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OK thanks for the replies, looks like i will go for it then.  Im off to Greece (already booked a long time in advance - before i started diving even) and although ive heard people say the diving isnt that great im sure it'll be different from a murky 2-3m vis in UK waters !
I did have a look but there are no BSAC schools around there which would have been my first choice.

I know its only the same as BSAC ocean diver but that doesnt particulary bother me.  All my UK diving is likely to be with my branch and normally they dont restrict to the 20m depth unless diving with a non instructor, most dives are with an instructor or assistant instructor therefore depth and experience isnt really that limiting.

Example, ive done a fair bit of compass work, been to near 30m, SMB use and so on as part of the normal diving all of which are beyond the ocean diver.

For that reason although it'll take me probably a year to finally get through sport diver im in no rush as there is no real restriction on my diving in the meantime provided im with the branch.

Ocean diver took me approx 10 months to get through but again it wasnt limiting, instead of just doing the required dives immediately it was a case of normal dives with the required drills being done when there was some spare time/vis was bad/poor dive site etc.  If not in a rush i thought that the best way of doing it as it meant i got experience of real diving, got to enjoy dives as well as getting qualified eventuallywithout sacrificing dives purely to doing the core drills.

The AOW part is mainly because i have a few trips abroad planned and im guessing that as ocean diver is only equivalent to the standard OW course id be limited in depth and the dives i can do fairly severely so at least if i can get the AOW under my belt that restriction is lifted slightly.

I didnt realise there was no real classroom element for the AOW course and it is just effectively 5 dives.

Finally, as for when my trip is, i leave in a week.