Browsing Tag Advanced Open Water
How is the GUE Fundamentals course different from the PADI Advanced course?
The difference between the Fundamentals course and the Advanced course is really about the curriculum and comprehensiveness of the courses.
The Advanced course offers the new diver a chance to experience 5 other types of diving environments and covers those in a relatively quick format.
The Fundamentals course instead focuses on an individual and team’s dive skills, in order to manage these new environments effectively.
Diving and Driving, an analogy that keeps on going
The Open Water course is like the basic driving course that everybody does in order to get a driving license. It covers basic techniques, such as accelerating smoothly (propulsion kicks), parking (hovering), braking (ascending smoothly to the surface) and signaling (communication).
The Advanced course would be like getting experience driving on real roads, in real conditions. For example, driving at night (night dives), at high speed on expressways (drift dives), tight car parking spaces (peak performance buoyancy), and trying to navigate while driving in another country (navigation dives).
The Fundamentals course would be more like a defensive driving course, where you’d learn how to minimize your risk (awareness and teamwork), perform pre-trip inspections (gas management, dive planning, decompression management), and handling skids, accidents, and hazards (emergency drills).
Investing in yourself is never a bad decision
While the Fundamentals course and the PADI OW and AOW are different in terms of how they approach diver training, both are absolutely necessary for any serious diver’s training log.
Only after the basics are learned, can a higher level of skill be developed.
Personally, I would always recommend investing in yourself by taking the Fundamentals course, as it takes a more detailed and focused instruction in order to attain a higher level of skill.
I do believe that both types of courses serve their purpose well, but if you truly want to be a serious diver, then the Fundamentals course is the best place to get started.
Is the Advanced Open Water course just about going deeper?
Most new divers will be excited to do and learn more once they’ve gotten their Open Water certification. From here, there are two easy next steps: Book another dive trip and/or take the Advanced Open Water (AOW) course.
(Note: A number of diver training agencies offer an advanced open water course. As can be expected, the syllabuses and prerequisites vary. Wikipedia offers a good overview here. One of the most widely known AOW courses is offered by PADI.)
On the face of it, the AOW course seems to be just about going deeper, past the 18m limit that the OW certification imposes on new divers. And unfortunately, this is how some instructors conduct the Advanced course—where it’s more like a leisure diving weekend than a course—and why some divers complain afterwards that they didn’t learn anything.
While the Open Water course focuses on the basics of diving safely, it doesn’t offer the time or scope to do much else. It makes sense then that the Advanced course should give divers the opportunity to hone their skills—and get more comfortable underwater.
The Advanced Open Water course is also an excellent gateway to inspire imagination and fire up the urge to explore in new divers. Be it deep dives, wrecks, caverns, dives in strong current, open ocean pinnacle dives, photography or videography, the possibilities are endless!
We at Living Seas believe that in order to call oneself an “Advanced” diver, you should have control over your position in the water, so we introduce manoeuvring techniques such as the various frog and flutter kicks, the backward kick and the helicopter turn. After all, if you plan to do more challenging dives, you’d definitely want to have more control in the water!
Besides teaching new skills, the advanced course should involve experiencing different types of dives, such as Navigation, Deep Dives (20m to 30m), Drift Dives, Boat Dives, Night Dives, and more. Exposing new divers to a diversity of dives—under supervision of course—helps to broaden their perspectives of what diving is and can be.
Hopefully, something sparks an intense desire within them to continue diving and exploring. I’ve always believed that if someone is interested and passionate about diving, they can’t not want to care and conserve it for future generations.
Whether you’re teaching or learning the AOW, seize the opportunity to inspire—or be inspired! The AOW is not just about going deeper; it’s an opportunity to broaden one’s horizons, and see what more diving can offer. It’s a really wide world of oceans, after all.