PADI AOW Deep dive checkout experiences?

[BORG]

I plan on getting my PADI AOW later this spring and it's been years(early 80s) since my OW, but I dive on a regular basis during the summer. The deepest I've gone is about 55ft.
How do I best prepare for and what to expect for my AOW deep dive checkout dive that I'll do for my PADI AOW?

i.e. Average time at depth before making my ascent.
I dive a 95cu. ft. LP steel tank.

I'm also going to get drysuit certifed soon. So, before taking my AOW class my winter practice dives in the local lake will not be bone chilling.

THANKS!

[RoadRacer1978]

I don't think you really need to do anything to prepare. I got certified back in 1994 and didn't do AOW until this year. Unlike you though, I did't do any diving in between the two classes. If you are comforatble in the water, which I'm sure you are, you shouldn't have any problems. I'm sure every instructor is different, but here are the things we did at depth to see if narcosis was effecting us. One group had a cobination padlock that they practiced opening at the surface, then had to work the cmbination and unlock it at depth. The instructor I went with had a dive slate with 4 math problems from one of each, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Then I had to write my name fowards and backwards. These are just a couple ways that you can see is narcosis might be effecting you at depth. I'm sure some others can tell you about their experiences with the deep dives in their AOW course.

[Athena2c]

My instructor had a metal pipe/puzzle thing. He timed how fast we could put it together on the surface and then at depth so we could see the difference. The funny thing is...I did it faster at depth

[snagel]

Don't work yourself up over this....if you're comfortable in the water you'll do fine. Go slow, down and up and your fine.

We did ours the surface temp was 55 degrees. The temp at 80' was 42 degrees. Oddly, I was so hyped up for this that the cold didn't bother me (7 mil wet). We did ours in a quarry that's why the temp was the way it was. One clue, if you have thermoclines, don't be the first one down. If you are, you have to wait around for others in the colder water. I'll tell you more about this later. Once at the bottom, the instructor took a 2 liter plastic soda bottle down to show us the changing in pressure. It was crushed. He had some swatches of neoprene and showed us how the pressure changes them. We too had to do the math problems. He wrote down math problems and we had us solve them. Previously, on the surface a student asked about cracking an egg at depth and had heard that it would stay together without the shell. This prompted an experiment; so, we took an egg down. When we cracked it the clear slimmy stuff floated away, but the yoke pretty much stayed in a ball. We sat in a circle and bounced the "yoke ball" back and forth to each other until somebody hit it too hard and it flew apart.

All in all, I believe we only spent maybe 10 minutes at the 80 foot platform before ascending.

Here was my issue with the deep dive. When we signed up for the class, there was 4 of us. However, one person got sick and wasn't able to dive. So, that left 3. I got paired up with another student in the class; which, we started calling "thirty year man". Don't get me wrong he was a nice guy, but he had been diving for 30 years and was only taking the class because 1, his daughter was one of the DM canidates; and 2) he needed the certification for some dives he wanted to do. Anyway, nothing came out of the Thirty Year Man's mouth except for stories of all the dives he had done. This got old in a hurry. As I said, I was buddied up with him and this turned into a competition. He was hell bent to show how great a diver he was (and he was a good diver). Anyway, when it came time to go down to the 80 foot platform, our plan as a group was to go slow and stay together. The guys I had taken the class with and I had already talked about not wanting to get to the platform too fast and have to wait in the 40 degree water. So, as you can guess, Thirty Year Man took off and I was his buddy. I remember thinking, this idiot - Do I stay with the group as we had planned or do I go with my buddy. I chose to go with my buddy. We hit the platform and it felt like 1/2 an hour before the group finally got down. I was fuming (probably why I didn't feel the cold water). Really, I think it was only about 5 minutes.

Again, don't fret on the deep dive.

S. Nagel

[snagel]

Originally Posted by Athena2c

My instructor had a metal pipe/puzzle thing. He timed how fast we could put it together on the surface and then at depth so we could see the difference. The funny thing is...I did it faster at depth

This reminds me of the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati". The show where Johnny Fever and Venus are being testing on air by the cop to show how drinking causes your reaction times to get slower. They tested Johnny before drinking and he was very slow and the more he drank the faster he got.

Probably not a good message to be sending, but hey I laughed my #ss off. It still brings a chuckle to me. Okay, I'm weird.

S. Nagel

[CODMAN]

It's a classic! One of the more funny episodes.

Originally Posted by snagel

This reminds me of the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati". The show where Johnny Fever and Venus are being testing on air by the cop to show how drinking causes your reaction times to get slower. They tested Johnny before drinking and he was very slow and the more he drank the faster he got.

Probably not a good message to be sending, but hey I laughed my #ss off. It still brings a chuckle to me. Okay, I'm weird.

S. Nagel

[cummings66]

Originally Posted by snagel

So, as you can guess, Thirty Year Man took off and I was his buddy. I remember thinking, this idiot - Do I stay with the group as we had planned or do I go with my buddy. I chose to go with my buddy.

I think you did the right thing even though it violated the group dive plan. IMO staying by your buddy is important, to an extent. A buddy to me is a sacred person whom I've pledged to stay by and protect. A gross violation of that relationship would allow me to leave you behind, but if the guy did what he did to you I'd shrug my shoulders and follow. I'd be thinking bad thoughts the whole time and maybe have a chat on the surface about breaking the dive plan. I'd be nice about it. A good dive buddy can be your only saving grace when the s??t hits the fan, be good to them. That's why in my book there is nothing more sacred than accepting the responsibility of being a buddy, it's a two way street and not to be taken lightly. It can be the difference between coming home that night safe and sound, or not coming home, ever. I'll stick to my buddy every time, just in case. But if you do something in gross violation such as enter a cave or go beyond my skill levels I will not follow you there... If you're my buddy you will know what those levels are.

As you said the AOW course isn't something to fuss over, it is not something that hard to do and it's not worth working up a sweat trying to get it all right.

[snagel]

Well said

[georoc01]

We had a triple during one of our AOW dives and the third diver took off while the two of us were doing our skill check out for our dry suit dives. We found him on the bottom almost out of air and had to buddy breathe him through the safety stops.

And as far as the bolt/nut timing at depth. I didn't have much of a difference or was slightly faster at depth. I think I was more focused at depth to get it done as fast as possible where as in the pool not as much so.

[Byte Me]

Similar experiences to the others mentioned here on my Deep AOW dive. Difference was that I'd gotten my OW only a couple months before I did my AOW. On the way to the dive site (Los Arcos in Playa) on the boat I did teh math problem and a couple other things. When we got to the bottom I, too, redid it faster. We looked at how colors are affected that deep, how pressure affects neoprene of various thickness and did the egg trick. It looked like an over easy fried egg until we started batting the yolk back and forth. I was down current from my instructor (it was just us, another DM/instructor and one of his friends) so when the yolk broke it was all over me. You'd think i'd have learned with the 2nd egg. NOPE!

Only issue I had was I was paying so much attention to the math and other bits that wasn't concentrating on my breathing - I sucked through 70% of my tank in about 18-20 minutes or so and we had to head up so I'd have enough for slow ascent and safety stop. I was very disappointed because Los Arcos is supposed to be beautiful.