Dive Insurance now or after OW Cert?

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B

Bibendum

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Hi All-

I will be starting my OW class next week, and I was wondering if I need to get set up with Dive Insurance now or do I wait until after I get done with the class and have certification?

I assume that all Divers need separate insurance, as most medical insurance companies don't cover dive related accidents, correct?

Thanks for any advice!
 
I believe if you're shop is affilated with DAN you are covered thru your OW class.

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/students/index.asp

Might ask the instructor if this is something you are worried about.
 
Ask your instructor if he/she has filled out the form to cover all of you in the class with DAN insurance? If yes, then you can wait until you complete the course to join DAN. There is always a chance that you will not successfully complete it. Medical disqualification and course failure rates combined run about 15%.

If your instructor is NOT going to fill out the form, then I would call DAN and join now. 1-800-446-2671

Once you join, you will get a bi-monthly magazine that is great reading which you will look forward to in your mailbox.

General medical coverage policies are uncertain regarding their coverage of diving related medical treatment. Some do and some dont. With DAN there is no uncertainty. General medical coverage policies have uncertain international provisions as well. With DAN you are covered all over the world. Plus DAN covers transportation, including by helicopter. You might need that.

In general, we do not join DAN because we plan to get bent. We join to support DAN. A good diver dives conservatively, and does not get bent. The whole purpose of your dive training is to teach you how to make conservative decisions in your diving and to learn the skills to implement these decisions.

Someday, if you go on to become a divemaster, or instructor, or technical diver, DAN has great oxygen kits that you can buy.
 
triton94949:
Ask your instructor if he/she has filled out the form to cover all of you in the class with DAN insurance? If yes, then you can wait until you complete the course to join DAN. There is always a chance that you will not successfully complete it. Medical disqualification and course failure rates combined run about 15%.

If your instructor is NOT going to fill out the form, then I would call DAN and join now. 1-800-446-2671

Once you join, you will get a bi-monthly magazine that is great reading which you will look forward to in your mailbox.

General medical coverage policies are uncertain regarding their coverage of diving related medical treatment. Some do and some dont. With DAN there is no uncertainty. General medical coverage policies have uncertain international provisions as well. With DAN you are covered all over the world. Plus DAN covers transportation, including by helicopter. You might need that.

In general, we do not join DAN because we plan to get bent. We join to support DAN. A good diver dives conservatively, and does not get bent. The whole purpose of your dive training is to teach you how to make conservative decisions in your diving and to learn the skills to implement these decisions.

Someday, if you go on to become a divemaster, or instructor, or technical diver, DAN has great oxygen kits that you can buy.
Click to expand...

I agree with Triton, DAN is a great organization. Not only do they offer insurance, but do medical dive research. These studies are available for divers to review. All you have to do is call and describe what you're looking for and they will mail it to you.

A great organization deserves to be supported.
 
It's very easy for the instructor to sign up the students when they are taking the OW class. If you plan on continuing diving then DAN is the way to go. The magazine is pretty good and at the very least will scare the crap out of you.
 
Thats an excellent question. If you are serious get it now. If you embolize during a class, I don't think the shop will be liable after signing all those waivers.
 
616fun:
I agree with Triton, DAN is a great organization. Not only do they offer insurance, but do medical dive research. These studies are available for divers to review. All you have to do is call and describe what you're looking for and they will mail it to you.

A great organization deserves to be supported.
Click to expand...

Yes, I had forgotten about the research and also the annual dive fatalities summary.

Debraw mentioned something about scaring the crap out of you. This would be the annual report of everyone who was DIAW (Doing It All Wrong). Cave divers have a decades' old expression, that in cave diving you only get one chance to Do It Right. This phrase has been capitalized upon recently to connote a particular type of gear configuration that is also called hogarthian. Aside from that, ...

If you end up in the annual DAN Fatalites Report, then you were DIAW. And if you end up in your local recompression chamber, then you were diving not conservately enough.

DAN does the research on all the injuries (DCI) and fatalities that happen in scuba. That is what Debraw was talking about, when she invoked the name of Mr. John Crapper (the inventor of the American flush toilot - a real person in history).

You can get the annual report as a member. I am not sure if they charge for it.

50% of fatalities normally tend to involve buddy separation of some kind, based on the reports that I have seen. So if you always dive with a buddy, and never leave your buddy, you will have just reduced by half the possibility of DIAW.

When the bimonthly magazine comes in the mail, you will hardly be able to resist reading it cover to cover. Pretty pictures to remind you about scuba diving. Great articles and news too.
 
I always sign students up for DAN, but remember the coverage ends once you are certified.

From the DAN Student Membership Insurance Record: "Coverage begins at 12:01 am on the date of the first required dive after the student roster is received at DAN. Coverage ends at midnight on the day of the last required dive for basic or open-water certification..."

If you finished your certification on a trip, for example, you might want to have contacted DAN before your last cert dive.
 
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