TN-Steve
Contributor
As others have pointed out, scuba diving is a recreational sport that has specialized equipment. There are no scuba police. You didn't explain why you felt there needed to be some sort of policing of scuba diving, and it bothers me that you believe there should be. We already have far too much government intrusion, and I'd be right up at the front of the line protesting an increase. You mentioned hang gliding as a comparison. An obvious difference there is that hang gliding puts you in the air where you are potentially endangering civilian, commercial and military aircraft--you are competing for the same air space as other craft. Also, since flying is, to a great degree, like driving a vehicle -- there are "roads" to follow, rules for where you can be, how you enter and leave the air space -- there is understandably a license required. There was a time, of course, when that wasn't true. But if you make a mistake in scuba you're not generally in danger of landing on another diver's house or business and killing everyone. I suppose environmentalist wackos could argue that you could come down on an eel's "house" and that would be enough for these people to insist we have "licenses", but I digress. Scuba diving has been a self-regulated industry. Really, the key piece in my opinion has been the agreement by air filling stations to decline to fill tanks for those who do not hold a recognized certification card. Obviously, there's a way around that, but the liability of a person doing something stupid (like diving without training) falls on the diver. To be honest, if the day ever comes that diving moves out of the self-regulated arena I'll quite completely.
I'm sorry if you misread my original post to suggest that I felt that there should be a scuba police or that I was advocating for government regulation on the activity. That wasn't the intent, it was to clarify my knowledge. Having read, pondered and evaluated the various posts here I was incorrect in viewing the c-card as a "permit" and not simply as a "Statement of Training Completed".
I hope you never have to quit, self-regulation is a great thing, and I certainly wouldn't want to see that changed. Life is too short to deal with excessive layers of bureaucrats.
Steve