Which cert card to present

[MXGratefulDiver]

I show a pretty high level card always. I have never had a situation where I was asked to take care of a new diver, although I honestly did volunteer to do it recently completely on my own. It was a pretty basic dive, and doing it added to my fun. In general, dive operators want me to be happy so that I will come back and recommend them to others. By showing a high card, I get the following benefits:

• On a dive where a DM is required, they don't watch me like a hawk, and I get a lot of latitude in what I do. I can even get out of sight of the DM who knows I'll be OK.
• I get to have very nice and sometimes very informative collegial conversations with the professionals in the operation.
• When the dive operators break people into groups by ability, I get put with the highest ability groups doing the most advanced dives. One year in Cozumel I checked in with a dive operator who has multiple boats with groups divided by ability. I waited on the pier the next morning to be picked up. When the boat came, the people on it said "We're going to Maracaibo--you OK with that?" Of course I was OK with going to one of the most advanced sites on the island for my first dive. What group would I have been with and where would we have gone had I only shown my OW card?
• I generally get treated by the crews and the shop leadership like I am a professional, and I appreciate it.

A few years ago I was diving with Jack's Fish Locker in Kona, Hawai'i, and the boat had enough divers to break us into three groups, each with a DM. When our group got together, we were told we had an intern DM being broken in and getting to know the sites. We were told that we all had more dives than the intern DM, and we should just enjoy ourselves as we wished and stay reasonably close to him. We had a marvelous dive. The other two groups were pretty much all OW divers, and they were led by DMs on very basic dives befitting that certification level. I wonder if any of those divers were actually instructors smugly proud of having fooled the operator into thinking they were only OW divers.

I really liked how they did it with B&B. We got in the water as a group ... the whole boat and three DM's. After about 10 minutes, the DM's asked how much air you had. They then "shuffled" people in three groups, depending on your air consumption, and each group went their own way for the rest of the dive.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It is an interesting question, isn't it? Get enough certifications, and it would be a great debate to determine which is the highest. If a cave card is higher than an instructor card (and I think it is), is a cave DPV certification higher, since you can't get it without at least 50 cave dives? Where does a trimix card fit into the mix?

LOL - I'm sure you've heard my story about showing a trimix card in Bonaire only to be told it wasn't acceptable for nitrox. I told the guy "OK, give me trimix, just don't put any helium in it." He thought about that for about 2 seconds and busted out laughing. I got my nitrox without further hassle.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[boulderjohn]

LOL - I'm sure you've heard my story about showing a trimix card in Bonaire only to be told it wasn't acceptable for nitrox. I told the guy "OK, give me trimix, just don't put any helium in it." He thought about that for about 2 seconds and busted out laughing. I got my nitrox without further hassle.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I have heard the story and repeated it more than a couple of times.

 

[hroark2112]

It is real. PADI scored some bucks off me. My personal record is 87ft deployment.

Distinctive Specialty Diver

I wonder what card you get for 180' deployments....

 

[bergersau]

I wonder what card you get for 180' deployments....

Stringburn!

 

[NAM001]

Cozumel I had logbooks required b sand dollar. It was conditional if all you had was an OW card. The master dive card did not require a log book for them. For them if you had not recently dove yo had to take a refresher course. Just a quick 1 hour pool thing but a class just the same.

At a local hole I got nitrox and they did not want to accept a trimix card. Dug out the nitrox card and all was well. Of course this place also charged nitrox rates for air if yo had a nitrox sticker on the tank.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

At a local hole I got nitrox and they did not want to accept a trimix card. Dug out the nitrox card and all was well. Of course this place also charged nitrox rates for air if yo had a nitrox sticker on the tank.

Places like that give dive ops a bad name. And they will often be the same place that requires a nitrox banner on your tank if you want it filled with nitrox ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[kensuf]

I used to show my NAUI Advanced card from 1982, but I find that when I'm on a recreational trip I'm always looking over the entire group anyway so now I just show an instructor card.

 

[miketsp]

I would have thought that the Malta Extradition saga discussed in detail on SB would be enough to discourage anyone from presenting a higher certificate.
Stephen Martin went through hell just because he was the more experienced and qualified diver on the trip even though there was clearly no case to answer.

Malta Extradition

 

[kensuf]

In the unfortunate event of an accident, some lawyers will probably find out your highest certification level anyway. They will run background checks on everyone on the scene.

Instructors in the US, Canada, and Caribbean are required to carry a $1m insurance policy, and there is history of several insurance carriers just settling. It makes an attractive target to some bottom feeders and costs the rest of us in our rates (mine went up roughly 30% this year).