Padi Aow

[rednose83]

Well we are signed up for the AOW on Nov 11 and 12.

Now we just have to figure out which five adventure dives are the best for us.

[Don Wray]

You only need to decide 3, deep and nav are required. Have fun with your course.

[rednose83]

Originally Posted by Don Wray

You only need to decide 3, deep and nav are required. Have fun with your course.

Oh, yeah. Those are two we wanted to take anyways. I'm thinking PPB (cuz what new diver couldn't use a little practice with this), drift diving (going to Cozumel in Jan), and search and recovery (just sounds interesting). Thoughts?

[Okc_diver]

if it was me I would pick the PPB, night, and search & recovery. Most of the good diving in Cozumel is drift diving

[Vercingetorix]

I recommend the Night dive instead of Search/Recovery.

That said, my NAUI AOW required Night, Nav, and Deep. Three additional electives are required; my electives were Search/Recovery (with lift bag), Wreck (non-penatrate), and Scooter.

[rmkrause]

Can someone explain the rational behind choosing search and recovery as one of the electives? Quite a few folks seem to be mentioning it and to me at least, S&R seems to be a rather specialized skill and not something a typical rec diver would use on most dives.

Given the OP's dive counter, it would seem more beneficial to focus on fundamental skills such as navigation, PPB - even fish ID I could see as fundamental to have a better idea of what exactly you are seeing down there.

[scubagirlj]

best is to pick the ones that suit your dive environment, after the required ones-hard to do drift or fish id in a quarry but s&r would be handy there

[Don Wray]

Originally Posted by rmkrause

Can someone explain the rational behind choosing search and recovery as one of the electives? Quite a few folks seem to be mentioning it and to me at least, S&R seems to be a rather specialized skill and not something a typical rec diver would use on most dives.

Given the OP's dive counter, it would seem more beneficial to focus on fundamental skills such as navigation, PPB - even fish ID I could see as fundamental to have a better idea of what exactly you are seeing down there.

Search and recovery is a fun adventure dive where you learn to use a lift bag to lift an object, along with search patterns etc. The specialty course is more involved. That's the purpose of the adventure dives to give you a taste of the specialty course, so you have an idea of what speciaties you might like to pursue.

Red, I think you should choose any of the classes that interest you. As you will be going to Coz, most of the diving there will be drift dives. Not very difficult but if you think you will be more comfortable on your trip having already experienced drift diving, go for it. Just have fun!

[rednose83]

Originally Posted by rmkrause

Can someone explain the rational behind choosing search and recovery as one of the electives? Quite a few folks seem to be mentioning it and to me at least, S&R seems to be a rather specialized skill and not something a typical rec diver would use on most dives.

Given the OP's dive counter, it would seem more beneficial to focus on fundamental skills such as navigation, PPB - even fish ID I could see as fundamental to have a better idea of what exactly you are seeing down there.

We were thinking about S&R because it sounds interesting and we are unlikely to ever pursue an actual certification in it. OTOH, we are already signed up for the night specialty (deal too good to pass up at LDS) so wanted to use our 3 choices to gain new experiences that we likely won't pursue at another time. We have a river so we can try drift (even though I already did this dive for my OW cert last week) so we will do it. PPB is our final choice.

[inventor]

The folks I dive with seem to search for something about every third dive or so. Lost masks, compass, reel, etc. One guy actually used a search grid to find his compass. So I think the S&R dive is usefull, even needed, and should probably be required.