Boy, 14, scuba diving with his dad, drowns off Deerfield Beach

[sealkie]

it`s choice to have your photo cards - not one of my cards have a photo on

 

[mempilot]

There's a lot of speculation going on in this thread. Before we all start pointing fingers, remember this. None of us know what happened exactly. Anything read in the media at this point has a lot of blanks filled in with speculation to make an interesting story. That's tragic, because to get a story, the press will juice it up. This story should only be a sound byte. Don't be armchair quarterbacks and judge this father whom you don't know. Let him grieve and move on to another topic.

 

[scubabanker]

I am not blaming the father my problem is with a dive shop or with anyone who would willing rent or sell scuba equipment to an uncertified diver. At least when I was going through training it was stressed until we were certified we could not buy equipment and the only time we could get use of the dive shops equipment was only under surpvised class time as it should be .

 

[dlndavid]

As to who's at fault is a moot point, the fact is someone died while diving. It makes the case all more clear that certification, training and experience are required to dive safe. I sure hope that as I experience more diving, there are people out there, that are willing to be tutors and take the inexperienced (like me) under their wing (not a b/p and wing) and promote a safer diving community for all. The loss of this man's son, I am sure is tragic, a sentence that already may fit the crime.

 

[MikeFerrara]

This is such a tragic event . I have a ? how can dive shops not be held legal liable for not checking certification before selling or renting dive equipment out to individuals.

Easy there is no law that says that you need to have a certification to buy dive equipment or air in most places.

There is no law that says you need any kind of certification to buy a compressor.

Some people even buy compressed air from dive shops for purposes other than diving. HP compressed air is used for paintball, starting model jet planes and I'm sure other things as well.

Certification agency standards don't even require a certification in order to buy equipment. If you're non-diving mother would have come into my dive shop when I had one to buy you a reg for Christmas I would have sold her one in a heart beat.

Haalf the diving world has equipment they baught on-line from LP. They don't check cards over the internet and they have no certification agency affiliation and wouldn't have any idea what standards are even if they were inclined to follow them.

You can buy used dive equipment on ebay or even at garage sales.

The only one that should be held legally liable in this case is the boys father who is absolutely responsible for making decisions for the boy.

 

[MikeFerrara]

really? All my PADI cards have my picture. PADI alone is a lot of cards...

My NACD card doesn't have a picture on it. My TDI card doesn't have a picture on it and with IANTD it's optional. If you send them one they put it on. If you don't they don't.

Who cares? Cards are only for buying gas and getting on boats, in quarries or government controled caves. Looking at them is a formality to meet the desires of insurance companies. It's up to the diver to make good decisions for themselves within their own training and experience. It's not up to the industry to baby sit some one based on the card they carry.

 

[Damselfish]

My NACD card doesn't have a picture on it. My TDI card doesn't have a picture on it and with IANTD it's optional. If you send them one they put it on. If you don't they don't.

Who cares? Cards are only for buying gas and getting on boats, in quarries or government controled caves. Looking at them is a formality to meet the desires of insurance companies. It's up to the diver to make good decisions for themselves within their own training and experience. It's not up to the industry to baby sit some one based on the card they carry.

whatever, I'd just not known it was optional and it wouldn't have occured to me. Would seem kinda pointless for a shop to see a card with no picture unless they also asked for a drivers license or something, or do they in that case? - like sealkie said, someone could just borrow a card. (Yeah, I realize it's just one hole in a big hunk of swiss cheese anyway.)

 

[scubabanker]

first just let me say that I am not a sue happy person and I think that our legal system is too tied up with people over friviouls (sp) lawsuits that said. The reason I read this paticular forum is because I am a new diver and want to learn every aspect of diving so that I can be safe not only for myself but my family members who are my buddys and also for whomever else I might be buddy up with .
The reason i asked the ? that I did was not to point blame or to say the lds or whomever sold them or rented the equipment should be sued the ? was asked to show that maybe thier is a hole in the system kinda like diveboats who leave someone out in the water because they did not do a roll call properly to verify that everybody was back on the boat. I think that maybe as a diving community thier should be a way to make sure that a tragedy like this doesnt happen again that thier should be a system in place no equipment is rented or sold unless certification is proved of the person buying for themself or for the person the intended person it is meant for.
I am sorry if I upset anyone by my comments they were not intended for that reason or to create controversy it was intented to maybe save someones life in the future.

 

[scubasean]

I think that maybe as a diving community thier should be a way to make sure that a tragedy like this doesnt happen again that thier should be a system in place no equipment is rented or sold unless certification is proved of the person buying for themself or for the person the intended person it is meant for.

So, what you seem to be saying is if this guy had been trained, his son would still be around? We don't know his experience level, so we do not know this to be true. You cannot train common sense into folks.

And, I would not ever change how EVERYONE operates in the SCUBA world, merely as a result of assumptions.

 

[GrierHPharmD]

it`s choice to have your photo cards - not one of my cards have a photo on

All of my PADI and IANTD cards have photos...