Diving in france

[gekodivebali]

Medical form signed by a doctor approved by the french federation of scuba diving is required by law for all diving. The completed form is valid for one year.
This is one of the reasons that make diving in France for foreigners or for short stays impractical. It's for reasons like this that i don't work there despite some diving being brilliant.
I've seen a few dive centres waive the obligation by making divers sign a form saying they have been checked for medical contradictions to diving in the last year. You better ask your dive centre in advance though...

 

[DuboisP]

Medical form signed by a doctor approved by the french federation of scuba diving is required by law for all diving.

The French Federation doesn't approve the physician
The Federation approves the type of physician

This physician must be:
- a non-specialist physician, member of the Federation and following some rules (training, meetings...)
- a physician having a hyperbaric speciality
- a physician having a sport speciality

This is one of the reasons that make diving in France for foreigners or for short stays impractical. It's for reasons like this that i don't work there despite some diving being brilliant.

another reason can be you don't have the qualification required by the french law to be a professionnal

I've seen a few dive centres waive the obligation by making divers sign a form saying they have been checked for medical contradictions to diving in the last year.

Discharge of responsability doesn't have a legal value in France.

 

[gekodivebali]

The French Federation doesn't approve the physician
The Federation approves the type of physician

For diver's purposes, this distinction makes no difference! It may have value in so far as mental masturbation is concerned. Thanks for the topic deviation...

another reason can be you don't have the qualification required by the french law to be a professionnal
.

Obtaining this qualification takes a few months at a university... It's not particularly difficult to obtain, but I do have much more worthwhile things to do with my time than going back to school to sit on benches and learn to write essays the way psychorigid intellectual dinosaurs like them.
It is the only country in the world that retains such archaic rules. And many FFESM/ANMP/CEDIP guys think being different and putting barriers to entry of divers from foreign countries makes your activity better/safer? This nonsense is very emblematic of so many things going wrong with that country. It is also responsible for the dive industry remaining a seasonal activity only in some parts of the country when areas in neighbouring countries (Medes in Spain or parts of Italy) with lesser quality of diving have picked up tremendously...

 

[DuboisP]

For diver's purposes, this distinction makes no difference! It may have value in so far as mental masturbation is concerned. Thanks for the topic deviation...

in my town, we have 3 "approved" physicians, but at least 10 "approved types" of physician.
that's make a difference, when you have to find one, is'n it ?

Obtaining this qualification takes a few months at a university... It's not particularly difficult to obtain, but I do have much more worthwhile things to do with my time than going back to school to sit on benches and learn to write essays the way psychorigid intellectual dinosaurs like them.
It is the only country in the world that retains such archaic rules. And many FFESM/ANMP/CEDIP guys think being different and putting barriers to entry of divers from foreign countries makes your activity better/safer? This nonsense is very emblematic of so many things going wrong with that country. It is also responsible for the dive industry remaining a seasonal activity only in some parts of the country when areas in neighbouring countries (Medes in Spain or parts of Italy) with lesser quality of diving have picked up tremendously...

University has nothing to do here

Your comparison with Spain and Italy is distorted.
That's will be the same if try to compare diving in Island and Bali. I think I will found more touristic divers in Bali than in Island, and regulations are not the culprit.
Only the weather and water temperature.
Compare diving all around the Méditerranée, France, Spain and Italy, and you will find a lot of professionals.

 

[ivakdiver]

Strange, I dove from the Antibes area a few years ago and never was asked for nor did I have this medical form.

 

[gekodivebali]

As duboip said it's a legal requirement. I've also dived with associations that didn't follow this rule!

---------- Post added August 4th, 2013 at 10:41 PM ----------

Duboisp: i was comparing Port-cros with Medes & u talk about Iceland and Bali, wtf? There must be some language related misunderstandings or logic has definitely left us!

 

[Peter_C]

So you are saying I can not get a physician here in the USA to sign off the required form? Non of this makes sense to me and just makes me dislike dive ops/requirements even more. No wonder I own my own compressor and boat.

Is my GUE card valid? Or do I have to bring a PADI card?

All I want to do is pay money and go diving, but if it is too complicated I will just leave my gear behind and find other things to do.

 

[fisheater]

So you are saying I can not get a physician here in the USA to sign off the required form? Non of this makes sense to me and just makes me dislike dive ops/requirements even more. No wonder I own my own compressor and boat.

Is my GUE card valid? Or do I have to bring a PADI card?

All I want to do is pay money and go diving, but if it is too complicated I will just leave my gear behind and find other things to do.

Best I can tell, it's not the dive ops that are making the hassle. It's the government. They DO have scuba police.

 

[DuboisP]

So you are saying I can not get a physician here in the USA to sign off the required form? Non of this makes sense to me and just makes me dislike dive ops/requirements even more. No wonder I own my own compressor and boat.

Is my GUE card valid? Or do I have to bring a PADI card?

All I want to do is pay money and go diving, but if it is too complicated I will just leave my gear behind and find other things to do.

you can bring a certificate from your physician.
A Padi card will be better. Diving shops know the Padi system, I'm pretty sure only a few know GUE cards.

 

[gekodivebali]

Wait Duboisp, after all your talk about types of physicians approved by FFESM, you are now saying that dive centres in France can accept a medical from foreign practicians. Either someone's confused or you're a big troll!