Consolidated cards to 1 wallet or agency?

[sandanbob]

Tangentially related- back in the late 90's, I wrote to PADI asking if they would/could do a card that listed all the certifications earned through them, sort of like how a driver's license will list various permissions or limitations on one card. They declined, in part because they had just put in a new system for cards and didn't want to change anything. I still think it would be nice, though these days definitely not necessary.

 

[Rob9876]

Tangentially related- back in the late 90's, I wrote to PADI asking if they would/could do a card that listed all the certifications earned through them, sort of like how a driver's license will list various permissions or limitations on one card. They declined, in part because they had just put in a new system for cards and didn't want to change anything. I still think it would be nice, though these days definitely not necessary.

That would make a ton of sense -- why not list all from the same agency one card like a drivers license with endorsements. Especially makes no sense to me to have different PADI number on each certification, rather than 1 PADI number.

This makes a lot of sense and should be the way it is. But at the very least PADI should offer this as a "feature" to entice people to get Master Scuba Diver -- get the MSD cert and also get a "Master" card listing all certs to-date.

As to the OP's question, I actually use a somewhat old-school approach and have both my cards and my son's cards placed on a scanner at the same time (so they are all on a regular 8.5x11" page" and scan them, keep a copy on my phone, and email myself and my son to our gmail accounts so it can be accessed anywhere I can access the web. Usually I just email a copy of this to dive ops when booking our trip, so I don't worry about forgetting my Nitrox card, etc.

 

[Belzelbub]

That would make a ton of sense -- why not list all from the same agency one card like a drivers license with endorsements. Especially makes no sense to me to have different PADI number on each certification, rather than 1 PADI number.

Wow, really? My PADI cert is pretty old, so I don’t expect much in the way of advanced features. I checked a while back to see if they had a record of me, and was actually surprised they did.

My more recent certs, however, are with SSI. SSI has a diver identifier, not per cert. Also, each card (recent ones anyway) has a barcode on it. The barcode can be scanned by a smartphone. That brings up a website where the user is asked to enter the birthdate of the diver. Doing that will bring up a page with all SSI certs, so it essentially functions as one card for all certs.