Is certification necessary for shallow water diving?

[Miyaru]

...
Except, the Astronaut only has to contend with one pressure differential while you may have to deal with several pressure differences and his is constant while yours changes as you rise and descend. He doesn't have to worry about getting stung by critters or eaten, getting run over by an idiot water skiing behind a spaceship, having to go to the bathroom at a hundred feet depth, etc. etc. etc.
...

Yeah, but what about:

• Meteorites?
• space debris?
• Klingons?
• Radiation?
• Getting air fills without an astronaut certification card?

Issues that a scuba diver will never encounter (both experienced and inexperienced divers).

I never meant just go buy your gear of off Craigslist and go jump in as some have implied. But with all the information that is available to us today and all the resources, could a competent, capable, and responsible person with the help of another be able to dive safely? I believe they can. I appreciate all the responses so far.

A competent, capable and responsible person could dive safely.

Let's say you take this competent, capable and responsible person for a dive.

What about the less competent, less capable and less intelligent family members that drag you to court after Murphy joined on the last dive and Mother Nature tapped on your buddy's shoulder? Because during that tiny short moment that the unexpected happened, there was no training to kick in, no muscle memory, no trained reflex, just a faint memory of a webpage about scuba.

Accepting that Nature restored the balance is considered uncivilized these days, but is would solve sooooo many problems.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Yeah, but what about:

• Meteorites?
• space debris?
• Klingons?
• Radiation?
• Getting air fills without an astronaut certification card?

Issues that a scuba diver will never encounter (both experienced and inexperienced divers).

Everyone knows that Klingons can't equalize so they can't dive....

 

[pisauron]

I think a reason for certification is a desire for the dive operations providing diving services to have some sort of indication that they aren't going to get sued for giving an unqualified customer the means to get killed. You can argue that giving each customer a personal test would do a better job, but think how impractical that would be.

At a diving conference I attended, a speaker gave an early example of this. He was on a boat in Australia in the late 1960s, preparing for a week of serious diving, but the captain insisted that no one could dive without a certification card. He explained that his father had taught him to dive when he was only 7 years old, and he had completed thousands of dives over the years. Nope. The captain would not let him dive. Finally, the rest of the crew convinced the captain to allow this one exception. As soon as he was back in the USA, he went to the local PADI office and got certified.

His name is Jean-Michel Cousteau, the second human to breathe from a regulator.

Cool story. But regulators were there before Cousteau...

 

[Cthippo]

Yeah, but what about:

• Meteorites?
• space debris?
• Klingons?
• Radiation?
• Getting air fills without an astronaut certification card?

Issues that a scuba diver will never encounter (both experienced and inexperienced divers).

A competent, capable and responsible person could dive safely.

Let's say you take this competent, capable and responsible person for a dive.

What about the less competent, less capable and less intelligent family members that drag you to court after Murphy joined on the last dive and Mother Nature tapped on your buddy's shoulder? Because during that tiny short moment that the unexpected happened, there was no training to kick in, no muscle memory, no trained reflex, just a faint memory of a webpage about scuba.

Accepting that Nature restored the balance is considered uncivilized these days, but is would solve sooooo many problems.

Yeah, but astronauts don't have to worry about sharks!

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Yeah, but astronauts don't have to worry about sharks!

I don't worry about sharks. I only worry about outswimming my buddy.

 

[34109411]

Yeah, but what about:

• Meteorites?
• space debris?
• Klingons?
• Radiation?
• Getting air fills without an astronaut certification card?

Issues that a scuba diver will never encounter (both experienced and inexperienced divers).

A competent, capable and responsible person could dive safely.

Let's say you take this competent, capable and responsible person for a dive.

What about the less competent, less capable and less intelligent family members that drag you to court after Murphy joined on the last dive and Mother Nature tapped on your buddy's shoulder? Because during that tiny short moment that the unexpected happened, there was no training to kick in, no muscle memory, no trained reflex, just a faint memory of a webpage about scuba.

Accepting that Nature restored the balance is considered uncivilized these days, but is would solve sooooo many problems.

i totally agree with you.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Yeah, but what about:

• Meteorites?
• space debris?
• Klingons?
• Radiation?
• Getting air fills without an astronaut certification card?

What is the difference in the Enterprise and a roll of Charmin?

The Enterprise circles Uranus seeking to wipe out Klingons.

 

[dmaziuk]

So what is the difference? Charmin doesn't go in circles or something?

 

[lowwall]

So what is the difference? Charmin doesn't go in circles or something?

He got the joke wrong. It's "What does toilet paper and the USS Enterprise have in common?

They both circle Uranus looking for Klingons."

It's understandable, the joke predates the moon landing.

 

[Waterwulf]

@Waterwulf you said "I saw Horse Collar BC's on upside down, weight belts strapped on inside of the other harnesses, air turned off, J Valves turned on, etc. etc. etc." This was from people ready to do their ocean open water check out dives?

Ahh no, not during the open water dives. Had they done that at that point of their training, I would have refused to sign off on them. I saw upside BC's in the pool in the beginning a few times though and a couple of weight belts on the inside on a few open water dives. By the time they got to the open water dives, they were pretty much sorted out.

However, they still made mistakes but they were of the first open water dives type jitters. That's what I was there for: To work with them one on one getting dressed and then supervise them underwater two at a time. During the summer breaks, it was mostly Yankee college girls wanting to dive for the summer excitement. You know, summer fling, learn to dive, be crazy and have fun. And to think I got paid for that!!!