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

[Stoo]

My CMAS card says Plongeur Diver.

Sounds dirty... ;-)

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

Things like zero visibility, tides, extreme cold, ice diving, drysuit, altitude, and overhead envrionments are not included in standard OW training (unless needed locally)

Here in the Pac NW, OW courses are taught in a drysuit. New divers, learning with the complexity of drysuit diving, in crap vis, with tides.

 

[boulderjohn]

Here in the Pac NW, OW courses are taught in a drysuit. New divers, learning with the complexity of drysuit diving, in crap vis, with tides.

Gosh! Maybe that's why I wrote "unless needed locally."

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

If they get a lake or quarry to certify in would it then be the A.R.S.E.hole?

That's the Cave Diving cert.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Here is my original certification card, by Roy France in 1963, LA County. I wonder if I went onto a boat, and showed this card, whether they would honor it? Also, if I was diving my older regulator with a SPG, and they asked for a computer, and I showed them my NAUI Dive Tables, my watch and depth gauge, would they honor that? I got that original card after having been diving since 1959, after training that involved Red Cross Lifeguard/Swimming Instructor certification, and years on my North Salem High School Swim Team. I had also read J.Y. Cousteau's The Silent World three times. If you read that book, you'll have most of the academic background necessary for diving.

I have other certifications; just trying to see if I ever do a boat dive, what I would need.

SeaRat

PS, our Salem (Oregon) Junior Aqua Club had to import Roy France from California to Salem to get certified, as there were no instructors in our area at the time.

 

[boulderjohn]

Also, if I was diving my older regulator with a SPG, and they asked for a computer, and I showed them my NAUI Dive Tables, my watch and depth gauge, would they honor that?

There are many operators today that require computers. I encountered my first such operator in Cozumel nearly 20 years ago.

 

[bradlw]

I recall that many oprators were doing that 20-25 years ago as well. I found that funny (and downright silly) once I realized that on these recreational charters there is basically no way to really need it when using an AL 80 and even loosely staying within their dive time timeline.
depth is limited by sand
time is limited by their "back on the boat time"
and time is safetied by the fact that at the depths we're talking basically everyone will run out of air from the 80's before reaching the NDL.

 

[boulderjohn]

I recall that many oprators were doing that 20-25 years ago as well. I found that funny (and downright silly) once I realized that on these recreational charters there is basically no way to really need it when using an AL 80 and even loosely staying within their dive time timeline.
depth is limited by sand
time is limited by their "back on the boat time"
and time is safetied by the fact that at the depths we're talking basically everyone will run out of air from the 80's before reaching the NDL.

For some people in some places. For others....

As I said, the first place I encountered a required computer was with an operator in Cozumel.

• Depth limited by sand? My deepest dive in Cozumel was 320 feet, and there was no sand beneath me. With this operator, though, my deepest dive has only been about 130 feet.
• I have never been limited by a "be back on boat time" there. We ascend when the dive is over. On my last trip there with that operator, our average dive time was about 87 minutes, and that would be with dives averaging about 90-100 feet maximum depth.
• Go to the Cozumel forum and you will regularly see people talking about dives with AL 80s with total times over 80 minutes.

Computers allow you to do multi-livel dives. In places (like Cozumel) where every dive is multi-level, then every table-based dive will be off the tables and untrackable. If you don't have a computer, you are flying blind. I found that out on my very first dive in Cozumel. I followed the DM (as required by law) and whipped out my log book and tables after the dive. I was nowhere near the limits, so I had no ability to manage my dives. Other people looked at me with amused grins and told me my tables would make a decent Frisbee. As soon as I got home, I got a computer.

 

[100days-a-year]

Tables vs computer get more important as you go deeper.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I do have a computer (Suunto Cobra), but I wanted to see the reaction. Those tables are made to be dived, and this so-called multi-level diving to shorten decompresssion times is only a way of increasing dive time. In reality, if you have tables on you, and dive with a depth gauge and watch, you use the deepest dive depth and the time accrued, which give a nice safety factor. This can be done for multiple dives too, just follow the NAUI Tables (see the above post) around again, with the residual dive times shown and factored into the next dive.

Now, concerning deep dives, that is not a concern of mine, as at my age (77 years old) I won’t be diving deeper than 130 feet. You guys and gals can dive to 300+ feet if you wish, but that’s not for me at this stage of my life.

Concerning equipment, I will dive my double hose regulators (I have three that allow for an inflator, computer, and octopus), and I would hope a dive operator would allow that configuration. I also have my own BCD that I developed and patented myself, that I would probably want to dive. That would also be interesting.

SeaRat