I think he means sign them off for the card. That is why I have an AOW card instead of an OWD card. I know a guy who got his AOW by taking an instructor wreck diving.
Affidavit of Experience
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I think he means sign them off for the card. That is why I have an AOW card instead of an OWD card. I know a guy who got his AOW by taking an instructor wreck diving.
Certs dont guarantee skill, but neither does number of years diving. Just because some one has been diving for years does not mean they are using the best practices or are even aware of modern diving knowledge. There is no way an affidavit would hold up in court, all a lawyer would need is a technical diver to go on the stand and point out everything that went wrong and the operator would have no case. I see all the time guys giving the hook up and just signing guys off because they have been diving forever with out actually making them meet standards. Many things have changed in the diving world in the past couple of decades and our knowledge is still growing. It was not that long ago folks were diving 250ft on air on unbalanced regulators because it was the best they had. Now we know there are better ways, we have better equipment, and we have better methods. Yeah putting another dollar in the dive machine suck and another cert card doesn't make you a good diver, but just passing a guy along because he has been lucky for the past 1000 dives does not help either. This goes for the instructors that stop studying as soon as they get their instructor cert.
Wookie
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I issued an AOW card once for a Royal Navy diver. He made a resort course dive with me, and I knew he wasn't uncertified, he just wasn't certified. We did a skills review, and I saw his logbook for dives 9990-10150. Lots of night, deep, etc. dives. At the time I had fewer than 1,000 dives. I did an OW class for his bride to be, and issued him an AOW card.
Sounds to me that Wookie was exercising good judgement and exceptional common sense. Blindly meeting "standards" has given us thousands of AOW divers that are not worth a crap. Personally I would prefer to have, and I am happy to see, someone get AOW certified based on their in-depth experience and expertise rather than five dives following OW training. Who would I chose for a dive buddy? Not even a close contest--the Royal Navy diver, certified or not.
This, to me, is the biggest problem we have with this super-litigious, rules-based world. We will not let people use judgement anymore! Did the person display the skills and certification necessary to be granted the certificate? Isn't that what we are supposed to be trusting instructors to do????
DevonDiver
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Was the guy diving solo? Because that's the only scenario where liability might be a primary consideration.
Otherwise, you have to consider the technical dive team/buddies/guide that they guy will be joining. An open-water cert, even with 000's of dives, doesn't indicate the diver will be capable of safely integrating with other divers to conduct the dive. Skills aside, there needs to be some level of standardized protocols and procedures.
Training and experience need to be balanced. One without the other indicates a noteworthy potential for disaster.
Otherwise, you have to consider the technical dive team/buddies/guide that they guy will be joining. An open-water cert, even with 000's of dives, doesn't indicate the diver will be capable of safely integrating with other divers to conduct the dive. Skills aside, there needs to be some level of standardized protocols and procedures.
Training and experience need to be balanced. One without the other indicates a noteworthy potential for disaster.
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