How to answer "what is your highest certification level"?

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

Yeah, setting yourself up for a nice day on the water.

I like to show them aow, combined with my grey hair
smile, using their name and shake hands, and smile

On this forum it’s quite rare to find more than one ambassador with your infinite wisdom and cunning disposition. It has often been said that great minds think alike, and so, I humbly produce the necessary c-card unless there is a price reduction for Instructors (which I’m not).

 

[Wibble]

Much the same here, minus the cave-specific stuff.

I took the PADI Self-Reliant course before moving into the technical realm but after diving SM for a few years. The course was an excellent "soft" introduction to the technical diving mindset and skills, and my previous SM experience made some of the class much easier.


Yeah... That first intentional solo dive felt straight-up weird.

As one progresses through the experience levels from novice to competent novice and onwards, it is interesting how you get very different things from the courses you do, especially as the same material is covered by multiple courses. For example ANDP, normoxic trimix, Solo Diver, MOD1, MOD2 all cover redundancy and "bailout" planning & techniques.

 

[SlugLife]

As one progresses through the experience levels from novice to competent novice and onwards, it is interesting how you get very different things from the courses you do, especially as the same material is covered by multiple courses. For example ANDP, normoxic trimix, Solo Diver, MOD1, MOD2 all cover redundancy and "bailout" planning & techniques.

You never quite know exactly what was or wasn't covered by every student's previous instruction, or what students may have forgotten or not practiced in a while. I suppose what matters is that you're safe and actually learn something or value relative to what you paid.

(That said, watching the exceedingly boring videos every mainstream training agency puts out makes me wish for an off-button)

 

[Marie13]

I recently did a PADI scooter class for fun. The other two students are PADI DMs. I told the instructor right before the class that I’m not PADI trained, I don’t do the BWARF thing or whatever it is, and that I would do my own gear checks before the dives. All my recreational training was SDI aside from PADI ice diver. I was diving SM anyway and my checks are more involved than single tank divers. Instructor explained this to the two other students, who did their checks together in their usual way.

 

[Akimbo]

Haha good question. My favorite is when you get a fresh out of there IDC 19 year old and you respond with TDI Advanced Mixed Gas or IANTD Expedition Trimix and then they just look at you with a really confused face, there head sideways and go "Huh?" so then you just say AOW and they nod there head and excitingly go "ohhhh ok!!"

I say US Navy Saturation if I want to start a conversation but stick with Advanced Nitrox or Decompression Procedures normally. I have a good friend that says "I was on SEAL Team One, everything else is classified". The guy's neck is bigger than my thigh and his chest is like a 55 gallon drum so nobody questioned it.

I didn't have a C-card from any nationally recognized agency for my first 12 years of diving. A couple of friends finally gave me some cards so I could get air fills.

 

[100days-a-year]

I say US Navy Saturation if I want to start a conversation but stick with Advanced Nitrox or Decompression Procedures normally. I have a good friend that says "I was on SEAL Team One, everything else is classified". The guy's neck is bigger than my thigh and his chest is like a 55 gallon drum so nobody questioned it.

I didn't have a C-card from any nationally recognized agency for my first 12 years of diving. A couple of friends finally gave me some cards so I could get air fills.

Also had those friends. And a shop who turned a blind eye to the tanks they knew had oxygen in them years before there was a nitrox cert.

 

[SlugLife]

I told the instructor right before the class that I’m not PADI trained, I don’t do the BWARF thing or whatever it is, and that I would do my own gear checks before the dives.

I only BARF off the side of boats under rare circumstances. Typically in wavy conditions and after swallowing sea-water.

PADI Pre Dive Safety Checklist BWRAF

PADI divers and buddy teams should run through the five step pre dive safety checklist before the buddy team enter the water - BWRAF.

www.private-scuba.com

The ABCDEF I was taught is a little easier to remember.

* A = Air
* B = BCD
* C = Computer/Console
* D = Weights
* E = Eyes (Mask)
* F = Fins

I'm happy to buddy-check someone else's gear, but as one who does Sidemount and frequent solo, I often let them know it's not strictly necessary to do in return.

 

[Marie13]

I'm happy to buddy-check someone else's gear, but as one who does Sidemount and frequent solo, I often let them know it's not strictly necessary to do in return.

I often dive solo myself. I have my own way of doing checks that works for me and get out of wack doing it a different way.

 

[SlugLife]

I often dive solo myself. I have my own way of doing checks that works for me and get out of wack doing it a different way.

Same. I can only think of one meaningful mistake I've made solo, which was forgetting to turn on my pony-tank and flooding my secondary regs.

During my AOW class a while back (before Sidemount), I must have made 2-3 mistakes the first day. Nothing dangerous, but things discovering I left my goggles back at the staging-area, and that's with a buddy check. I quickly realized the buddy-checks were distracting me, and ended up telling my dive-buddy to not begin checks until I gave him a signal, indicating I was 100% done with my own checks, and made no mistakes after that.

 

[Subcooled]

Highest dive certification is a complicated concept.
I would even dare to say, it is ill-defined.

Does it mean mixed gas complexity / deco complexity?
Does it mean overhead environment complexity?
Does it mean equipment complexity (e.g. rebreathers)?
Does it mean task complexity, such as SAR or scientific diving?
Does it mean mental challenges?

My most advanced skills would be sump diver, but that's not a certification (it is based on mentoring), and search and recovery diver, which I am by trade, not by certification.