course selection for advanced scuba diving just thinking of some need opinions?

i want to do my advanced scuba diving course i already have my open water i know i get to pick 3 electives but if you can explain more to me that would be great. the electives im thinking of is night diver, fish identification aware, drift diver, wreck diver, and diver propulsion vehicle if you have any others you have done u can suggets or which of the 3 let me know thanks

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3 Responses to “course selection for advanced scuba diving just thinking of some need opinions?”

  1. tjs282 says:
    August 29, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    The idea of the AOWD course is to do dives that you’re interested in–actually to entice people into doing the full Specialty course.

    So if you’re interested in all of those dives, then pick any three for your AOWD, it doesn’t matter which–provided the dive centre where you do them can offer them (not all centres have DPVs, for example). There’s no reason why you shouldn’t do the other two as ‘stand-alone’ dives, or as part of the relevant Specialty (e.g. if you want to go for your Master Scuba Diver rating).

    Night diver’s good because you get to see a whole different side to your divesite–also gives you practice at low-vis diving, if all your dives up to now have been in clear sunlit water.

    Fish ID is useful if e.g. you have inclinations towards marine biology as a career, or if you just want to know what you saw on a dive, without having to ask someone else every time.

    Drift diver’s useful if you’re expecting to do a lot of boat diving.

    Wreck diver will give you a basic introduction to wreck hazards and techniques (although it has to be said that you would probably be better off going in the tekkie direction for this kind of training).

    Driving a DPV is just plain old FUN! :-)

    Personally, of the five you mention, I think I’d pick Night, DPV, and Wreck. But that’s just me. If I was your instructor, I’d then schedule the course as DPV, Navigation, Night on Day 1, Deep and Wreck on Day 2 (assuming you were doing a weekend course).

  2. realramona says:
    August 29, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    That’s great you’re thinking of doing your advanced class. It’s a great way to find out what kind of specialty diving you’re interested in. Not to mention, when you travel they often won’t let you dive certain sites if you’re not advanced certified.

    Have you spoken with your instructor to determine which elective dives are available? For example, not every area has drift diving conditions.

    To narrow it down further, consider the specialty dives where you’d think, “yeah, I’d really like to have an instructor there to give me some tips.” Is your fish population diverse enough that you want to know more about the different creatures and the local eco system? Or is it a lake with only 3-4 fish.

    I think night diving is a good choice for advanced, PADI used to require this as part of the advanced course and I think it makes sense. There are a lot of things you don’t want to find out the hard way when night diving. Don’t get me wrong, it’s SUPER fun. There’s just some little things like: use two different colored glo-sticks so you and your buddy cam tell each other apart from everyone else. Once you’re underwater, everyone looks alike and EVERYONE has a green glo stick!

    In case it helps, I usually have my students do peak performance buoyancy, night and fish ID. For us, Wreck diving is a bit of a drive so I’ll sometimes bundle that class in with Advanced. That said, to truly “get” everything you need to know, the complete wreck specialty makes more sense. There’s a lot to know.

    I know you’ll have a great time no matter what you choose. If you can’t decide, ask your instructor about adding on some extra dives! You can do up to three training dives in a day, so, it wouldn’t be a problem to do a sixth dive (even though it’s not required).

  3. D-man says:
    August 29, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    the deep dive up to 100 feet is really fun, colder down their but definatley and experiance, i did this in pourto viarta
    also the search and recovery is interesting, you get to send found artifacts up to the surface in a basket attached to an inflatable bag

    i wish i would have done the night dive, it seems interesting
    good luck

    http://www.padi.com is the website

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