PADI Advanced Open Water Diver

Couple of days ago we (me and my buddy Vlad) have successfully achieved PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification. The open water dives took place in the Dutch Springs, PA with Sterling Silver Scuba guys.

As a result we got more knowledge, experience, confidence and the nice overview of the different scuba diving specialties.

For the Advanced Open Water certification there are two dives that are mandatory:
* Underwater navigation
* Deep Dive

and 3 dives that you can choose from more than 20 different specialties.
We have chosen the:
* Peak Performance Buoyancy
* Wreck Dive
* Search and Recovery

During the Deep Dive we tried to reach 100ft (~30m) depth and the deepest spot we managed to find was 94ft and only after you touch the bottom with the diving computer or gauge. The fun part was that you had to solve simple math problem on the surface and then at the bottom. In both cases our instructor measured time spent on the task to figure out if any nitrogen narcosis had effect on you at that depth.

My favorite one was the last Search and Recovery Dive. We (I and my buddy Vlad) were told the approximate area were one of the instructors have hidden the "Millbrook Dragon" (the soft red dragon toy, around 3 feet long, with the weight belt on it) at the bottom of the lake and we had to find it and bring it to a surface. The are 3 parts of this exercise.
First we had to figure out the best search pattern for the current conditions and create some plan between us how we perform the search, what do we do when we find the target, who does what , to bring this "dragon" to the surface. Then we had to dive and find "the thing" and bring it to the surface.

Bringing up things to the surface is a tricky part. You can not just pick the thing and swim up with it from 60ft. In case if you loose it on the way up you will end up with uncontrolled ascent to the surface and there is always higher chances to get a decompression sickness after such ascent. So, in order to avoid all these hazards the lift bag and ropes are used. We had two ropes and had to tie 3 different types of knots: the rope to the "dragon", the rope to the lift bag and then tie two ropes together. After all this one of the divers connects the reel and another one inflates the bag with his octopus. After the bag gets to the surface , both divers start their ascend with the safety stop at 15ft/5m for 3 minutes as needed.

So we started to swim in the U-turn pattern along the shore getting deeper with every other U-turn. Once we got to the 55 feet we sill could not find the "dragon". Vlad showed me the "swim up" sign, but I didn't want to surface at that moment and thought that if we continue to search in the direction we have chosen we eventually would find it. Then I noticed the platform above (the platforms are submerged at 25 feet), so we swam to the platform and met our instructor there. He noticed that we got kind of lost and pointed in the direction at the bottom where we should continue looking. We dove back down to 55 feet and after a little bit of searching found the thing.

It was all covered with silt and wasn't really visible until we got very close to it. One of the biggest mistakes we did after that was that we descended to the bottom next to the "dragon" and got all the silt flying around, reducing visibility probably down to 3 feet or so. I tried to lift the thing to make it more visible to Vlad since he had to tie a rope to it, but under water it was so heavy that I had difficulties to stay in stable position and lift the thing at the same time. Vlad didn't notice that the "dragon" had a weight belt around it due to poor visibility and was trying to tie the rope around one of the claws. I tried to show him the weight belt around the dragon, since this was the only secure place to tie the rope, but he could not see it due to poor visibility. Then I landed the "dragon" back to the bottom , took his rope and started to tie it to the "dragon"'s weight belt. The visibility was so bad that I could only see my hands and Vlad said after the dive, that sometimes he saw only my fins from the cloud of silt.
I was actually pleasantly surprised, that in such conditions I managed to stay really focused on the completing the task, tied three different knots underwater with 6.5mm thick neoprene gloves and didn't forget to check the gauges for the air level in the tank. I connected the reel, Vlad put some air into the lift bag and it headed to the surface. We swam up together, did 3 minutes safety stop at 15 feet and surfaced.

With this dive I completed the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification.

Hope you find some of the details here interesting and let me know if you have any questions about the parts of the AOW certification that I didn't cover here.

Best Wishes!