AOW??

[TRACI]

The navagation was the most difficult for me. My compass and I do not get along. But I did enjoy doing the search patterns.

[navyhmc]

The biggest thing about uw nav it to learn to trust the compass. At times your brain will trick you, the magnetic forces of the planet pretty much stay true. That and practice! Take some time to work on the skills. Personally, I enjoy navigation and do courses for fun. A stable kick cycle is important too.

[hornet]

During the nav in my OW I had no trouble with following the directions on the compass back and forth but the number of kick were way off on my return. I really need practice on keeping them consistent. Up to this point I would kick because I wanted to move threw the water to get some ware and would do it quickly. Now I keep catching myself needing to slow my shelf down.

[navyhmc]

Slow and steady is your best kick-you don't increase your oxygen consumption as much and your kicks are more steady and even. You also avoid the chance of going in a circle as much as one leg is usually stronger than the other so you will pull to one side. The faster/harder you kick, the more prevalent the pull is.

[Vlane]

I'm in the middle of my AOW right now and so far i've done search and recovery, night dive, an peak performance buoyancy. I would definitely suggest PPB if you have that option as buoyancy makes a huge difference in your overall dive experience (i'm still working on mine). Night dive was more of a fun course than a learning experience, if anything just read the chapter. Good luck with your AOW though, i'm looking forward to finishing mine.

[Jack Hammer]

The compass wasn't too difficult for me in AOW because I had been using my compass while diving for a while prior to the class. You can go to something like a soccer field and pull a ballcap low on your face and put the compass up close to your face so you can't really see much but the grass beneath you, and try to go straight across only looking at the compass (don't lookup to see how you're doing, it defeats the purpose).

While navigating was easy for me, keeping an even kick for measuring was much more of a challenge. I'd never realized how much I had been switching up my kick cycles prior to it. The hardest part of the class for me though was learning the knots. I still suck at them, just couldn't keep them memorized. Just try to relax and have fun and don't worry too much, you'll do fine.

Jack

[Recon]

Compass can trick you no matter where you are, as what navy said is true, one leg is stronger then the other, over long distances, if you are right leg dominant you can stray from your intended target by miles, especially in the desert where there are very very very very very few reference points , except hey, is that the dune, or is that the dune?

~Recon

[mm2002]

I think Peak Performance Buoyancy is an excellent one to include in your AOW (assuming you have a good instructor). Search and Recovery and Nav are also good to learn. All the rest are just OK.

[Scubling]

Sounds fun. I never knew just kicking your legs could make such a difference!

[Scubling]

looks like i need a new compass for this!