Help improve diver training — 4-minute anonymous survey (student research)

[jtsma]

When I did my training in Belgium, we had to make a certain number of dives close to your limit to unlock the possibility to go deeper. I don't remember what were the limits and if they were also tighed in in the certifications. I do remember purposefully looking for depth so that the dive would count in the unlocking total. We also to have a certain number of dives in different circumstances (quarries, sea, sea with tides, again the specifics are no more clear in my mind) as part of the requirements for certifications. The insurance was through the FEBRAS (belgian branch of CMAS). As I remember it, that was internal rules, not state regulations.

Now that I'm in France, certifications by french agencies have clear depth limits when supervised by a qualified guide and when without a guide. That depth limit system comes from state regulations and applies as soon as you dive in open water with a provider (for profit or not), but not if you do a beach or boat dive with a friend. If you don't have a certification for which the mapping is clear in the regulation (from french agencies or CMAS), an equivalent will be decided by the dive director which should also take your experience into account. What I've seen with professional providers is usually limiting OW to 20m, AOW to 30m, with deep speciality to 40m, not allowing deco, mandating a guide seems random and is probably driven by an informal evaluation of the diver. Rumors is that volunteer dive directors in associations may be very parochial (worst I've heard was an instructor being limited to 20m with mandated supervision) but I've not seen such absurd decisions myself.

Something to consider is that the rules change. For instance when I came in France, my CMAS*** allowed me to be a guide for the divers which needed one. That changed (the french regulations and I think the CMAS standards as well) and I had to get a french certification to be able to continue to do so.

Yeah this is exactly my situation. NELOS (flemish side of the Belgian branch of CMAS) has a max depth and minimum buddy level for each dive. 1*D (OW) can go down to 20m and needs to be with 4*D+ or 3*D+ after 15 dives. 2*D (AOW + rescue) can go down to 30m with at least a 3*D or another 2*D if they are both familiar with the site or if they both have 50+ dives. 3*D (DM) and 4*D can do even more, then AI and I can basically do it all. Every member of NELOS is insured through the federation's insurance provider, considering you stick to the requirements for your level of certification. You could of course get your own insurance from DAN, then I'm not sure if the insurance company will complain about exceeding your training limits.