Advanced Open Water Diver
Encyclopedia
Advanced Open Water Diver (AOWD) is a scuba diving
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

 certification level provided by several diver training agencies, such as Professional Association of Diving Instructors
Professional Association of Diving Instructors
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors is the world's largest recreational diving membership and diver training organization founded in 1966 by John Cronin and Ralph Erickson...

 (PADI), Scuba Schools International
Scuba Schools International
Scuba Schools International or SSI is an organization that teaches the skills involved in scuba diving and supports Dive Businesses and Dive Resorts.SSI has well over 2,500 authorized dealers and 35 Regional Centers and Area Offices all over the World....

 (SSI) and Underwater Explorers' Federation. The equivalent course offered by National Association of Underwater Instructors
National Association of Underwater Instructors
The National Association of Underwater Instructors is a non-profit 501 association of SCUBA instructors. It was officially CE and ISO certified in May 2007 in all three diver levels and both instructor levels.-History:...

 (NAUI) is the Advanced Scuba Diver (which had previously been called OW-II for "Open Water II"). The certification level is roughly equivalent to the CMAS * Diver qualification and the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) Sport Diver qualification, although some differences occur. For example, BSAC Sports Divers are trained in basic decompression diving, something that is strictly forbidden by U.S. based diving certification agencies for Recreational diving
Recreational diving
Recreational diving or sport diving is a type of diving that uses SCUBA equipment for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment. In some diving circles, the term "recreational diving" is used in contradistinction to "technical diving", a more demanding aspect of the sport which requires greater levels...

.

The SSI
Scuba Schools International
Scuba Schools International or SSI is an organization that teaches the skills involved in scuba diving and supports Dive Businesses and Dive Resorts.SSI has well over 2,500 authorized dealers and 35 Regional Centers and Area Offices all over the World....

 Advanced Open Water program is different from most other organizations, as they require not only training but they also require diving experience. To be certified as a SSI AOWD one needs to have completed four specialty courses and minimum of 24 logged dives. In the absence of a logged dives requirement, it is possible to become certified as AOW with some other agencies while having less than 10 lifetime dives.

Scuba Diving International (SDI) offers an Advanced Adventure Diver course similar to the Advanced Open Water Diver Course offered by the Agencies noted herein.

Background

The AOWD is the second level qualification in the American international system, following the Open Water Diver
Open Water Diver
Open Water Diver is an entry-level full diver certification for scuba diving. Although different agencies use different names, similar entry-level courses are offered by all diving agencies and consist of a combination of knowledge development , confined water dives and open water dives...

 qualification (OWD). At the OWD level divers gain basic knowledge of skills, equipment and theory to safely explore the underwater realm to a depth of about 18 metres (59.1 ft). The AOWD focuses on refining these skills, allowing the diver to explore a broader variety of diving to a maximum of 30 metres (98.4 ft) deep. Prior to entering an AOWD course, some organizations have logged dives prerequisites. The course usually contains some mandatory dives and knowledge whilst a certain portion of the course consists of free elective topics such as drift diving or search and recovery.

The European International dive education system CMAS recognises only three main levels of dive education indicated by a one star, two star, or three star system. One star indicates an ability to dive, two star indicates additional skill of rescuing divers, and three star indicates the additional skill in leading a group of divers.

Topics

The course usually covers most of the following topics:
  • Deep diving
    Deep diving
    The meaning of the term deep diving is a form of technical diving. It is defined by the level of the diver's diver training, diving equipment, breathing gas, and surface support:...

     – usually at a maximum depth of 30 metres (98.4 ft)
  • Drift diving
    Drift diving
    Drift diving is a type of recreational diving where the diver is transported by the currents caused by the tide or in a river.The current gives the diver the impression of flying and allows the diver to cover long distances underwater, possibly seeing more habitats and formations than usual...

  • Search and recovery
    Underwater search and recovery
    Underwater search and recovery is the process of locating and recovering underwater objects by divers. Although most underwater search and recovery is done by commercial divers as part of professional marine salvage operations, search and recovery diving is also frequently undertaken as part of...

     – search and recovery of objects
  • Underwater navigation
    Underwater navigation
    Underwater navigation is the common reference term for navigation techniques learned by Scuba divers in order to accurately navigate in an underwater environment....

  • Enriched air diving
  • Multilevel diving
  • Altitude diving
    Altitude diving
    Altitude diving is scuba diving where the surface is 300 meters or more above sea level . The U.S. Navy tables recommend that no alteration be made for dives at altitudes lower than 91 meters and dives between 91 meters and 300 meters correction is required for dives over 44 meters sea water...

  • Marine Biology
    Marine biology
    Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...

  • Night diving
    Night diving
    Night diving is a type of recreational diving which takes place in darkness. The diver can experience a different underwater environment at night, because many marine animals are nocturnal....

  • Buoyancy
    Buoyancy
    In physics, buoyancy is a force exerted by a fluid that opposes an object's weight. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus a column of fluid, or an object submerged in the fluid, experiences greater pressure at the bottom of the...

     Control


In many training agencies, these dives represent introductory knowledge and skills that may be further refined in a specialty course.

In the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course, the student must do two mandatory training dives relating to deep diving and underwater navigation, and then must do three further dives from a list of approximately 18 possible specialities. Until 2006, night diving was also mandatory, but this is no longer the case. It was dropped at the request of the Scandinavian countries, for whom there is almost no night during the summer months when most of the diving is done, as it created an unreasonable restriction on certifying advanced divers (which is a pre-requisite to further training). Most other countries still recommend the night diver course.

Issues

The name of this specific training level has been a topic of controversy within the diving community for many years. The crux of this debate is in the interpretation of the word 'Advanced' in its title, and what is the proper application or use of this adjective.

One school of thought on the matter defends the use of the word Advanced, explaining that it is describing the training accurately as being more comprehensive (i.e. more advanced) than the basic entry level training.

The opposing school of thought is that the use of the word 'Advanced' is essentially deceptive marketing, as graduates of the class very commonly then refer to themselves as "Advanced Divers". However, the training standards are not sufficient to raise a recreational diver (particularly the novice diver to whom the class is frequently marketed) to traditional expectations of holistic dive mastery, including the military definition. This is relevant because in the USA, civilian dive training and standards essentially originated from the US Navy, and the diving community continues to equate 'advanced' with 'expert'. As such, while it is agreed that the training is indeed more than basic, it is insufficient to create an Advanced (i.e. Expert) Diver. Specifically with regard to the PADI 'Advanced' certification standard, a 2006 coroner's court in the United Kingdom heard expert evidence to the effect that "I do not believe that someone with eight dives should be classified as an advanced diver. It is madness."

Another factor that relates to this controversy is NAUI's name changes from "Open Water II" to "Advanced Scuba Diver." This change was reportedly intended to address customer confusion as to the comparative rigors of training required to earn specific certifications. However, it initially caused some confusion within the diving community.
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