I figured the Travel board gets more scuba divers than the Outdoor board.

I got my Open Water Diver certification in 2010 but didn't dive much after that. Lately in the last couple of years I've been taking at least 2 dive trips per year. I'm at about 50 total dives now. I only do recreational diving when on vacation. I've been asked why I'm still only Open Water certified when I should be Advanced Open Water certified.

I've never been on a dive where I didn't feel that I have the skills. I've gone 100+ feet down, wreck dives, cave dives, drift dives, etc. I'm not sure if Advanced Open Water would teach me any more but simply give me an advanced certification card which would allow future dive instructors to put me on better dives. The Advanced Open Water certification in my area runs around $500.

Thoughts?

Not sure if you are certified for nitrox or not. Some of the more intense dive trips in the Galapagos Islands use nitrox to maximize the number of dives as the cost and effort to get there is so high. Same on some of the dive boats out of Cairns Australia. I would get that first if you don't already have it.

New diver here with about the same number of dives. I agree that Nitrox is your best next step.

As far as AOWD, I don't think it's necessary if you are just recreational diving with competent dive masters. I do plan on doing some diving off Niihau the next time I'm on Kauai so I will be getting mine, as it's required. If I didn't plan that, I'd probably get it anyways for the knowledge base. I believe navigation and night diving are covered (SSI) and I night dive often, while my navigation skills are seriously lacking. Combine the night dive and ****ty compass skills and you could end up in a Bonaire boat harbor while night diving from shore without a guide. Ask me how I know

I would recommend Nitrox over AOW since it is more useful especially if you are only diving with Dive Masters. If you want more freedom getting AOW may open up more options but that depends on the operator.

The value in AOW is the experience by doing different types of dives especially when you have limited diving experience. Once you have enough dives an operator mentioning AOW is trying to get you to pay for the course.

I agree with what Austin Scuba Ag said. I am a PADI and NAUI "retired" DM and my wife only has OW and Nitrox. We always dive Nitrox when we can. She has never been denied a dive or an experience because she isn't AOW.

In reality, because she is a NAUI OW diver, all a NAUI instructor has to do is look at her log book, and declare her a AOW. PADI would require that you be "sold" an AOW course.

My guess is that you are an AOW diver now by experience. That's really what matters. Get your Nitrox cert on your next trip and keep having fun and doing what you are doing.

Current PADI Divemaster and Master Diver/Deep Water Diver here who also teachers classes (Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue, Specialties, etc). The main certification difference between Open Water and Advanced Open Water is that Open Water is only certified to 60' while Advanced certifies you to 100'. The non-certificate difference is just that continued training makes you a better diver. We really fine tune your buoyancy, work on how to move properly through the water so you are streamlined, don't blow through air, and are just in general a better diver from an etiquette standpoint.

Now, we all know there is no such thing as underwater scuba police, so if you are only Open Water and have been past 60', that's on you. However, I would raise an eyebrow to dive operations that are turning a blind eye or encouraging you to go past 60' with only an Open Water. That's usually an indicator of the quality of the dive operation. There is a BIG difference between 60' and 100' if you end up in an emergency situation, and that's the primary thing we focus and train for in Advanced is how to safely get yourself out of trouble at 100'...it's very different than 50-60'. If you are doing dives at 100', you are also either typically in a wreck dive (again, how to manage your air and Nitrogen load at that depth so you don't end up having to do deco stops at the end of your dive) or a wall dive. Wall dives at ~100' are typically also going to start having more unpredictable currents and we work on how to watch/manage that so a down-current doesn't catch you by surprise and you blink to realize you've been pushed down to 120-130'. It came happen fast.

I always say though...dive your capabilities and not your cert. I've seen lots of card carrying divers whose training isn't anywhere near their cert level and I've seen excellent divers with just OW. But some additional training never hurt anyone.

EDIT to add that I do highly encourage a Nitrox cert if you are going to be doing any 3 dive days in 60-100'. At 40-60', you won't see enough of a nitrogen load to realize big benefits from Nitrox. The main difference is that your recovery times between repeated dives will be shorter and you can have a little bit longer dives in that 60-100' range (think a bigger wreck dive that's going to be followed up by 1-2 other dives). BUT, it is VERY important to know and understand your Nitrox mixes because that's something you'll typically get asked what you want. Different mixes have different max depths and you also need to know your dive computer well enough to program it to match your mix. Doing a 100' dive with a mix that's only safe for 80' is a bad, bad idea.

I am certified up through Rescue Diver and Nitrox via PADI, and it honestly depends on the instructor and the program as to what you get out of it. IIRC, AOW did not have class time and was just two days of OW training dives (or at least it was in 1995). It was useful as a newer diver, but I would not pay $500 for that training if you have over 50 dives already.

For me, Rescue Diver was a much better and more impactful course for me in making me a better diver. But I also got excellent OW training taking it as a PE at A&M because they had a whole semester of book and pool time to really teach and practice alot of skills.
You might want to look at finding a private instructor instead of a dive shop to see if they will give you a better rate on the AOW. The one thing I know some dive ops will do is place divers on boats with others at a similar level when possible. So not having anything beyond OW may consign you to the "beginner boat" when you dive with multi-boat operators.

I have traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and crewed on two dive boats in Texas, and I have never, ever, heard of a dive operation segregating divers by card level.

Also, while I no longer keep up with PADI standards, it is preposterous to think that an OWD is only going to go to 60 feet, or an AOW diver only to 90. Your C-card certifies you to 130 feet - the recreational limit. If PADI has changed this, then shame on them, because it is more reflective of their training program than you as a diver. If you learn to dive on Nitrox, 32% is what everyone has. The maximum operating depth of 32% Nitrox is 132 feet, although 110 is typically the conservative limit. As said earlier, Nitrox is not for extremely deep diving, However, if you use 32% Nitrox, you can dive it all day long at any recreational depth you choose.

OP, dive your level of comfort and experience and have fun! Get your Nitrox cert, and that's probably all you need. Experience is vastly more important that certification level in my book.

After hundreds of dives in the Gulf of Mexico, I found that the most dangerous customers were those that came to Port Aransas, or the Flower Gardens for their first saltwater dive, rather than going to Cozumel for that first saltwater experience. Dive professionals were absolutely the worst. They'd lead a group, act like they knew everything at the dock, then suddenly find themselves terminally seasick in the Gulf. Then I'd have to teach their customers basic things like, not to put their fins on and walk around the deck of the boat, or to keep their regulators in their mouths until they were safely back on board. Divemastering on a boat in the Gulf is very different than teaching at a lake. My gage of experience was always, "How many saltwater dives have you done?" And "How many of them have been in the Gulf of Mexico?" Those two questions told me all I needed to know about a diver. Not what level card you had.

Just my $.02

The Chicken Ranch said:

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I have traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and crewed on two dive boats in Texas, and I have never, ever, heard of a dive operation segregating divers by card level.

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I didn't mean that it happen only by card level. They will also look at how many dives you have done, when your last dive was, and how long it took you to reach that number of dives. I have seen it happen in Cozumel with some of the larger operators and in the Caymans. It is mostly a practical thing because people with less experience or training who are diving 10 dives per year are likely to be air hogs compared to people with more experience diving that are doing 60 dives per year. Nobody wants to pair a diver who is going to burn through a tank in 35-40 minutes with a boat full of divers planning to make the same tank last 70 minutes. The diver who surfaces after 40 minutes is going to hate sitting in the boat for half an hour waiting for the rest of the group to finish their dives, and the DM is going to feel pressure to cut the dive short for the rest of the group. As you know, Captains and DMs especially make a significant chunk of their living from the tips, and nobody wants to setup a situation where they know some of their divers are going to end up unhappy at the end of the day.

They also are not going to take a boat full of beginners with questionable buoyancy skills to a dive site with strong currents or a bunch of swimthroughs with deep exits on the wall. So while c-card level won't be the main thing they look at when decided which group to pair you with, it will be one consideration, and if there is one diver with OW and 50 dives and another with AOW and 50 dives and only one spot left in the more advanced group, guess who is getting that spot.

That's really more how it happens: experience level, not card level. And often the larger operators will rearrange who's on which boat after a day. Although, I have never seen anyone who rearranged a boat based on card level (OW vs AOW). It is typically based on the lowest skill level of a buddy group, or traveling partner. For instance, I never show my "Large Dive Boat Supervisor" card. I typically just give my Nitrox card and that's enough. After all, I'm on vacation! I would also argue that my wife is a much better diver than I am, based on her years of experiences and dive history versus my more extensive history and much higher certification level. She's just a damn good diver!

(Although, I typically stay away from large operators these days for a number of reasons.)

My wife basically doesn't breathe underwater, lol. As I've aged, I use more air. Basically because I swim around a lot, lol. And I always go deeper than she does. So, we just try to get in last on a dive group. Then she teases me about how she came up from a 45 min dive with half a tank, and I'm at 650.

The Chicken Ranch said:

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That's really more how it happens: experience level, not card level. And often the larger operators will rearrange who's on which boat after a day. Although, I have never seen anyone who rearranged a boat based on card level (OW vs AOW). It is typically based on the lowest skill level of a buddy group, or traveling partner. For instance, I never show my "Large Dive Boat Supervisor" card. I typically just give my Nitrox card and that's enough. After all, I'm on vacation! I would also argue that my wife is a much better diver than I am, based on her years of experiences and dive history versus my more extensive history and much higher certification level. She's just a damn good diver!

(Although, I typically stay away from large operators these days for a number of reasons.)

My wife basically doesn't breathe underwater, lol. As I've aged, I use more air. Basically because I swim around a lot, lol. And I always go deeper than she does. So, we just try to get in last on a dive group. Then she teases me about how she came up from a 45 min dive with half a tank, and I'm at 650.

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It all depends on the op and the boats they are using too. We dive in Little Cayman mostly, and Reef Divers would be considered a "large op" with 2-5 boats running each day (depending on the season) and up to 18 divers per boat (though 12-14 is more common). Most people would go "yuck, 18 divers?". But they are running 46' Newtons and the way they do their entry/exit and diving, it never feels crowded. Because they are all moored dives with mostly zero current, they allow you to go down and do your own dive, so there aren't 18 divers following the DMs around in a little pack. On their boats, they will segregate mostly by experience, and will add an extra DM to the boat if they have a larger number of newer divers.

Give your wife a camera to carry around. I am an air hog and my wife used to be the same way. Adding a camera rig to her load has made it so now she only comes up with 2-300 psi more than me instead of 6-800. It is mostly the extra breathing and swimming around to get the right angle on the shot she wants, but it also makes me slow down to hang around and wait while she is shooting something. It has made me better at spotting the little stuff too. While she is busy shooting pictures of something, I will just hover over a coral head and decide "I am going to stay here and keep looking until I find something to show her when she is done". Forcing yourself to stop and look does wonders for your macro spotting (getting a prescription dive mask helped too).

I dove Niihau last year and I'm pretty sure I had to upload my Advanced Open Water certification when I registered for the trip. Diving with the monk seals was pretty cool. They are way larger than what you probably imagine.

As far as the OP, I agree with everybody else. Get your Nitrox certification first. I got my Advanced Open Water in Thailand where there was only like a $100 difference between doing 6 dives or the course which included 6 dives.

kaleb_allison said:

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As far as the OP, I agree with everybody else. Get your Nitrox certification first. I got my Advanced Open Water in Thailand where there was only like a $100 difference between doing 6 dives or the course which included 6 dives.

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This is what I did in ****et in 2020. Headed back in 65 days for a few weeks!

We cant say p h u k e t?

Reef Divers does a fantastic job at all the Tibbet's resorts in Cayman! We've gotten used to small operators like Turneffe Flats or Turneffe Island Resort in Belize. We've also done Bohio on Grand Turk and had a blast. However, now that our kid is getting older, we've done a Kids Sea Camp in Bonaire, and will likely do more of these. It was a great experience for our little one, but Buddy Dive in Bonaire was definitely a cattle operation unless your shore dove. But, our kid had a blast and that's what it was about.

If any of y'all ever make it to Tobago, we really loved Blue Waters Inn in Speyside, Tobago!

This summer we are doing a grown-ups only trip to Carriacou in Grenada. We are diving with a small operator called Deefer Diving. I'll do a report when we return. Then we will likely do more Kids Sea Camp trips. Hopefully our next KSC will be at either Little Cayman or Cayman Brac!

The Chicken Ranch said:

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Reef Divers does a fantastic job at all the Tibbet's resorts in Cayman! We've gotten used to small operators like Turneffe Flats or Turneffe Island Resort in Belize. We've also done Bohio on Grand Turk and had a blast. However, now that our kid is getting older, we've done a Kids Sea Camp in Bonaire, and will likely do more of these. It was a great experience for our little one, but Buddy Dive in Bonaire was definitely a cattle operation unless your shore dove. But, our kid had a blast and that's what it was about.

If any of y'all ever make it to Tobago, we really loved Blue Waters Inn in Speyside, Tobago!

This summer we are doing a grown-ups only trip to Carriacou in Grenada. We are diving with a small operator called Deefer Diving. I'll do a report when we return. Then we will likely do more Kids Sea Camp trips. Hopefully our next KSC will be at either Little Cayman or Cayman Brac!

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Unfortunately, last I heard Bohio had closed indefinitely. Their website says closed for refurbishment, but I have read elsewhere that it is not clear when or whether it will reopen. I wish the Tibbetts family had bought a resort on Grand Turk instead of South Caicos. I really wanted to enjoy East Bay Resort, but the diving just wasn't anywhere close to Little Cayman or Cayman Brac in quality and the windward location made for really rough conditions most of the time. It is a really nice resort and I would willingly go there for a non-diving relaxation trip, but not again for diving.

I like the concept of Bonaire, but not the implementation if you will. I love the idea of the diving freedom afforded by the shore diving there. But when I am on vacation, I don't want to schlep my gear around and have to deal with rinsing it all the time, getting tanks refiled, etc. And my risk tolerance level won't let me go out and dive without being able to keep at least a bare minimum of first aid/safety gear available on shore in case it is needed. The country's blind eye to crime against tourists is really pretty tragic and has kept me away from trying it.

Bohio got whacked by another storm last summer. We were there in '21 and it was awesome. Hopefully the owners, Ginny and Tom, have the will to rebuild it a second time.

Edit: after some basic snooping around, Bohio is closed for good. It was a really good place, and I'm glad we got to visit it. Property is abandoned from what I found. Hope someone buys it and reopens it.