AOWD course – Advanced Open Water Diver, also known as Advanced
The dives we dream of are not just dives on the hotel’s reef. We may want to see a deeper rock or the base of a reef where large fish are more likely to congregate, we may want to learn about underwater night life, plan wreck dives, and, of course, we would like to learn how to take underwater photos. We can also plan downstream dives where we are carried along the reef or the bottom. A dive boat or high-speed dinghy “dumped” us in one place and then waits for us carried by the current a kilometer away, for example.
If you are thinking about such dives and more demanding expeditions, Deepspot, which is an ideal tank that simulates open water conditions, provides training opportunities that fit well with various dive training courses. One course whose dives are very well implemented in these conditions is the AOWD (Advanced Open Water Diver) course.
The AOWD course is a variety of dives. This training allows you to master various useful diving skills and learn how to use new equipment underwater. We learn the basics of navigation and how our body reacts to deeper immersions. After the course, our maximum authority increases from 18 meters to 30 meters deep. The OWD course opened the door to diving for us and the AOWD allows us to walk through that door. J
Often organizers of boat dives, expeditions or dive safaris (liveaboard) may require a minimum of an AOWD degree.
What dives does the AOWD course cover?
Of the five dives of the AOWD course, two are mandatory – deep and navigational, plus three free dives from a pool of a dozen dives.
These three free dives can be performed and fully scored in Deepspot. The two mandatory dives can also be done in Deepspot and the necessary skills can be learned under these conditions, but to pass the full AOWD course the deep dive and navigation dive must be repeated while diving in a lake or sea.
When it comes to free diving, it is a good idea to choose three from the list given below. These will be dives that, under the conditions of a tank simulating open water conditions, will allow us to master the necessary skills at a very high level. There are a lot of elements in Deepspot that allow a variety of training. Platforms at different depths, objects that need to be circumnavigated sideways or bottom, lowering ropes. At the bottom is the wreck of a yacht.
The ideal Deepspot dives from the AOWD course are:
- Shooting buoys
- Underwater photography
- Night
- Scooters
- Dry suits
- Nitrox
- Sidemount
- Excellent buoyancy
- Full face mask
Which AOWD course dives to choose in conditions that simulate open water?
Personally, I would recommend the following three dives because of what skills each diver needs:
- Excellent Buoyancy
- Shooting buoys
- Dry suit
Excellent buoyancy is a dive during which we can clearly improve our mastery of balancing and trim techniques. Body position, the use of breathing to control buoyancy, and swimming techniques will give us skills that will be useful later on our next dives.
Typical exercises with submerging and ascending along the descent rope or in the depths without the help of a rope. Proficiently master the change of buoyancy through breathing and adding and releasing air from the jacket when changing the balance. Adjust the body position to release excess air from the jacket whether with an inflators or an additional valve at the lower edge of the jacket useful when diving upside down. All of these skills that one begins to master in the basic course now can be mastered to the extent that they can be performed efficiently. After these dives, we will begin to feel even more at ease underwater.
Shooting a buoy is a basic skill for an independent diver. In many areas of the world, due to floating boats or surfboards/canoes, do not ascend freely without first firing a diving buoy. After a dive teaching buoy shooting, we know what kind of buoy to buy for ourselves depending on our planned dives. How to shoot buoys using an octopus or exhaled air. Deepspot’s conditions make it possible to practice shooting buoys from different depths multiple times. What specifically we will learn about buoys and their shooting techniques depends on the program prepared by our instructor but it will probably include some of the examples given here:
Open buoy with permanently attached bobbin
The simplest and taking up the least space. You can have it attached with rubber bands to the jacket while diving, or tucked into its pocket. After pulling out and unlatching the bobbin so that it can unroll freely, we blow it with either exhaled air from the machine or an octopus.
Closed buoy with a valve that fits the inflator hose
It requires unhooking the inflator hose or dry suit for a while, but for that it usually manages to inflate heavily, which is useful when shooting from shallow depths.
Closed buoy with duck bill
It combines the advantages of blowing with exhaled air from a vending machine with protection against escaping air after inflating. It is, unfortunately, a little more expensive to purchase.
Dry suit is a training course in which we learn the basics of swimming and balancing in a dry suit. It will be like finding when we decide to dive in a drydock and want to do a full course. During the training we learn how to size a wetsuit and then how to wear it. The suit has an addition and release valve somewhat similar to the jacket but slightly differently constructed and operated. The valves allow air to be freely added to the dry suit during immersion and to be released during ascent.
Organization and costs of AOWD training
The organization of such a course will include online training in theoretical knowledge. A minimum of three dives in Deepspot plus for full AOWD two dives during a trip to the sea or lake. These two dives can also be done during a trip to warm waters at any dive base. If you choose a course done mostly in Deepspot, it’s worth checking out the special rules for instructors that allow them to conduct 3 training dives in one day. This will be convenient for both the instructor and the trainees. See you underwater.
