Why you NEED to do the Advanced Open Water Course

[@michaelweber8760]

Awesome video as always, and YES I agree that Advanced should be taken as well whenever you are ready. I recently got my Open Water and the very next weekend I did my Advance Open Water. I feel I'm a unique case, I watched hours and hours of videos just waiting for my initial class LOL from instructors like you, Azul Unlimited, and a few others, being super excited to dive. I felt that taking the Advance right after the initial was beneficial in my case because everything was still fresh, I felt comfortable jumping back in and it felt like a continuation. 3 weeks after that, I dove with a buddy for the weekend on my first non-training dives, and he has been diving for 30 years and said I looked very comfortable in the water. That was a proud moment, and I have people like you to thank for it.

[@OceanPancake]

Awh!! Congratulations. I'm so happy for you! The advanced course is a great way to just improve all of your skills overall. Going to dive without a guide can be really stressful. So having that confidence is really awesome!

[@wfp9378]

I started to learn under CMAS/BSAC instruction but due to family issues had to stop just uncompleted (had done all my dives, one lesson and exams short). Came back to diving 20 years later and was stunned at how basic the PADI course was in comparison. I was buddied with a kid and spent most of my dives making sure he controlled his buoyancy and didn’t get an embolism. Later I was chilling with the instructors at the resort and they had assumed I was an instructor. Lesson: PADI licence is NOT enough. Please get your Advanced cert, whether with PADI, SDI or whoever. Too many people get themselves into dangerous situations without knowing they are in them. Live to dive, dive and live.

[@jesspeoples3292]

I got my Advanced Open Water and Nitrox certification in 2019. Since then, I have logged 166 dives and have been on eight different dive trips, including four international dive trips.

[@OceanPancake]

That's amazing! What's been your favourite trip?

[@jesspeoples3292]

@@OceanPancake Cuba. Garden of the Queen. March 2024. Have you been to Cuba?

[@chrisphilhower6029]

I Paid for mine in the beginning of May. It was supposed to happen over Memorial Day weekend. I'm still waiting for a date. I should've driven the 1 Hour and used another shop.

[@OceanPancake]

Get your discount with "oceanpancake" on reefrebellion.com for ocean wear that protects our reef 🪸🩵 The advanced open water course is a must : To continue your education Improve your skills (your life depends on it) Allows you to dive to 30m! 🎉 Best way to see a local dive area 🤿 🐟

[@benheckendorn2696]

Hey Katt, you're so right but honestly wrong too. It really depence on the dive center, so sadly just offer courses to make money, but the most try their best, when I did my perfect buoyancy, my instructor took so much time, he also teached me to circle, to propeller so I learnd to ascend and descent horizontal. Katt, you love to dive, you love to teach, so to spend a course with you would be never a wast of money, but as long as we got some who just do it, because of money... What I recommend would be, just book a regular dive at the dive center, I know it's not a course, but if you feel, they take their time to answer your question, then I guess it's the right one to do a course, but if you feel you were just a number and even if you were three divers, they don't take time for you, then it's the wrong one. Katt teaches for more then twelve years, I'm sure she has more tricks or ideas, to find the right dive center. Katt, if you like it would be great, if you could do a video: how to choose the right dive center, you got so many experiance, I'm sure you know some tricks. 👍👌🫶

[@OceanPancake]

I didn't mean to sound that all dive centers teach like this. There are many with fantastic instructors who produce high quality divers. Unfortunately there are still too many that certify people to hit those numbers and financial goals (a lot of the times on holiday destination dive shops) where we get 'certified' divers then come do a dive with us and they almost kill themselves because they were definitely not ready to be diving by themselves. Thats a great idea for a video!! I will certainly create that one soon

[@jonnieinbangkok]

OW and AOW should really be one course.

[@edwardwagner588]

Good video. I would add that ALL divers should take rescue, emergency oxygen provider, separate class on Peak Performance Buoyancy, EFR - Primary Care (CPR) & Sec Care (1st) w/ AED. Good buoyancy takes time, especially if diving in cold and then warm, boat, shore, etc.. I’m Avelo certified, and in my opinion that type of system is the way of the future for buoyancy (and diving).

[@FastEddie-808]

I have only took my owc and will be going to do the advanced this coming month I hope I made the right choice lol

[@johngalati9671]

@oceanpancake hello I listened and watched your video and I can certainly understand your point of view on this subject and I can respect it. I can definitely see your point of view that I didn't see before but with that said I respectfully disagree that you need this as a way to improve. I say this for a few reasons and the first reason is it's a certification in my opinion that really is kind of a money-making outfit. I say that because this course is designed for you to take five specialty Dives you mentioned Peak Performance buoyancy well that is one that you can take however it's one you don't have to take. I can definitely see the benefits of taking it but again I also have to disagree that this one is necessary because if you practice enough you will get better just by trial and error. Now if you're somebody that goes every once in a while then yes maybe it would be in your best interest to take this course. The other reason I say this Advanced certification is pointless is because when I signed up for it I really only did it because you have to have it in order to take deep diving. And I already had several specialty certifications before I even took this course so I feel like essentially I paid for the card. I know that you also need it if you do want to go for other things like rescue diver and if you want to be an instructor and all that and that's fine I understand. But to me this certification in particular isn't really much of a certification if you think about it because you're taking five specialty Dives and making a certification card out of it. Now I can't remember 100% but I do believe that underwater navigation and one Deep dive were required for this course and the Deep dive couldn't go to the official deep dive certification and I can understand why. But for someone like me I already had a couple of specialty certifications already and those count towards your Advanced open water so basically I feel like you're just paying for the card. I'm not saying that you're wrong I'm not saying that you're giving disinformation or anything like that. I'm just saying that from my perspective it really didn't serve much purpose. I have night diver side mount diver boat driver and I even have a specialty that my one shop made called yoga diver which officially counted towards this thing. As I mentioned I only took it because I wanted to do deep diver and this was the requirement. Now if you're somebody who's just regular open water and you want to learn a few specialty things I can see the benefit maybe. If you want to do a night dive as one of your specialties and then you want to eventually become night diver certified I can see that. Or maybe you want to do a wreck dive as one of your choices and then you want to get wrecked diver certified. I'm just saying this card isn't really for everybody in this regard somebody like myself didn't really benefit from it. It was just a requirement if I wanted to do more and if anybody else wants to do more for that matter. So in a way I do think it is a big waste of money but I guess it's only for somebody like myself others it might be beneficial so I see your point of view and I wanted to comment. I enjoy your videos and your advice and I look forward to more content from you.

[@AT26-tp6xb]

I’ve just finished my OWC and although I’ve learned a lot, it is still not up to what I would be comfortable at. Would you recommend going straight to AOW or get more dives logged in and start practicing on my own? By the way I would invite you all to explore diving in the Red Sea in Yanbu, it’s truly outstanding experience.

[@ivoryjohnson4662]

Kat , I can't agree more ... I think the advanced should be spread out more took me a couple of years to get it. Glad I waited so I could absorbed what I learned. Rescue is another class that is so important as well

[@OceanPancake]

Rescue is the most important course in my opinion! How long did you wait between all your courses?

[@ivoryjohnson4662]

@@OceanPancake took me about 2 1/2 years for advanced about 5 years to get to rescue. Don't have the time freedom or money to get them back to back I am a blue collar worker and it takes me 5 hours to get to a dive site by the time you add travel hotel and dive expenses adds up fast

[@ABCDiver]

AOW is definitely a must for everyone, but the requirements should be way higher. I cannot imagine calling anyone "advanced" at anything after 9 repetitions. I may be a slow learner, but I didn't get my trim sorted out until at least dive 15-20, kept diving like a seahorse.

[@OceanPancake]

Everyone learns at a different pace, which is why it's difficult as an instructor sometimes to balance padi standards, your own expectations and your dive shop wanting certifications.

[@williammccarthy8533]

I definitely agree. I personally believe it should be one longer course and not broken up into two, OW and AOW

[@OceanPancake]

I think that would just be difficult with time and money constraints. People don't see scuba diving as "dangerous" and therefore worth the big training effort. Have you done both courses?

[@williammccarthy8533]

@@OceanPancake I definitely agree with that. I think the money is the biggest issue. I do feel like scuba classes should be longer than they are but unfortunately, like you said, that does have its own issues. I did my OW and AOW about a year apart a few years ago and now I’m working on my cave training. Doing the technical stuff really brought to my attention what (for me) was the biggest deficit in my training which was proper propulsion and buoyancy control. It’s really not hard to learn the 3 kicks (frog kick, back kick, and helicopter turn) but it’s just not something usually taught

[@carlmeade1667]

I think an alternative for that OW only enables you to dive with a DM or instructor. In many parts of the world everyone has to dive with a DM anyway. After you get some experience a short "autonomous diver" course consisting of something like the PPB and Navigation adventure dives and some skill tests could set you up to dive without a professional

[@williammccarthy8533]

@@carlmeade1667 I actually really like that idea. I think that could work pretty well. I still personally would prefer to do one longer course all at once but for people who can’t or just want to vacation dive once a year, that would be a great option

[@mc-zy7ju]

My advanced was alright, only problem was the implication that it was three cert courses rolled in one.

[@OceanPancake]

Which courses? How many dives did you do?

[@carlmeade1667]

I have a couple of concerns that this video brings out. "Students not quite nailing it down like you would have" implies that some instructors will give a pass on OW when they did not meet your standards. I do not know what the PADI standards are exactly but when I passed my OW it would not have been safe for me to dive buddied with another newly qualified OW diver, especially in UK waters (where I qualified) although my certificate said I was. Was this because the PADI standards are too low or I was incorrectly given a pass? Fortunaltely I joined a club where I could dive with a DM or instructor until it was safe to dive with less experienced divers. Another concern is AOW is often pushed onto students who are not ready for it. Diving to 30m is no joke and people need more than 9 dives to get comfortable enough with being underwater for it to be safe. Getting decent bouyancy control does take time you should be doing that before not at the same time as getting qualified to 30m, whether you do that as the PPB specialism or though practising diving, possibly with an experianced diver / instructor to give you tips and ideally stop you if you start to ascend / descend in an uncontrolled manner.

[@OceanPancake]

So much of diving is left to the discretion of the instructor. That's why the PADI instructor course and instructor exam are encompassing and difficult. In my experience, my dive shops and instructors held me to very high standards and always backed me up if I didn't feel comfortable passing students. However I know this is not the case everywhere. It's a scary thought but I have heard of dive centers pressuring instructors to pass students, the PADI standards being used as guidelines rather than rules and straight up breaking of standards. That's why I am a big believer of providing a lot of free information here on KZbin to try and empower divers and instructors to be the best possible divers they can be. I have met some open water students who I personally would not have passed, but by teaching their advanced course I was able to get them to a place where they were confident and safe enough to dive without a dive master. Padis standards are clear and need to be followed, and if a student does meet them they should be capable enough to do divers with other certified divers. Unfortunately in many areas of the world, people don't quite respect and grasp that diving can be dangerous if not done correctly and not enough time is spent to ensure that students understand the rules and WHY it's so important to follow them (as well as clear and specific consequences). I am glad you were able to dive safely after your open water course. I really can't tell you if your experience was or if you were a safe diver in practice (or merely just not confident enough yet) but I think it's vital for us to discuss this so we can avoid dive accidents :)

[@carlmeade1667]

@@OceanPancake Thanks for the reply, The instructors at my club did not think it safe for me be buddy with an inexperienced diver either but a lot will also depend where you dive. Diving in the UK in 10 degree water and 5m vis on a good day is very different to diving in the tropics with 30m viz and no current. Also here DSMB deployment is absolutely essential on any boat dive and things like that are not taught in OW.

[@SebastienT-W]

Hello Im 14 years old and about to do my advanced is their any other major things I should know besides what I learnt in my open water that you could tell me or help me get though the test.

[@arthur1670]

Maybe what i still need to practice doing, stay close to the ground, but not touching and keeping good trim,

[@SebastienT-W]

@@arthur1670 ok thanks I will keep it in mind

[@OceanPancake]

Great work!! I would definitely recommend carefully reading the book and choose specialties (if you can) that interest you. Fish ID? Photography? Wreck? If you care about your diving, you will be a better diver!

[@RB-ie9wf]

Completely agree! There’s nothing “advanced” about the Advanced Course. Everyone should take it. Your chance of surviving an emergency drastically goes up the more experience and training you have. It’s foolish to spend thousands on dive trips but not a few hundred to acquire some pretty basic skills and experience that might save your life.

[@OceanPancake]

People don't understand how "dangerous" diving really is. If you do the courses you learn how to avoid simple mistakes that can be fatal. That's the key part of the education, but people consider it like riding a bike or something. When did you do you courses?

[@RB-ie9wf]

@@OceanPancake , I did my advanced course in 1993 but my wife and son just completed their course a couple of weeks ago. My son is SO much more comfortable in the water now and that alone makes the dives more enjoyable. I get that cost is an issue in doing these courses but it only has to save your life once to be worth it and even if you don’t have an emergency being less anxious in the water because you know that you are well trained makes every dive more enjoyable.

[@AtraxJoe]

Just 5 dives to get the aow at Padi....... Surprised as always 🤦.

[@OceanPancake]

Yes, after the four open water dives. As I said the advanced course is an opportunity to gain more experience in crucial skills for divers.

[@AtraxJoe]

@@OceanPancake yes, I see it that way too, but only five dives are very few for the aowd. I have to say that we do diving courses in cold lakes and our aowd consists of eleven dives in total, but you should still gain a lot of experience in a controlled environment afterwards anyway.

[@arthur1670]

Open water was useless, basically only good enough to become something slightly more than a snorkel. Very pleased i did one after another. Now at 25 dives I'm doing rescue diver. Hopefully won't be such a liability Underwater afterwards

[@OceanPancake]

thats great that you continued your education!

[@austingode]

I think AOW is such a pretentious title ……. Maybe after 20 dives at least? Better 40 dives

[@MAGAisacult]

After AOW, I strongly recommend a Cavern Course for all divers. You will perfect buoyancy skills, learn how to stow gear without "dangles," learn how to run a line (great for wreck penetration also, and how to respect a basic overhead environment and recognize when a "cavern" becomes a cave.

[@OceanPancake]

That's a great piece of advice! I've never had the opportunity to do a full cavern course as most places I've lived have not had caverns. Where did you do your course?

[@MAGAisacult]

@@OceanPancake Florida is a hotbed for cave diving, also Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. However has become popular in Europe also. I believe you could find the training in Australia, there is a lot of cave diving there. I remember seeing a documentary on an expedition on Nullabar Plains? It's a PADI course so has to be someone that does it. Btw...the difference between a cavern and cave is, a cavern is an overhead environment where you can still see light from the entrance, therefore, no cavern diving at night, even can be affected by heavy cloud cover. A cavern becomes a cave the moment you can not see light from the entrance.

[@genghisgalahad8465]

0:52, so it's... Dirty Diving? 💃 🕺 🥽 🫧