Is dive certification really necessary?

[Barnaby'sDad]

An OW certification is nothing more than a license to learn. At least that’s how NAUI referred to it. Basically “you passed the bare minimum standards to receive this certification...now it’s up to you to go put it into practice and become a competent diver.”

Keep in mind that the vast majority of people complete an OW course, go on vacation once, complete a few dives via a hand holding dive operator, and then go 1+ year without diving again. You can’t build upon basic skills by doing something once in a blue moon. Ex. One operator in the Keys that I dove with...they were literally assembling people’s gear for them.

That and “you don’t know what you don’t know (or what you forgot).” Ex. People that have been diving 5+ years, have only a few dives, and don’t take a refresher when they decide to go diving. @Eric Sedletzky...I would put money on it that the people you’re speaking of learned those basics. The issue is that they covered the material so long ago that they’ve forgotten much of it.

 

[Raphus]

P.S. - I drive my wife crazy talking about diving...so glad you're all here so I can "dive" into my hobby (pun intended). She and I will never talk about the intricacies of OW cert vs at home self study... so thanks!

So true..
We nerds need to stick together.

 

[James79]

I find that I've learned and RETAINED more from reading and self study, than I did from my cert course.

I think there is a lot of value in @Eric Sedletzky 's idea has a lot of value. I look at the price of an OW class here (about $450)..... I see a market where they could do testing only for $150 and be a moneymaker for the shop, and a money saver for the student. Question becomes, who is the prospective student. A shop wouldn't rent to Joe Snuffy with no cert card.... so Joe Snuffy needs at least a friend with spare gear/a certification to get gear and tanks to train with. So that implies an available mentor to reiterate the critical safety stuff (don't hold your breath, don't ascend too fast, etc.).

I have a number of friends that I would happily lend gear, and time in my pool, to if this certification path became an option.

Respectfully,

James

 

[jadairiii]

Most people just getting into diving have no clue that there are options to instruction and instructors, they get the idea to dive, go to the closest dive shop or resort, get pushed through like another widget on an assembly line and are dumped out. And if you look at most of the dive videos, tv or whatever, you see people with terrible skills but it is considered "normal". Check the box and move on to some other sport because they drop out because of poor training

Why choose GUE Rec-1?

 

[Raphus]

I dont like the idea, that people learn diving by themselfs.. I know most of the sb users would be able to do it, because of their Faszination about the sport, but most people will just hurt themselfs..

I learned diving the normal way with an owd.
But i read and watched videos a lot before.
And i learned nothing during the owd..
I didnt felt prepared to go diving on my own after the course.

So i picked up more books and more videos and teached myself.
Needless to say, that aowd was complete bs. And rescue was nothing more then interesting,maybe the only course where i learned a litle bit.. But nothing it wouldnt be ablr to teach myself.

 

[diver0008]

The utility of the certification/courses surely varies from diver to diver; some students are better than others in general. Personally, I found it (OW) to be excellent, and provided me with useful information and confidence going forward. I did the AOW certification on Grand Cayman over two trips one-on-one with very engaged instructors. I even did a refresher at the same dive shop on a subsequent trip after a pause of a couple years from diving early on. It took dozens of dives after to master all the nuances and settle into muscle memory, but the courses and cert for me were a great way to get my feet wet. In terms of a buddy, I would definitely feel much better about diving with one who had done likewise.

I will also mention that early on after certification, I took a bite of Bonaire (returning often). I think shore diving there with the freedom to dive on your own schedule and at your own pace helped immeasurably in the post-certification learning process.

All this said, if you are going to put a tank on your back, a hose in your mouth, and go many feet underwater, it is at your own risk, so to each his own.

 

[AfterDark]

.
But more to the point, if someone chooses to home school themselves on how to dive locally and they are completely self sufficient, can this be done safely and successfully?

The short answer is yes. How do I know? Diving history, that's mostly how it was done in the 1950's and in some places into the 1960's. Were there problems? Yes, IMO training agencies were started as a response to those problems and to keep govt. from regulating the sport. The second part has been mostly successful we have been able to avoid the regulations they have "down under". How much longer? How knows?

I've posted it before and I'll keep posting it, diving ain't hiking, bicycling, golf, checkers or a lot of other activities that people enjoy without specialized life support equipment that takes skills to operate that takes a lot of repetition to learn never mind master and where a screw up could be live threatening. A bad golf swing probably won't get you killed.

An agency that allows an instructor to tell a newly certified diver with zero dives outside the OW class to come back tomorrow and we'll start the AOW class, that agency is not really trying to train but rather to certify, IMO. How can someone be ready for AOW training when they haven't done a dive outside of OW class? Aquaman maybe?

 

[Searcaigh]

An agency that allows an instructor to tell a newly certified diver with zero dives outside the OW class to come back tomorrow and we'll start the AOW class, that agency is not really trying to train but rather to certify, IMO. How can someone be ready for AOW training when they haven't done a dive outside of OW class? Aquaman maybe?

Is that the agency's responsibility I wonder?

Those dive ops / instructors that teach zero to hero have to be held responsible for such practices. Do the agencies turn a blind eye to this?

I can't help but feel that there is a certain similarity to "pyramid sales" when it comes to teaching scuba diving I some parts of the world.

One of my real life rescues was an OOA instabuddy in Thailand back in the 90s that I later discovered was a newly qualified instructor!

 

[boulderjohn]

I did AOW immediately after OW, and I am glad I did. My AOW instructor took me well past what I had learned in OW, and so with a grand total of 9 dives, I was a much better diver than when I had 4 dives. When I then went on and dived on my own for the next few years, I was practicing and perfecting the better skills I had learned in that AOW class.

In contrast, I started skiing as an adult. I got the basics down, but I could not afford lessons. I just practiced and practiced my basic skill level for years, and in so doing I thoroughly ingrained really bad habits that I was never able to eradicate fully when I was older and could afford lessons.

 

[markmud]

"Is dive certification really necessary?"

Legally necessary? No, not in the vast majority of political subdivisions around the world.

Do smart people get trained? Yes. Emphatically yes.

Do smart people need certification even though they have been trained by a competent individual? No. Depending on the diving a person does, certification is not necessary at all.

If @Akimbo trained me to dive, I wouldn't give a crap about having a c-card.

Except, for my type of diving, there is a strong agency bias against non-conformity. A diver who deviates in attitude, gear, and gear set-up is given the stink eye. I must have certification that exceeds the planned diving that we are accomplishing in order to avoid negative attitudes from my juniors.

cheers,
m