|
NAUI requires 6 dives: 3 must be Navigation, Deep, & Night with 3 the student can pick.
PADI requires 5 dives which I think the student gets to select.
I took the NAUI AOW course but
I've got both the PADI and NAUI course materials.
I have the NAUI "Advanced Scuba Diver" manual
and the PADI "Adventures in Diving" manual which
is what I believe is used for the PADI AOW course.
As far as written course material goes, I believe
that the PADI "Adventures in Diving" manual is much
better than the NAUI "Advanced Scuba Diver" manual.
It seems to be more detailed and has a lot more
Q&A study questions.
The NAUI book is pretty thin at 104 pages while
the PADI book at 372 pages covers all their specialties
so you can read/learn/practice things on your own
that are not covered as part of your formal AOW training.
(There are additional ones in the NAUI book just not as many)
I've seen so much agency bashing and talks about
how one is better/worse for this reason or that but
I have to tell you after seeing and going through
both sets of printed course materials
I was a bit underwhelmed by the NAUI
course materials and quite impressed by the PADI
material.
The difference I saw was that NAUI forces the
student to take certain specific training which IMHO
is some of the more difficult and useful things, where
PADI gives more flexibility in choice selection to the
actual student which means they might select
options, which some folks would consider "easier".
I can't speak for the differences in how the material is
covered or taught, but it appears that there is a lot less
difference between the agencies for specific
training "specialties" than what people like to argue about.
--- bill
|