Do Commercial Divers need OW cert?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

warmwaterturner

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
626
Reaction score
103
Location
Houston, Texas
# of dives
I'm a Fish!
Please help settle a certification question. My son recently completed a commercial diver academy. He has all sorts of weilding and underwater worker certifications but did not get any sort of Open Water (PADI, NAUI, SSI etc.) certification. I assume that as a diver he would need it but others have suggested that with his commercial training behind him he does not.....any feedback from those in the industry would be greatly appreciated.
 
Truthfully, that is going to depend upon where he goes, and their understanding of his training.

I have seen it go both ways, I have seen several qualified persons refused due to misunderstandings.

Commercial divers, Navy seals, Army Rangers, Marine Recon, PSD and many others all have different goals and training base. While the basic argument is those trainings are different and do not or may not apply to mid water recreation, every one of them involve decompression theory, emergency skills, and an above recreation level skill set. I would accept them. Some will, some won't.
 
Hallmac - Thanks for the input. You have explained what we are encountering in that there seems to be no clear "OW" certification requirement. Seems to me in order to be on the safe side and cover all the bases - he should do the open water as well. Not to mention, should he ever want to join us in Cozumel - they will probably insist on the certification card at the dive shop.
 
I have never seen any commercial diving company do anything more than laugh at PADI, et al, certifications.

As far as the recreational diving, most people I have dealt with readily accepted my US Navy card, but the few that didn’t also didn’t know what “saturation” was. I had no trouble finding an instructor to issue a Nitrox card, which is accepted for any recreational diving he would want to do.
 
I am supprised that the commercial diving school did not require that he have a Basic Openwater certification as a pre-requisite. Most do because it proves that the student already has some basic knowldge of diving and they have been underwater before. It weeds out the non-swimmers and the claustrophobics.

I have never had a dive operator turn me away when I pulled out my ADC Air Range card, but the training is completely different. Real commercial diving schools do not teach scuba. So it would be a good idea for your son to, at the least, go through a basic scuba course. I only say that because it does not sound like he has any experience on scuba and getting a pencil-whip by some instructor will not do him any favors.
 
I went through a program with a two day drum out period.Lots of pool work swimming; swimming with weights: treading water no arms: breath hold : more swimming...ect. Not untill the second day did we touch any scuba gear and you did not get a cert when you completed the 640 hour cours!
We only played with the scuba gear for about a four hour period. (plenty of harassment drills) had an old Navy Diver Instructor. The rest of the time was spent in the class room and jumps in the river with deep sea gear.
See you topside! John
 
Many respected commercial dive schools would like the student to have at a minimum ow certification..Not all do or care. One commercial dive school company back in the day , (International Underwater Contractors) owned by a former Cousteau diver,Andre Galerne,used to send me students to earn their OW cert before they stated commercial training
NYPD Scuba team,which is difficult to get on,and probably the best in the country, requires just ow certification and the ability to pass the written tests and physical ability,swim tests, timed run test..I had more than a few officers I trained on the team..
I recently had a student come to the store ,he claimed to be employed here in NYC doing commercial dive work..Turned out he could barely swim..He never finished the course and dropped out...Just shows you never know..
 
Many respected commercial dive schools would like the student to have at a minimum ow certification..Not all do or care. One commercial dive school company back in the day , (International Underwater Contractors) owned by a former Cousteau diver,Andre Galerne,used to send me students to earn their OW cert before they stated commercial training
NYPD Scuba team,which is difficult to get on,and probably the best in the country, requires just ow certification and the ability to pass the written tests and physical ability,swim tests, timed run test..I had more than a few officers I trained on the team..
I recently had a student come to the store ,he claimed to be employed here in NYC doing commercial dive work..Turned out he could barely swim..He never finished the course and dropped out...Just shows you never know..

Thanks, It really is interesting to know that there is no difinitive answer. It just seems natural that one would start with basic open water and progress to commercial underwater training....but I guess not.
 
I had O.W going to school. School offered it (O.W. recr.) for an additional fee I think through SSI. What you do get is commercial scuba which is pretty much the same with no b c and occaisionally teatherd. It also has different hand signals than recreational scuba. You have to do a more rigorous swim test than O.W. and have to ditch and don at 10 or 15 feet, which my instructor didn't have any body do for a recreational cert.
It works the other way too, recreational companies didn't care that I was commercially certified.
I had mixed gas theory and training in school but wouldn't let me dive nitrox. Also said I couldn't dive a deep wreck because I was only open water through NAUI. So I was subject to a wall dive looking at fish with my wife, looking at fish. It was a mom and pop shop in St. John.
 
No you don't need open water certs. I have none. I have been a commercial diver in the gulf and on the west coast since 2005.
Furthermore, once you have commercial certs you won't have a problem recreational diving. Any vendor or SCUBA instructor possessed of even a modest amount of knowledge knows that commercial certs involving in some cases a year at dive school supersede a couple of weekends at the beach!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom