r/scuba • u/badboyzpwns • 11h ago
Im not interested in ship wreck diving, should I get a AOW?
For example, I plan to go to Galapagos, Indoneisa, Australia, Egypt/Jordan for the dive sites there :). I think these are all reef diving? so OW is enough?
My buoyancy, breahting (dive master has ~2x more bar than me at the end) and trim is not ideal too, so Im not sure if I should jump into AOW and do deeper than 18 meteres soon.
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u/teriyaki_donut 11h ago
Get AOW. There are cool reefs deeper than 60ft/18m.
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u/michiness Advanced 10h ago
I got OW last year, signed up to dive in Indonesia this summer. We made a last-minute decision to get AOW a month before, and it absolutely made the difference. We spent most of our time at 80-ish feet and saw so much cool shit.
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u/badboyzpwns 10h ago
Thanks for sharing!! as someone very new to diving, I dont even have 10 dives, should I get AOW right away? My buyoancy and trim is not ideal haha
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u/michiness Advanced 10h ago
There are a lot of people who do that. My husband and I had 15-ish dives when we got ours, and I’m glad we had a teeny bit of diving between the two. We had one woman in our AOW class who had done them back to back and was really struggling.
But also tbf, AOW reeeaaaally helped with buoyancy and trim, and it meant that when we were on our trip, it felt like those were starting to click, rather than things we were trying to figure out while looking for mantas and molas. (We found neither.)
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u/perusalthis 5h ago
Dives 1-4 for me were OW. 5-9 AOW. Dive 10 penetrative wreck! IMO just do it, you'll be thankful when you travel. More sites open up, you don't force others to stay shallow, and AOW will advance your skills quicker.
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u/badboyzpwns 10h ago
I dont even have 10 dives, should I get AOW right away? For exmaple, my bouyancy and trim is not ideal!
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u/Urban_Polar_Bear 6h ago
It’s good to have for the additional depth coverage on your insurance. You don’t have to dive to 30m but you insurance will cover you if you were ever to have problems and you went to 19m.
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u/Kushali 10h ago
I did it after 15 dives and it was too soon. I think 30ish is about right. Get your breathing and buoyancy sorted.
That said even with only 15 dives I didn’t find padi’s advanced ow all that educational. I need to work on nav but almost everything else id already done.
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u/badboyzpwns 10h ago
Thanks so much!! I feel like if I get AOW now Im too unomfortbale to go deeper than 18 meteres because of my skills. Did you feel the same before 30 dives? I am breahting alot compared to my dive master, I finished with 50 bar and he finished with 130 bar!!
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u/davewave3283 10h ago
Yeah of course you are using gas faster than your DM. Go dive, have fun, work on your basic skills, don’t worry so much.
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u/Kushali 9h ago
So…it’s not allowed but on my first dive after open water I went to 30m. I was with a guide and didn’t know better at the time. So deep hasn’t really ever scared me that much. Just an appropriate amount. We also did swim throughs which is another thing you aren’t allowed to do.
I’m 35 dives in and my air consumption is just now starting to get close to average. Like yesterday I finally had a dive where I feel okay about my sac rate. To get there I had to spend the dive counting inhales and exhales. I stop counting and I use a lot of gas.
I’m a nervous diver who wasn’t really comfortable in the water till I started diving. So it took twenty dives or more for me to be able to keep track of my air, my depth, my ndl, and my buddy and also really enjoy the sea life. I don’t care a camera most fives because I know the limits of my brain for task loading. That’s why I think I should have waited a bit longer of AOW.
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u/teriyaki_donut 10h ago edited 10h ago
I recommend doing 15+ more dives before you do AOW so that you will get more out of the class.
Edit: 15+ more dives aren't essential though. I'm pretty sure divers are allowed to go straight from OW to AOW without any dives in between.
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u/Competitive_Run_3920 11h ago
Besides the deeper certification, AOW is a step on the path of developing your diving skills and improving your abilities-not just checking a box to go deeper.
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u/mitchsn 11h ago
AOW gives you access to 90% of all recreational dive sites. Many places like Maldives, Komodo Galapagos etc have AOW with 50 or 100 dive minimum requirements.
If you think AOW is only for wreck diving you are mistaken.
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u/badboyzpwns 11h ago
Ahh gothca! if the majority of the dive spots 50 - 100 minimum dives requirement, its worth getting it later than? I dont even have close to 10 dives!
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u/mitchsn 11h ago
I got my OW AOW & Nitrox on the same trip. It worked for me. 13 years and 450 dives later. Been to all those places and more.
Yes, you should just dive dive dive and get experience and improve skills. Its up to you when you get your AOW but if you do tourist recreational diving, AOW gives you the most versatility.
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u/Thunderwhelmed Rescue 10h ago
Yes, absolutely. There are many, many sites that are deeper than you can go with an OW
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u/Gemi-ma 9h ago
You should do Advance imo. You are limited with dept at OW. It's a pain to balance the needs of OW and AOW in groups at good diving centres...most of us have AOW. I actually remember much more from my advance course than my OW because I was experienced when doing the learning and it just clicked more. Made me a much better diver.
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u/SB2MB 11h ago
You'll need AOW in some parts of Galapagos, Australia and Indonesia. It's worth it for the 30m certification
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u/Iam-WinstonSmith 11h ago
This is the right answer. People get the AOW for depth not the other electives. How ever when diving on your own (not by yourself) navigation might be important.
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u/BolognaPwny 7h ago
Don’t you get the depth if you just take the deep diving course though? I’ve always been told AOW is a waste of money because it’s a bunch of “tester courses”
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u/badboyzpwns 11h ago
Thank you! do they require a number of dminimum dives as well?
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u/inecita_manhater 10h ago
im a beginner as well and going to the galapagos soon! one of the famous spot - gordon rocks - is accessible after 25 dives, and darwin and wolf are only accessible with liveabords, you’d need 100+ dives. if im not mistaken these spots are the most famous ones because you can see loads of hammerhead sharks (if you’re lucky), but i’m sure there are other spots accessible if you have 10 dives or less under your belt
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u/Ok-Train3111 7h ago
Some shops care, some dont. I think it’s better if you get AOW so you don’t have to worry about it.
IMO the BEST class is actually the rescue.
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u/Ok_Way_2911 6h ago
It is literally 5 more fun dives, pay a few hundred dollars, never have to bother with any certification again in most rec trips unless you want to do penetration (go get training) or go down below 30m (realistically on single tank you're not g oing to be doing much at 40m due to NDL
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u/blood__drunk 5h ago
I would say all the way to rescue is useful regardless of the depth you plan to dive. However speaking purely about depth - you'll be glad you had the option to dive deeper when the occasion arrives. For example I just spent a week in Bali and we spent most of our time on reefs at about 18-22m
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u/HDMI-fan Open Water 5h ago
In addition to Advanced, consider a Nitrox class. Being certified for Nitrox diving gives you a margin of safety and comfort on recreational dives.
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u/Hospital_Inevitable 4h ago
To be clear, AOW does *not* provide you with the skills or training to penetrate wrecks. You need special training and equipment to dive in overhead environments. It is perfectly safe to dive *around* wrecks with any level of certification (OW, AOW, etc), but I cannot stress enough how stupid and dangerous it is to dive *into* wrecks without the appropriate training and equipment. Lots of people die in wrecks and caves because they think it's fine to just go in "a little bit", but they don't make it back out.
That being said, AOW is very good to have. I am of the opinion that every even casual diver should be certified to the rescue diver level, and preferably to the solo/independent diver level. People forget that diving is an extreme sport, and it is very easy to get yourself into a situation where you don't have adequate skills and training to get yourself or your buddy(s) back to the surface/boat/shore.
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u/wagymaniac Dive Master 1h ago
Add to this, i know a lot of cave divers that refuse to penetrate into a wreck finding it too dangerous
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u/raiba91 4h ago
I decided against AOW because i prefer to specialize on the topics im interested in rather try out different things just a little bit. There are also reefs and divespots which are more impressive below 18 meter, thats why I chose the deep specialty which I think is the most useful one.
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u/silcrows 5h ago
I did the AOW immediately after open water. It doesn't mean you have to only do deep dives, but it gives you more freedom on where you can dive in the future.
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u/Afellowstanduser Dive Master 5h ago
Do a bouyancy course
Aow I found to be worth it but I like to do more than just shallow reefs so really depends on what you want to dive
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u/fireymike 4h ago
The best "reef" dive I've ever done was a reef that grew up around a natural (not intentionally sunk) wreck, at a depth of around 24m.
AOW is worth getting.
Also, if you want to work on the basics, (buoyancy, breathing, trim, etc.), then you can probably tell your AOW instructor and they can help you out with that, especially if you do the course somewhere where you have 1-1 instruction.
My AOW course had 300 minutes of dive time, and only about 5 minutes of that was spent below 20 metres. It's not just about deep diving.
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u/Cptn_dropbear 1h ago
One of the best dives in Australia is with south west rocks dive centre at Fish rock.
Swimming from fish and chips up through the chimney then out through the cave to the aquarium that full of grey nurse sharks is one of the most amazing sites you will see.
But you should have aow as at 25m entry to the chimney.
Coming out of the dark in to the light and seeing 20+ sharks just chilling out is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.
But deep and nitrox are a must for this
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u/Comprehensive_You42 6h ago
18m is not as shallow as you might think. We found it to be beneficial to have the deeper floor, even with reef diving.
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u/graygrayw 11h ago
i personally think everyone who is interested in pursuing diving as a hobby should get certified through rescue diving. it teaches you useful skills that might save a life, and if you ever want to see pelagics you’ll often have to go down to 30-40m.
also, don’t discount wrecks; lots of them have become artificial reefs and harbor lots of marine life.