Diving with a non certified diver?

[yardpro]

i dove before i was certified.....
i had a hookah rig that i used to clean my boat bottom and set my mooring in 15' of water...
not a huge deal.

I have let my son use the hookah off the boat in 5-6' of water to look for shells and fish.
when that shallow, the chances are pretty slim that something bad will happen..

I grew up in the water (lived on a canal when growing up), so i was very comfortable with all the skills... if your dad is the same there would likely be little issues.. BUT if something happens, can up live with the consequences, or the liabilities?

 

[supergaijin]

how horrible would that be?

I know death could happen.

Well... how horrible would it be?

 

[Stoo]

I think another side of the question is this: As someone "working" on their AOW, how qualified and capable are you to asses, mitigate, and in the worst case, respond to an emergency.

There are thousands of uncertified people diving every day... It's called "Discover SCUBA" or similar. The difference is that they are under the guidance and watch of a qualified Instructor who is trained to recognize and avert potential problems in novices.

According to your profile, you have barely started diving yourself. Are you prepared to risk your Father's life?

I think it's great he wants to go diving... Why not treat him to a course for Father's Day?

 

[knotical]

What you describe usually ends without incident. But is usually sufficient?

My early diving was similar to your father’s. There were no cert courses in our area in 1960, so we learned what we could from the little booklet that came with the aqualung and went diving.
We were lucky. At least one of us didn’t realize a critical fact: - holding your breath while ascending is a very bad idea. None of us did, and maybe it was in the booklet, but at least one didn’t remember because we argued about it a few years later.

I’m sure there were other useful tidbits we could have gained if certification had been available.

Why not consider scuba training for your dad? The course can be a lot of fun. Failing that, at least consider getting him to look at the medical questionnaire, such as seen here: http://www.wrstc.com/downloads/10 - Medical Guidelines.pdf

 

[Lorenzoid]

I've been diving with quite a few non-certified recreational divers over the years; some professional commercial divers, others that were self-taught. They have all been safer than some of the certified tourist divers that I've experienced.

Competence is more important than a C-Card. A C-Card is no guarantee of competence.

Absolutely. But I don't think it applies in this case. Maybe you didn't intend to imply it does.

My understanding is that the OP's father is neither "self-taught" nor was taught by anyone else to anything resembling today's standards, since there was no teaching available at the time that covered anything resembling what is taught today to an OW student. C-card or C-cardless, it seems he could not have the knowledge/skills that a competent diver would have today.


The OP made it clear he has no intention of diving with his dad (unless perhaps his dad gets some modern training). Like others who commented, I'm not really sure what the OP's question is. I gave it my best shot in my previous comment.

---------- Post added June 3rd, 2013 at 12:04 PM ----------

. . .
I think it's great he wants to go diving... Why not treat him to a course for Father's Day?

Where in his post does he say his father wants to go diving? He said HE would like to show his father some nice sites, and they will definitely go SNORKELING. Seems to me he made it clear this was a purely theoretical question and is well aware that his father would need to take a course in order to go diving.

 

[swimmer_spe]

View attachment 156375

Well... how horrible would it be?

Hence the ask, but never do.

---------- Post added June 3rd, 2013 at 10:46 AM ----------

Where in his post does he say his father wants to go diving? He said HE would like to show his father some nice sites, and they will definitely go SNORKELING. Seems to me he made it clear this was a purely theoretical question and is well aware that his father would need to take a course in order to go diving.

Exactly. Theoretical. We will go snorkeling. If he wants to dive, he will do a OW prior to me taking him.

 

[DCBC]

Absolutely. But I don't think it applies in this case. Maybe you didn't intend to imply it does.

My understanding is that the OP's father is neither "self-taught" nor was taught by anyone else to anything resembling today's standards, since there was no teaching available at the time that covered anything resembling what is taught today to an OW student. C-card or C-cardless, it seems he could not have the knowledge/skills that a competent diver would have today.

No problem; my read was that his Father was a Diver before certifications were prevalent: "...since he dove back when there was no such thing as a certification. So it wasn't the same thing as diving with someone who had never been diving."

What his Dad's experience was however, wasn't stipulated. In any case, it's likely that his Dad wasn't current (rented equipment), so caution would have to be applied. "Fathers" who have been around awhile (old enough to have a Son who's a Certified Diver) generally have a degree of common sense that comes with age (although not always) . So I wouldn't be overly concerned about the exercise, as long as his Dad was in good health. Obviously, it's wise to take a course beforehand; which is always preferable...

 

[swimmer_spe]

No problem; my read was that his Father was a Diver before certifications were prevalent: "...since he dove back when there was no such thing as a certification. So it wasn't the same thing as diving with someone who had never been diving."

What his Dad's experience was however, wasn't stipulated. In any case, it's likely that his Dad wasn't current (rented equipment), so caution would have to be applied. "Fathers" who have been around awhile (old enough to have a Son who's a Certified Diver) generally have a degree of common sense that comes with age (although not always) . So I wouldn't be overly concerned about the exercise, as long as his Dad was in good health. Obviously, it's wise to take a course beforehand; which is always preferable...

He dove in a lake. As he tells me it was for a summer.

 

[grantwiscour]

I like the idea of getting him OW cert for Father's Day. You'll have another dive buddy then.

 

[supergaijin]

Your words:

So, if I wanted to show him some amazing sites here, and instead of snorkeling, we scuba dove, with me renting gear for me and him using mine, how horrible would that be?

I know death could happen.

Simply put, this is one of the daftest questions I've ever read here. You 'know' that either your Dad, yourself, or both could die.... and you ask how horrible would that be?

You have said that you'll nver do it and it is all just hypothetical. Hypothetically, 'how horrible' it would be depends on how much you care for your family.