PADI AOW

[Lou]

Which is why he still intends on doing the BSAC sports diver!

Personally, if you are relatively inexperienced then I think that the AOW would be quite a fun way to spend a holiday.  Depending on the options a large proportion of the dives would be more "escorted dives" than lessons.  As an Ocean Diver this is probably advisable anyway and why not get a useful qual at the same time.  No matter what you say about the PADI system, it *is* recognised all over the world, with clear depth guidelines.  if you ever get caught out in the back arse of nowhere, with an outfit that doesn't recognise BSAC quals you can always flash your AOW and get a dive.

I do agree that the preferable route would be to try and advance his BSAC course at a faster speed, but it does seem to be quite usual for these things to take months, rather than weeks and I don't know how long the guy has until his first trip.

Lou

[String]

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.

[Jules]

I enjoyed my AOW course and it pushed me beyond the experience I had already gained  in a safe way becuase I had an instructor with me, but then I did it in the sound of Mull and it was my first experience of diving in the sea in the uk. You can get the book ahead of time and do all the reading and knowledge reviews before your holiday. I thought it was worth doing for me.
jules

[CotoChris]

<font color='#0000FF'>Once you have the A.O.W it is worth to go on and do the Rescue Course, that course more than other gave me confidence and improved my diving. The A.O.W is worthwhile to gain new experience,although the more dives &amp; experience you have the less useful this course becomes.

[Dr Stevil]

If money is no object, &nbsp;then fine, do the AOW. I'm sure even the difference in tables is enough of a variation to broaden your knowledge. But why should It take you a year to got from OD to SD? Is that to do with lack of instructors in your club? When I started diving I enrolled at the old Novice 1 level with the (Uni) club around Sept/Oct, first quarry dive in Jan/Feb and was SD by (IIRC) May/June/July (will have to look it up tonight at home). &nbsp;
If lack of instructors is the case have a word with your area coach/regional coaching team and see if anyone can help out
Email: wales.coach@bsac.com &nbsp;More info
if you were local to me I'd help you out myself but I think you're a bit out of my catchment area
Chee-az
Steve

[And]

Hi

Have a good holiday String, tell us what you learnt when you get back

Lou, calm down, lifes too short !!

WL

[String]

Steve W:

Basically that is the problem, obviously i cant speak for previous years but im under the impression there have been a large increase in new recruits each year putting a fair strain on resources.

For example when i joined the OD lectures were in October along with the exam, by the end of october we'd all passed the theory and completed the pool training.

The first OW dives werent until April of the following year and there is still a problem now in that there arent enough instructor/asst divers available for all the novices to go at the same time (not to mention lack of RIB space) so things get drawn out.

No complaint over the club itself - its doing its absolute best with the ratio its got and the instructors themselves will dive every weekend without fail occasionally up to 5 dives a day to make sure people can get in. &nbsp;Maybe the last year was a freak year regarding numbers but im suspecting not having already seen a few people asking about joining and being told to come in september.

Assuming the same sort of thing as last year id expect SD lectures to start around about December at the earliest along with the required dry practical and pool session with OW after that hence my comment, maybe not quite a year but long enough.

As i said though, im not in a huge rush to get to SD as its not restricting my UK diving at all currently and im quite content to blunder along getting experience in the meantime.

FWIW the ocean diver minimum is 4/5 dives and although i could have done the required drills in that number i wouldnt have said i was confident and totally happy in the water after that amount of time, i certainly wouldnt have liked to be buddied up to another OD level at that stage. &nbsp;The difference between 10 and 5 dives was huge regarding confidence and general skills like buoyancy, kitting up/diving off a boat and so on so i can see the sense in not going flat out to certify in the minimum figure possible.

[Tim Ingmire]

I did my AOW in Turkey not long after completing the OW course. &nbsp;One of the key benefits was the costs of doing this cf the cost of a five dive package - basically the difference was peanuts. &nbsp;I also had the advantage of buddying with a very pleasant Dutch girl and we had an Instructor between us. &nbsp;So all-in-all pretty damn good value and you still get to see all the things you'd normally see on the dives. &nbsp;And we had a check-out dive thrown in as extra - so essentially 6 dives.

Was it of much use? &nbsp;Well not really but I enjoyed it all the same.

Cost of the course (6 dives) £100

The dive skills aren't difficult esp if you're doing the SD OW dives.

So, what the hell, go 4 it.

As for the name, I thought PADI had changed this to Adventure diver or something?

[Mark Chase]

AOW is a good course fro the deep dive section. It introduces dive planning into the equasion and makes you think about a few things like kit etc. I would sugest that an AOW course in the Red sea is a bit light for UK conditions as the 30m dive will seem like a walk in the park in 30m viz warm water compaired to the hydro box at stony

That said if you are confident already in the water it will be a licence to dive Livaboards and any advanced non trimix diving almost any where in the world. This is realy handy. BSAC course is much better but dosent have the world wide coudos.

I did Deep, wreck, drift and navigation. If you do the wreck bit on the Thistlegourm or Dunraven it's realy cool. I did my wreck section on the Victory wreck in the Moldives in a 5 knot current. It was dive 11 past ow and still goes down as one of my best dives ever.

Have fun

Mark Chase



Enjoy

[Lou]

Hey, WL, I'm am calm....you want to see me when i really get angry! &nbsp;

The point I was making is that people were arguing a different argument. &nbsp;The guy is committed to BSAC, you don't need to lecture him on the &quot;evils&quot; of PADI. &nbsp;If he is happy to spend a year getting SD in his current club then surely that is a bonus. &nbsp;As for getting Sports Diver at a BSAC school - as far as I can see that just negates everything that everyone holds up as &quot;good&quot; about BSAC training. &nbsp;

Anyway, he has made his decision. &nbsp;Even if he learns almost nothing he should have a fun time, doing some dives under supervision in warm, clear water. &nbsp;I'd swap that for sitting at my desk!

Lou