, and not looking at, which is why I did not catch my error myself) an air table, not an EAN table. That was just a lesson relearned about relying on memory.

Take a look at the link I posted the USN tables appear to combine both.
 
Wait, you didn't learn this in your open water course?



Please post if you decide on this and are looking for a recommendation. There are some good places. And there are places that violate standards (example: open water certs given to people who only completed confined water dives).


Unfortunately not, there was a passing explanation by the instructor and I think I read about it in the SSI manual - but I don’t think I even saw a compass during OW.

Thanks for the offer - my choice will be largely dictated by vacation destination, which right now probably looks like Amorgos. I did a DSD before my OW with them, and I at least know they are friendly and professional.

Unfortunately, as I found in two tourist places in Greece, the instructors come and go - and you don’t even know who is going to teach you until you show up the first day.
 
Also, while I really appreciated the diagram and article with the five stages , could you move the argument about Nitrox and DCS somewhere else?
 
Also, while I really appreciated the diagram and article with the five stages , could you move the argument about Nitrox and DCS somewhere else?

Don't be upset consider it a learning experience. Sooner or later you're going to come to the nitrox path, when you do you won't need to ask questions. It seems to me you've got the AOW part figured out and have a plan. Good luck
 
One more comment that is AOW related.

I wouldn’t recommend USN tables for dive planning. The ones online are dated and the 60ft table in particular is aggressive.

Those tables were designed for maximum performance during goal-oriented military diving with surface support, rather than cruising the reef for lobster.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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