How often are you asked for a c-card?

[ctyhallcoolio]

Seems to be quite often with doing dives off cruises ships. They check before giving you the tickets and then the dive operator checks again for themselves. Every lake, quarry, new dive shop check each time, however if on a multi day with same place usually just on the first day. LDS is the only spot not to check but that is because they recognize me.

 

[RetMTFE]

My experience here in the Sunshine State has been I get asked unless they know me. Maybe a better thread would be how many people have had their logbooks checked.

 

[DandyDon]

My experience here in the Sunshine State has been I get asked unless they know me. Maybe a better thread would be how many people have had their logbooks checked.

Logbooks? Never ever!

I tell ya, the older the T-shirt and larger the gear bag, less likely they look. Eh, gray hair & facial wrinkles probly play in there too.

 

[BDSC]

As far as a logbook goes, I've never been asked to produce it or show it. When it comes to c-cards, I'd say about 25% of the places I have been want to actually see it. Most places I fill out a sheet that has a place for my PADI # so I put it down. I guess they figure if you write something there you must have a card.

 

[nilsdiver]

• On boats I have to at least write my c-card info on the release. About 50% want to see it too.
• I very rarely have to show a c-card at shops for any gas: air, nitrox, trimix, argon...
• Point Lobos State Park (CA) requires me to show a c-card every single time.
• Only ever been asked to show a dive log as part of a class.

 

[Doc]

I always carry my PADI Bubblemaker card.

Not kidding.

 

[Splash-X]

Here in Fort Lauderdale a lot of the shops make you fill out information in a log every time they do nitrox fills. Unless they know you they always ask to see your c-cards. The logs usually ask for certification information.

As I usually dive the same boats I rarely get asked for a c-card when diving. I always get asked when I go on a dive trip.

Every dive shop here in Florida that I've been to from Tampa to Orlando, to West Palm to the Keys not only cards me (at least for the first visit to the store) but also keeps detailed logs of your Nitrox fills. They record your tank serials, exact % your tank is filled with, your C-card #, your signature and most shops make you calculate your MOD too.

Every boat I've been on has checked my c-card at least on my first trip with them.


Its my guess that if these places are not checking your c-card they are also engaging in other practices that my place their establishment at risk as well.

 

[Sas]

Its my guess that if these places are not checking your c-card they are also engaging in other practices that my place their establishment at risk as well.

Define "at risk"? My guess is many of those stores realise it is not their responsibility to babysit adults who are perfectly capable of assessing their own risks in life.

 

[BDSC]

On one trip to Cozumel I booked one of the smaller six-pack boats. We happened to be staying right beside the marina where he docked his boat so we met him the next morning to start our diving. He never asked to see a card or anything. So while we were doing our surface interval between dives I asked him why he didn't ask for us to show it.

So he asked me how much I had spent on my equipment and I told him. He asked me how much the trip was costing me and I told him. So he then told me that no one would spend a couple of thousand on equipment, $1500 or so on a trip, and not spend the few hundred it takes to get certified. Made sense to me.

And to this day I have not been with a better operation and I've never seen a better diver in the water than him.

 

[scubadiver888]

On one trip to Cozumel I booked one of the smaller six-pack boats. We happened to be staying right beside the marina where he docked his boat so we met him the next morning to start our diving. He never asked to see a card or anything. So while we were doing our surface interval between dives I asked him why he didn't ask for us to show it.

So he asked me how much I had spent on my equipment and I told him. He asked me how much the trip was costing me and I told him. So he then told me that no one would spend a couple of thousand on equipment, $1500 or so on a trip, and not spend the few hundred it takes to get certified. Made sense to me.

And to this day I have not been with a better operation and I've never seen a better diver in the water than him.

Seems like good logic, right up to the point I met someone with their own equipment, on a dive in the Caribbean, who owns their own tanks back home. Their thought was, I cannot dive without equipment but I don't have to paid for certification. If they get caught the consequences are trivial. They'd just go to the next dive shop until they found someone who would take them diving without asking for the c-card they didn't have.