Be clear about why you do further training beyond WRSTC-2. Are you, like David, aiming to become a pro diver? If not, what are you looking to achieve beyond a wallet full of qual cards and associated bragging rights?

Let’s take me as an example. I’ve recently qualified as a PADI Open Water diver at the relatively late age of 45 and, aside from that, my wife and me enjoy kayaking, cycling, camping and hiking. I’m also a volunteer first responder with mountain rescue medic training under my belt too, so Rescue Diver is an obvious qualification target for me. It’s quite a well-kept secret that you don’t need to go through AOW to get there within the PADI scheme (the actual pre-reqs are (1) three adventure dives incl. Underwater Nav and (2) 20 logged dives). I’ve already done Peak Performance Buoyancy as a full specialty course and logged a dozen dives, so there’s not much left for me to do.

People do AOW to get their 30-metter (100-ft) dive rating, but again that’s flawed under the PADI qual scheme – you get that rating just by doing the Deep adventure dive. So I’ll probably do that and the mandated Underwater Nav dive and spend the rest of my bottom time just enjoying diving with my wife. And the need to plan and execute our own dives autonomously will make us better divers than someone who’s been instructor-led all the way through, at least in terms of prudence (because the buck really stops with us).

On the other hand, my wife has just always wanted to dive, to look at seahorses and play with seals. Her Open Water qual lets her do that (and PPB helped her enormously). She’ll do some training in underwater photography at some point but, other than that, she’ll just dive for pleasure so she doesn’t need to blow a small fortune on training she has no need or desire to do.

Remember the training’s just a means to an end, not the end in itself.