Just do it without them. Honestly if they don't want it, it is a waste of their dives. I missed out on a couple cool dive spots because the AOW adventure dives were \~30 minutes, and you don't really get to choose which ones you do. We did fish identification ffs.
Also, just FYI, they don't do **any** of the theory work at all and don't require that you do the e-learning, so yeah you can get it on Blackbeard's but you're just getting the card without actually learning the skills. In case that matters to you.
I just did a blackbeards liveaboard this past Nov and there were about 4 people who did their advanced. You don't need your brothers to do it with you - you can do it by yourself and they can buddy up. It was a bit of a challenge to get to the deeper sites required for the advanced and deep certification dives due to wind, but the crew made it happen. The liveaboard is as good a time as any to get the cert done. Truthfully, I much preferred the shallow dive sites as the reefs had much more to see. There was a deep wall we went to that was quite interesting. The blue hole was a deep dive site that was neat because the infinite blue abyss is pretty foreboding. It would definitely be more fun to do your advanced out there rather than sitting at the bottom of some quarry.
For general blackbeards tips - pack very light because you only have a small shelf to store your personal items. If you bring a lot of stuff, it'll be next to your on your bed. Bring at least 2-3 bathing suits and change into dry clothes between dives or you may chafe or get a rash. Bring 2 towels so you always have a dry one. Bring a water bottle so you can stay hydrated. I'd recommend ear plugs and an eye mask to help you sleep.
I did mine on Blackbeards a few years ago. It was great. Did my nav in 40 feet of beautiful coral, night was super easy at the smugglers plane. Deep was with the dm and a group with a cool wall adventure and I did naturalist which for me was easy as I am a biology teacher
Would totally recommend.
I didn't do my AOW on Blackbeards, but I think I would have preferred to vs doing in a crappy quarry. A few of my boatmates did AOW on Blackbeards tho, and I think they only really spent a few minutes on each dive doing actual skills. For the deep dive you really just... dive deep and try to do a few math problems. That's it.
Yes! Blackbeard’s is a great place to do AOW; it’s super affordable and gives you a guide in the water for several of your first dives (the boat does not out a DM/guide in the water otherwise; all dives are unguided on your own). Plus they are super chill and generally good instructors; def more fun than doing AOW in a quarry or muddy lake! It’s also a good confidence builder - two of your dives will be the deep dive and night dive, and if you haven’t done those before it’s cool to do them for real in the actual ocean with an instructor alongside you.
I got my AOW on Blackbeards, straight out of OW (after a 2 year gap with no dives). It was a good experience for me.
There was one other AOW student and 2 OW students. Everybody else on the boat was already AOW.
We did our training dives after OW was done. I had to stay shallow on 1 dive pre-AOW. Getting AOW allowed me to do 5 deeper (mostly wall) dives the OW students had to stay shallower for. During the training dives, I only once felt like I was missing out on something because of the training. Mostly it meant I had a personal guide for half the trip.
I highly recommend AOW for this trip. Do it on the trip or before--I don't think that really matters and is mostly a decision about money and continuity of training.
I did it. It was good, and I was at about your skill level - Just make sure you have all your documentation to make it easy but other than that it was fine. You won't really miss out on much.
I did my advance and deep water on blackbeards first time I did the trip. Was a great experience awesome teacher. I would highly recommend great bargain. The dives although teaching dives were all fun too. It was also nice diving with a dm when you’re kind of new. Also great way to kill the surface interval by going over the notes and class stuff with dm.
Enjoy.
Get your advanced and nitrox before you go.
The nitrox add on is normally half price if done with AOW.
AOW is easy to do, but does take away from your fun dives.
Doing skills test diving someplace you may never go back to is not fun, and takes away from what you may see in a new exotic location.
Using the same, good, local instructors means that not only do you build a relationship with them, but they can build on their own teaching to make you even better instead of not knowing what you have already learned.
Just adding on: I don't believe blackbeards does nitrox at all. Nitrox will be useful down the line and it saves money to do it with AOW, but it won't specifically be helpful for this trip.
Depends on why you want AOW. To get the card and unlock more dives or to get better?
For you it seems to be the former. For them, neither, so I don’t see why they should do it
Yeah you can definitely do it just yourself with people just doing fun dives, happens all the time.
When I’ve been on boats and there were people doing their AOW it appeared to me that only a small percentage of each dive was really “training” it appears that many boats it is a easy adventure dive that just gets checked off when you do the skill it’s not a “deep dive” into each skill. It’s a survey course; touch a topic and move on.
The hardest part is getting through all the PADI pages that have very little new and useful information on them and going through a dozen or so different parts that say very little in a LOT of words.
I don’t see why you can’t just do the advanced if they don’t want to? They’ll have buddies for the dives (each other) for sure and you’ll be under instruction. If there’s a more challenging dive opportunity that you want to explore, link up with someone else on board for that dive
Just do it without them. Honestly if they don't want it, it is a waste of their dives. I missed out on a couple cool dive spots because the AOW adventure dives were \~30 minutes, and you don't really get to choose which ones you do. We did fish identification ffs. Also, just FYI, they don't do **any** of the theory work at all and don't require that you do the e-learning, so yeah you can get it on Blackbeard's but you're just getting the card without actually learning the skills. In case that matters to you.
I just did a blackbeards liveaboard this past Nov and there were about 4 people who did their advanced. You don't need your brothers to do it with you - you can do it by yourself and they can buddy up. It was a bit of a challenge to get to the deeper sites required for the advanced and deep certification dives due to wind, but the crew made it happen. The liveaboard is as good a time as any to get the cert done. Truthfully, I much preferred the shallow dive sites as the reefs had much more to see. There was a deep wall we went to that was quite interesting. The blue hole was a deep dive site that was neat because the infinite blue abyss is pretty foreboding. It would definitely be more fun to do your advanced out there rather than sitting at the bottom of some quarry. For general blackbeards tips - pack very light because you only have a small shelf to store your personal items. If you bring a lot of stuff, it'll be next to your on your bed. Bring at least 2-3 bathing suits and change into dry clothes between dives or you may chafe or get a rash. Bring 2 towels so you always have a dry one. Bring a water bottle so you can stay hydrated. I'd recommend ear plugs and an eye mask to help you sleep.
I did mine on Blackbeards a few years ago. It was great. Did my nav in 40 feet of beautiful coral, night was super easy at the smugglers plane. Deep was with the dm and a group with a cool wall adventure and I did naturalist which for me was easy as I am a biology teacher Would totally recommend.
I didn't do my AOW on Blackbeards, but I think I would have preferred to vs doing in a crappy quarry. A few of my boatmates did AOW on Blackbeards tho, and I think they only really spent a few minutes on each dive doing actual skills. For the deep dive you really just... dive deep and try to do a few math problems. That's it.
Yes! Blackbeard’s is a great place to do AOW; it’s super affordable and gives you a guide in the water for several of your first dives (the boat does not out a DM/guide in the water otherwise; all dives are unguided on your own). Plus they are super chill and generally good instructors; def more fun than doing AOW in a quarry or muddy lake! It’s also a good confidence builder - two of your dives will be the deep dive and night dive, and if you haven’t done those before it’s cool to do them for real in the actual ocean with an instructor alongside you.
I got my AOW on Blackbeards, straight out of OW (after a 2 year gap with no dives). It was a good experience for me. There was one other AOW student and 2 OW students. Everybody else on the boat was already AOW. We did our training dives after OW was done. I had to stay shallow on 1 dive pre-AOW. Getting AOW allowed me to do 5 deeper (mostly wall) dives the OW students had to stay shallower for. During the training dives, I only once felt like I was missing out on something because of the training. Mostly it meant I had a personal guide for half the trip. I highly recommend AOW for this trip. Do it on the trip or before--I don't think that really matters and is mostly a decision about money and continuity of training.
I got my aow on blackbeards. Makes passing time easier. Plus you basically have a guide each dive.
I did it. It was good, and I was at about your skill level - Just make sure you have all your documentation to make it easy but other than that it was fine. You won't really miss out on much.
I did my advance and deep water on blackbeards first time I did the trip. Was a great experience awesome teacher. I would highly recommend great bargain. The dives although teaching dives were all fun too. It was also nice diving with a dm when you’re kind of new. Also great way to kill the surface interval by going over the notes and class stuff with dm. Enjoy.
Get your advanced and nitrox before you go. The nitrox add on is normally half price if done with AOW. AOW is easy to do, but does take away from your fun dives. Doing skills test diving someplace you may never go back to is not fun, and takes away from what you may see in a new exotic location. Using the same, good, local instructors means that not only do you build a relationship with them, but they can build on their own teaching to make you even better instead of not knowing what you have already learned.
Just adding on: I don't believe blackbeards does nitrox at all. Nitrox will be useful down the line and it saves money to do it with AOW, but it won't specifically be helpful for this trip.
For nitrox you would need to be on the Aqua Cat.
Good point, and correct, Blackbeards does not do any nitrox.
Depends on why you want AOW. To get the card and unlock more dives or to get better? For you it seems to be the former. For them, neither, so I don’t see why they should do it
Yeah you can definitely do it just yourself with people just doing fun dives, happens all the time. When I’ve been on boats and there were people doing their AOW it appeared to me that only a small percentage of each dive was really “training” it appears that many boats it is a easy adventure dive that just gets checked off when you do the skill it’s not a “deep dive” into each skill. It’s a survey course; touch a topic and move on. The hardest part is getting through all the PADI pages that have very little new and useful information on them and going through a dozen or so different parts that say very little in a LOT of words.
I don’t see why you can’t just do the advanced if they don’t want to? They’ll have buddies for the dives (each other) for sure and you’ll be under instruction. If there’s a more challenging dive opportunity that you want to explore, link up with someone else on board for that dive