AOW confusion

[Blackrock]

I'm a bit confused about what is required to get AOW certified. I have PADI OW now and was thinking of going on in my training, but I'm not sure what I'm going to be getting in to.

Do I just need to complete 5 specialty classes of my choice, and that's considered AOW? Or is there something I'm missing about this whole thing?

Thanks in advance.

[zahgurim]

AOW requires you to sample 5 Adventure courses, two of which must be Underwater Nav, and Deep.
The other three are up to you, and selection availability may vary depending on where you do the course.

[comet24]

In the AOW class you will do five dives. One each from five specialties. Nav. and deep are required. The other three will depend on the shop/instuctor. Some it set up to do certain ones and others will modify the ones they do depending on what the students want. Also depending on the location of the dives some specialties are not feasible.

[Zenagirl]

Each one of the dives can count toward a full individual specialty certification if you choose to go on and take it. AOW is like a plate of hors D'vours, you sample a few different things but it isn't the whole meal.

Have fun with AOW and the sampling of specialties, then plan on doing Rescue and getting some REAL work done.

[Silverlode]

Originally Posted by Zenagirl

Each one of the dives can count toward a full individual specialty certification if you choose to go on and take it. AOW is like a plate of hors D'vours, you sample a few different things but it isn't the whole meal.

Have fun with AOW and the sampling of specialties, then plan on doing Rescue and getting some REAL work done.

Well put. The other way is to take your time and do five specialities that you want to do one at a time, including Nav and Deep. And you will qualify for AOW - and if you then do Rescue Diver, you'd be Master Scuba Diver. AOW is quick and some good info and good sampling of what you might want to eventually get involved in etc. But part of me now wondered if I should have just slowly taken all those specialities and do them slowly and more in-depth.

[BouzoukiJoe]

Don't a couple of PADI specialties (such as deep) have AOW as a prerequisite? Maybe I'm confused.

[shadragon]

Originally Posted by BouzoukiJoe

Don't a couple of PADI specialties (such as deep) have AOW as a prerequisite? Maybe I'm confused.

Here is the PADI web page specifically on the Deep Diver course.

Deep Diver Course Details

[Silverlode]

Originally Posted by shadragon

Here is the PADI web page specifically on the Deep Diver course.

Deep Diver Course Details

Did not realise that. I thought I read somewhere that five specialities can give you AOW. But then if normal AOW needs Deep and Nav, and Deep Specialities needs AOW, then it does not make sense. Better to check with the school you're doing your training with.

[Blackrock]

Thanks for your responses.

So, hypothetically, I can take those 3 classes of my choice at different locations/ops over the course of time and then get AOW certified at another shop when I do the Deep & Nav. classes. Did I understand that right?

[BouzoukiJoe]

OK, I think I see the source of confusion. It's the crazy PADI course structure ;-)

There is something called an 'adventure dive' which seems to be a dive with a certain theme. And there is something called a specialty. Different specialties require different numbers of dives having the same theme.

AOW is a collection of 5 different 'adventure dives' not 5 different specialties.

AOW requires the deep adventure dive (and the underwater nav adventure dive). The deep specialty requires the deep adventure dive plus 3 more deep dives.

To complicate matters even more PADI has a cert called Adventure Diver which requires the completion of three adventure dives and ranks below AOW.

I don't know if they'll do it, but if you have 5 specialties including deep and nav you've done a lot more diving than is required for AOW so they ought to give it to you. This is PADI so it will propbably require at least a nominal certifcation fee to get the AOW card.