How much experience diving after getting ow certification is advised before getting advanced ow certification?

Here is my view on this subject.

I recently completed both the book and dive requirements for PADI's Advanced Open Water certification, and after discussing my experience with both the shop's training director and some other senior instructors, I am **NOT** able to say with confidence that I actually am an advanced diver. In my opinion, I thought the PADI standards to be a bit too "relaxed".

In fact, the training director pointed out to me that per the current PADI standards, it is actually possible for someone to achieve "Rescue Diver" status in less than 20 dives. And this is something that he (and now I) don't agree with.

In my view, a diver should have the following to be qualified as an advanced diver:

• both a certain number of dives and a certain number of bottom time hours

• certifications (aka actual cards) in a minimum number of specialties, such as night/low vis, navigation, wreck, peak bouancy, search & recovery, etc.

• certain number of fun dives with buddies of various experience levels to practice what you are learning.

And what I listed above is how Scuba Diving International approaches advanced diving. First you become certified in at least 5 specialties (through classroom & dives) and then after a certain amount of diving you are awarded the advanced moniker. And the training director stressed that he would rather have the student make the call if he/she was now an advanced diver.

In a nutshell, there is no pat answer to your question. It depends on the diver, instructor, and training agency.

[This message has been edited by TexasMike (edited 05-30-2001).]

I should mention that this past weekend I completed my 25th dive, and my total bottom time is about 13 hours.

And one more thing to think about with regards to advanced certification....

Ultimately, what sort of diving do you want to do? Dive on wrecks? Wall dive to 150'? Use different breathing gasses? Explore underwater caverns? Dive with a dry suit or a scooter?

Your answer to this will direct your training. And most of the specialties that you aquire (such as Night and Navigation) will be building blocks for other specialties (such as Wreck and Cave).

--Michael

The SSI requirements are only 25 dives. Though I highly advise that the diver have several abilities.
first they should definitly have control and ease in dealing with bouyancy.
second the diver shold be good at dive planning without the use of a computer.
third the diver should have kept in practice since certification.
I also advise when taking the adv course that one of the specialties be stress&rescue

I agree TexasMike, PADI does seem a little loose with its Advanced Open Water. Durring our Open water c-dives the instructors asked "who's gonna come next month for advanced open water?" to which i responded "shouldn't we have some more dive experince before that?" to which they said "there's no number of dive requirment." So basically, i could be advanced open water certified and only have the open water c-dives, and the advanced open water c-dives. That seems a little absurb. I fortunatly am not going to do that, and do my dives this year with just o/w and get my advanced next summer.

-Dave in KC

IMHO, there is really no reason to wait until you have more experience to take the advanced open water dive course. As long as each individual diver knows his/her personal limits, what difference does the title on your c-card make?

The advanced class offers some additional training that any OW certified diver would find valuable. Does having an advanced C-card mean your are an advanced diver? No, it simply means that you've been trained and now need practice your trained skills to become an advanced diver.

Get all the training you can, as soon as you can afford it. Make sure you understand your personal limits and dive within your plan.

quote:

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Originally posted by nobends:
Get all the training you can, as soon as you can afford it. Make sure you understand your personal limits and dive within your plan.

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No arguement there. Like the training director said, "You now have graduated from being a 'student diver' to 'someone who studies diving'. And you only quit studying diving when you finally hang up your fins for the last time."

--TexasMike
(at least he didn't call me "Grasshopper")

[This message has been edited by TexasMike (edited 05-30-2001).]

PADI's philosophy on the adventures in Diving program is based on the premise that diving is a means to explore other interest. Once comfortable with basic skills, divers want to conquer new tasks, see different creatures, journey into diverse environments and experience new adventures. Divers look for convenience and flexibility in continuing their diving education. The Program's design allows divers to choose the dives that interest them and to sample activities under the guidence of a PADI instructor. Some divers may choose to make only 1 adventure dive others may want to complete several dives to earn a PADI certification (Adventure diver / AOW ). This allows them to broaden their awareness of the environment and their capabilities as divers.

No matter which training path they choose, Adventures in diving program encourages divers to gain practical experience under supervision.

Remember that any AOW program is not a means to make you advance as much as it is a way for you to experience new things that interest you under the supervision of a instructor. The AOW cert does not make you a advance diver, only time and experience does that.

Rstone,

I totally agree with your description of the PADI program. But I guess that now I should say that my beef is that the shop was promoting the class as what was required to obtain "advanced o/w" certification (aka, the card), versus the adventure diving as you described. In fact, if I had desired, the shop was willing to sign off that I had fullfilled PADI's requirements as an Advanced Diver.

Now please understand that I am not faulting the shop for doing this since they were following PADI's guidelines. I just feel that PADI's nomenclature needs to be improved and the shops need to update how they explain the classes.

If I was told that PADI was "Adventures in Diving" while SDI was "obtaining specialty certifications until you feel qualified as advanced", then I would have chose the SDI course at the beginning and save the time/money.

--TexasMike