Choosing Your AOW Adventure Dives
In the PADI curriculum, the Advanced Open Water Course is the second of the core courses. During the course you will complete five dives with an Instructor. Each of these “Adventure Dives” are intended to be an introduction to five different types of specialized diving. Each of the specialties you will sample have a corresponding course that requires multiple dives. During your Advanced Open Water Course, you will be completing the first dive from the Navigation Specialty, Deep Diver Specialty, and three other specialties of your choice.
Deep Adventure Dive
The Deep Adventure Dive is required as a portion of the Advanced Open Water Course and is the part of the course that allows your certification to achieve a depth of 100ft (as an Open Water Diver, you are certified to 60ft unless guided and briefed by a professional). For the Deep Adventure Dive, your Instructor will work with you to accomplish six performance requirements during a dive that is, on average, deeper than 60ft:
Gas usage management and planning for deep dives
Deep descent
Color loss exercise at depth
Gas usage exercise at depth
Deep ascent
Safety stop procedures
Once you have earned your Advanced Open Water Certification, you can complete the three additional dives in the Deep Diver Course. This will expand your maximum depth to 130ft.
Underwater Navigator Adventure Dive
The Underwater Navigator Adventure Dive is the other mandated dive for the Advanced Open Water Course. During the Underwater Navigator briefing, your Instructor will talk to you about their tips and tricks for natural navigation before getting in the water to complete six performance requirements in the open water at a depth greater than 15ft:
Neutral buoyancy demonstration
Kick cycle count determination exercise
Natural navigation exercise
Compass handling exercise
Compass navigation exercise (single point)
Compass navigation exercise (multi-point)
Elective Adventure Dives
Now comes the choosing. You have three more dives to complete before earning your Advanced Open Water Certification, and while there are no wrong choices, there are certainly some better choices:
Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure Dive
Certifications are not what make a diver “advanced,” rather it is their skill in the water that makes an advanced diver worthy of that moniker and no skill demonstrates a diver’s advanced status more than quality buoyancy. To achieve that, the Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure Dive gives you some tools and techniques that will have you effortlessly hovering in no time! For the Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure Dive, you will complete:
Weighting and weight checking exercise
Streamlining exercise
Neutrally buoyant descent
Hovering exercise A
Hovering exercise B
The full Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty is two dives. Once you have completed the Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure dive, you only have one more dive to complete before you’re full certified as a Peak Performance Buoyancy Diver.
Rescue Adventure Dive
One of the newer Adventure Dives added to the PADI Advanced Open Water Course is the Rescue Adventure Dive. While other Adventure Dives focus on sampling a specialty, the Rescue Adventure Dive provides the diver with some basic rescue skills, both better preparing them for their inevitable Rescue Diver Course, but more importantly preparing the diver to handle adverse situations that may arise. During the Rescue Adventure Dive you will complete:
Self rescue demonstration
Tired diver exercise
Panicked diver exercise
Missing diver exercise
Once completed with your Advanced Open Water Course, Rescue Diver is your next step in certification and you’re already ahead of the game!
AWARE Shark Conservation Diver Adventure Dive
As divers, we have a special obligation and duty to be good stewards of marine environments that we get to visit. The AWARE Shark Conservation Adventure dive will not just better equip you to be more than just a neutral impact, it will empower you to become a positive impact. During the dive you will:
Identify surface hazards
Identify underwater hazards
Demonstrate responsible diving practices
Observe natural shark behavior*
Identify shark species*
Identify unnatural injuries to sharks*
While it is always best to see sharks during the AWARE Shark Adventure Dive, it is unfortunately impossible to reserve their time in advance or otherwise guarantee a sighting. Not to worry, the dive can be completed regardless as the items marked with an astrix* are only required if sharks are seen on the dive. To complete the AWARE Shark Conservation Specialty, you will have one dive left to do for that two-dive specialty.
Honorable Mention Adventure Dives
Diver Propulsion Vehicle Adventure Dive
Fins are for chumps and SCUBA is better when you can ride. This Adventure Dive is a lot of fun, but the real learning comes in the full, 2-dive Diver Propulsion Vehicle Course.
Search & Recovery Diver Adventure Dive
If you have an interest in treasure hunting for items lost by snorkelers, or if you are interested in entering the Public Safety arena, then this is a great course. While the adventure dive is a nice introduction to Search & Recovery Diving, if your interest is similar to what I described, then the full, 4-dive course is the better route, but you can get a head start on it in your Advanced Open Water Course.
Night Diver Adventure Dive
It is a common misconception that in order to do a night dive, you must be a certified Night Diver. That is untrue from a standards perspective however some operators may require Night Diver Certification before they take you along for one of their night dives. The main reason to complete the Night Adventure Dive as a part of your Advanced Open Water Course would be to have your first experience in the darkest of darkness alongside someone (your Instructor) who is prepared to address any stress or anxiety you may have.
Wreck Diver Adventure Dive
Wreck diving is the best diving, but in terms of being an Advanced Diver, the skill set this Adventure Dive adds to your tool box is limited if you are not diving boats that now identify as submarines. If you are living in, or soon to travel to a shipwreck diving location, then for sure this course is worth while, but the 4-dive Wreck Diver Course is where you really want to be.
Dive Against Debris Adventure Dive (earn an additional certification!)
Dive Against Debris is the action course in the PADI AWARE curriculum. You learn how to safely and thoroughly survey an area and retrieve whatever debris you may identify. This is a one-dive specialty, so if you take it as a part of your Advanced Open Water Course, you will graduate AOW with two certifications! The reason this Adventure Dive is on the honorable mention list is because of the additional cost for the online learning that is required for this one-dive specialty (about $100 as of March 2023).
