Body of missing Florida free diver found in cave

[Rick Murchison]

There are always limits and slippery slope arguments whenever change is proposed. Who decided what agencies should be allowed to issue cards?

Any agency can issue a card. Want to start one? Go for it - issue your own cards. It's wide open. Of course there are business and liability considerations, but other than that, no one's stopping you.

Who decided to enforce their power to do so by refusing service to potential divers with no certification?

You're free to open a shop, buy inventory and a compressor and sell anything you want to anyone you want. Of course there are business and liabl\ility considerations, but other than that no one's stopping you - go for it.

Initially, I was just pointing out that there are already agencies who decide which individuals should be allowed to dive.

No agency decides who can dive. All the agency decides is who'll get one of their cards. Anyone can dive if they have the money to buy the equipment. There are no laws - and there should be no laws - stopping anyone.

What would you expect the result to be if you made that argument as a replacement for a C card requirement?

The only C-Card "requirements" are those in common practice in the Scuba industry because it makes good business sense. I'd be a damn fool to sell air to someone who had no training, especially in cave country, 'cause he's liable to go kill himself and his family's liable to show up on my doorstep with a lawyer. But I could do it if I wanted to be a damn fool, without breaking any laws. So I decide not to do that, among other things, and then I make an agreement with an insurance company to cover me in the event that despite all the precautions I agree to take, someone still manages to kill themselves and I get sued. But it is my decision. As I said before, I'll be happy to restrict access to caves as long as I decide, but if you want me to let you (or anyone else) decide for me.... nope.

If I were to actually propose a cave program, it would have to start with a handful of recognized experts putting together a minimum set of certification criteria in league with the certification agencies.

No, you wouldn't. You might get run out of town on a rail if you didn't, but you don't have to do anything.

If an area is privately owned and managed, the owners are already free to impose access restrictions as they see fit.

Ah.... now you've hit on one thing that's true. There is no unowned property; there are no unowned caves. They are owned by the Feds, or the state, or the county, or the city, or an individual, and the owner can restrict access on any basis they see fit, whether that be a C-Card from an "approved list" or membership in an organization or part ownership or, in the case of an individual, nepotism or just whether or not you hold your mouth right. It is these owners we want to keep in charge of their property; it is these owners we want to keep on good terms with.
We DO NOT need any laws, regulations or rules from government in SCUBA. Period.
Keep the bureaucrats miles and miles away.
Rick