Have you ever been refused to be allowed to dive?

[vespers_]

Well you have been doing what I usually do, but with your own boat. Of course you can do whatever you want. But you probably know that if you are taking a charter, especially in the tropics, but of course in the U.S. and probably Canada too, some are gunna want to see AOW or even Deep certs. before they let you do that. You know, the liability thing.
Don't forget the many times you also read on Scubaboard about DMs and instructors who also suck and crash into reefs (haven't personally seen that myself).

Yeah I understand why they do it, but it still annoys me when I get rejected while an AOW that needs someone to put his gear together is totally fine. Fact is in destination diving most people only do a couple of dives a year. It was quite a shock to me to go from independant diving to the resort conga diving industry. I had one guy tell me dive planning is something you learn at the DM level...

Also seems crazy how shops are unwilling to take someone with OW and a bunch of logged dives to a 70' dive but are totally ok with taking a group of people that have never even looked at a computer to 135' on single tanks or into a cave.

I was told I was not allowed to wear gloves or carry a knife because I might be inclined to hack coral apart.... what?

 

[TMHeimer]

Yeah I understand why they do it, but it still annoys me when I get rejected while an AOW that needs someone to put his gear together is totally fine. Fact is in destination diving most people only do a couple of dives a year. It was quite a shock to me to go from independant diving to the resort conga diving industry. I had one guy tell me dive planning is something you learn at the DM level...

Also seems crazy how shops are unwilling to take someone with OW and a bunch of logged dives to a 70' dive but are totally ok with taking a group of people that have never even looked at a computer to 135' on single tanks or into a cave.

I was told I was not allowed to wear gloves or carry a knife because I might be inclined to hack coral apart.... what?

Well again, I agree. I lived my adult life until 2005 (age 51) way inland and never gave a thought to scuba, though my older brother dived in the '60s when I was little and saw him. Lake diving was not for me (no shells to speak of, being a collector). I never gave a thought to getting certified and diving once a year in the tropics--and I had decades of snorkeling, body surfing, etc. on my trips "home" to NYC and elsewhere. We were on a cruise in '99 where they had I guess Discover Scuba in the pool on deck. When I was told they give you like, an hour of training that's very basic, then you dive in the ocean-- I said no thanks, the snorkel tour is for me.
Now, there are divers like you and I in Florida and the tropics, but your not gunna find the "vacation diver" in the St. Lawrence or Atlantic off Nova Scotia.
Nevertheless, it still comes down to liability. If someone dies diving deeper than 60 feet and doesn't have AOW, family may sue the charter Op. If someone that has 9 total dives and AOW dies on that dive, they also have signed the dubious "release" form, but were diving within their "recommended" max depth. Not so risky for the dive Op. No point in fighting it.

 

[stretchthepenn]

No, I've never been refused a dive. The closest I came to that was on a dive boat before leaving the dock; the DM was asking everyone when their last dive was, and I answered honestly: "I don't remember."

I'd been diving regularly over the previous year, and my last dive had only been about a month previous, so I was just saying that I didn't recall the exact date, but the DM didn't interpret my answer that way. He thought I was implying, "it's been sooooo long that I don't remember."

A glance at my logbook put things right, but that poor DM...he blanched and looked like he'd just about crapped himself.