C Cards Requirement or Recommendation?

[TMHeimer]

No place where I dive frequently, asks for a card. On the other hand, all new operators ask me for both my dive card and my nitrox card. Get real, even if you are NetDoc

Yeah, if they know you no card. If I'm not sure if they remember me the whole shootin' match is in the car.

 

[The Chairman]

The litigious society we live in has made seeing a c-card more and more mandatory. but it wasn't always that way, and the "rules" are often bent or broken even today. Think of all those thousands of dives JM Cousteau managed before some overly officious idiot demanded a c-card. I enjoy a very minor celebrity status compared to him, but it can open doors and allow me to bypass a few rules.

 

[dberry]

If you ever get on a Southern California dive boat, have your C-card and Nitrox cards ready, because you WILL NOT be diving without some sort of C-card, and you WILL NOT be getting any Nitrox without some sort of card. You will be filling out paperwork and they will physically check your cards.
Just wanted to mention it in case you were thinking of diving here. I'd hate to see you come all that way to be benched.

I keep scans (photos) of my cards on my phone. Are they going to hassle me when I try to squeeze in some dives when I'm in San Diego this March? I never received a paper copy of my "virtual" nitrox card (NASE). It's true I can print copies of these scans, in case the DM needs to hold a piece of paper instead of a phone while reading my cert #s, but this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

[PfcAJ]

I don't carry a NitrOx card and get fills all the time, from pretty much anywhere. In fact, I dove for over thirty years without a C-card of any kind. Most shops can smell BS when it walks through the door.

As a final surprise, and please don't tell anyone you heard this from me...

Spoiler

There's no such thing as the Scuba Police!

sounds like there's plenty to smell with that post....

 

[vixtor]

I was at an ocean conservation conference a couple years ago and heard this story. The speaker was on a week-long dive trip in Australia back in the 1960s, when dive certification was relatively new and uncertified divers much more common. The boat captain asked to see everyone's certification cards, and the speaker did not have one. He told the captain that his father had taught him to die when he was 7 years old, and he had done thousands of dives since then. No dice. If he didn't have a card, he couldn't dive. He could just sit on the boat all week and reflect upon the fact that wasted time.

Luckily for him, crew members intervened, and the captain finally agreed to make an exception in this case and this case only. When he returned to the USA, he went to the local PADI shop and got a certification card so he would not have to go through it again. He was still carrying that card when he spoke.

His name was Jean-Michel Cousteau.

Wow, Jacques Cousteau was really such a bad father?

 

[scubadada]

A C card is a requirement to scuba dive. A nitrox card is a requirement to dive nitrox. Some operators may limit certain dives to AOW certification and/or experience. Depth limits are a recommendation. Do yourself a favor, get AOW and nitrox to make your diving life as simple as possible.

 

[tomfcrist]

A C card is a requirement to scuba dive. A nitrox card is a requirement to dive nitrox. Some operators may limit certain dives to AOW certification and/or experience. Depth limits are a recommendation. Do yourself a favor, get AOW and nitrox to make your diving life as simple as possible.

A C card is a requirement to get fills or dive if you are using a commercial operator that doesn't want to be sued. Same for nitrox.
Nobody can stop anybody from diving from their own vessel, or filling their own tanks without a card. There are no laws preventing it.

 

[StefinSB]

I keep scans (photos) of my cards on my phone. Are they going to hassle me when I try to squeeze in some dives when I'm in San Diego this March? I never received a paper copy of my "virtual" nitrox card (NASE). It's true I can print copies of these scans, in case the DM needs to hold a piece of paper instead of a phone while reading my cert #s, but this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I have never run into a problem using photos of my cards on the phone on SoCal boats.

 

[scubadada]

A C card is a requirement to get fills or dive if you are using a commercial operator that doesn't want to be sued. Same for nitrox.
Nobody can stop anybody from diving from their own vessel, or filling their own tanks without a card. There are no laws preventing it.

If you have your own boat and your own compressor, all the more power to you, I would imagine this does not apply the vast majority of divers

 

[rhwestfall]

I have never been asked for a card here at home. Having completed my training elsewhere, they have no knowledge of my background (I'm talking about at least 4 different shops), but have still not requested cards. Even the charters here don't card..... Walk into a shop with tanks and ask for a fill? No card request....

As to EAN, well, I did take the class through my LDS, so they know me. The fill station at the local charter (and he even pumps tri-mix), no card inquiry.....

I guess if you walk the walk, and talk the talk.....

I have only been carded in three places: San Salvador, Bonaire, and Jamaica. In Tobermory, you just fill out a form with no validation (lots of fine print in the release).