Is certification necessary for shallow water diving?

[Bob DBF]

Who taught you to drive is not really the appropriate analogy. It's who examined your driving knowledge and skill and licensed you to drive that matters.

Although you are correct, a drivers licence gives one the legal ability to drive on public roads, while a c-card is not a licence, and is not legally necessary to scuba dive.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

When your SPG breaks, you don't just reason that SPGs are dangerous and useless, removing it from your gear, you just replace it with a working one.

No, you swear off SPGs for good, except for the little button one on the pony reg, and go you get some Shearwater AI goodness.

 

[34109411]

But seriously, folks, diving really is easy--if we are just talking about diving. I remember my cousin diving off the Jersey shore in the early 1960s, and, yes, his only training was the sporting goods store employee where he bought his equipment telling him not to hold his breath.

When I taught OW classes, I would introduce the pool sessions with a series of steps leading to them swimming around the shallow end while (roughly) neutrally buoyant. When they came to the surface, I would tell them that they now knew all they needed to know about scuba diving, thanks for coming, etc. After the laughs, I would say that no, I was serious. That really was all they needed to be able to do to dive. Everything we were going to do after that was all about how to prevent things from going wrong and how to manage them when they do.

So can you learn to dive without training? Heck, yes! You can figure out all the safety stuff on your own, too. What can go wrong, after all?

what can go wrong ??? Oh nothing special. You made my day.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I didn’t pay a driving instructor to tell me to turn the wheel and step on the gas, my dad taught me.

Yeah, but my father didn't teach me this:

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Of course it's a necessary.

Why?

 

[dmaziuk]

You might be surprised. I remember one student who just couldn't grasp that his mask was supposed to fit over his nose. We sent him home to watch videos.
I think most people fail due to anxiety. I always feel like those are my failures, too.

I think I can top that: in my OW class there was a kid (certified by a University-affiliated instructor, so: mostly student students in the class) who wouldn't let go of the pool side during the float test: he couldn't swim, and another who would let go for as long as she could hold her breath, but then had to grab it to breathe -- she couldn't swim either, but was willing to try.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

The thread started with a simple query: Is CERTIFICATION required to dive?

Never was it asked is it OK to go diving without education (training, guidance, skill building, mentoring, etc) .

Again, paying an instructor and getting a piece of paper is not education. If both happen at the same time, great.

 

[thbcthomas]

The thread started with a simple query: Is CERTIFICATION required to dive?

Never was it asked is it OK to go diving without education (training, guidance, skill building, mentoring, etc) .

Again, paying an instructor and getting a piece of paper is not education. If both happen at the same time, great.

I never meant just go buy your gear of off Craigslist and go jump in as some have implied. But with all the information that is available to us today and all the resources, could a competent, capable, and responsible person with the help of another be able to dive safely? I believe they can. I appreciate all the responses so far.

 

[rick00001967]

Just to clarify, I am not saying everyone should skip getting certified, that would be crazy. I am however saying, that certain people like @Scuba Lawyer @Belzelbub and many others with the right tools and help, could dive safely.
Also I have loaned my gear to a very select number of people that I was very confident could handle it, and was in the pool with them, never unsupervised or unattended.Some of these have asked, “Can I bring a buddy over and let him try it out?” My answer was absolutely not.

too much liability imho. but as instructors perhaps we see things from a slightly different perspective than non instructors.
would anyone here let an unlicensed driver who was "trained" to drive, use their car?
maybe on your own property, in the back forty, going 10mph, with you beside them? but certainly not on the highway right? so where is the line?
for me there would be no line. i just would not do it. 20 years ago.....??

 

[Waterwulf]

No, the Certification is not required to SCUBA dive. Absolutely not, nohow, no way. After all, it's just a piece of paper. However, the training is required so you're not a danger to yourself or anybody else.

You have to remember: You're in an environment that is deadly to your life and well being. It ain't natural to be there! Just think about this for a moment. When you go underwater and breath air from a can, you are in an environment more dangerous than what the Astronauts are subjected to. You'll both die if you run out of air. You're both in danger of decompression issues. You're both far away from home and maybe nobody will find you if things go wrong. The Astronaut's face shield fogs up and so does yours. Etc, etc. etc.

Except, the Astronaut only has to contend with one pressure differential while you may have to deal with several pressure differences and his is constant while yours changes as you rise and descend. He doesn't have to worry about getting stung by critters or eaten, getting run over by an idiot water skiing behind a spaceship, having to go to the bathroom at a hundred feet depth, etc. etc. etc. Plus, he has a serious support system at his beck and call. You might have a partner who's in the same "boat" as you are. And I guarantee you that the Astronauts air never stinks!!!

The number and seriousness of the mistakes made by untrained divers is amazing and sometimes funny. I went to work for the club that trained me, as a Safety Diver. I helped in the pool training and escorted new divers on their first four ocean dives to get them certified. The stuff that I saw was sometimes scary but that was my job. To keep them alive until they figured it out and learned it. I saw Horse Collar BC's on upside down, weight belts strapped on inside of the other harnesses, air turned off, J Valves turned on, etc. etc. etc.

Personally, I think modern SCUBA training courses are lacking a lot of things. But, most of them will teach you enough to keep you mostly alive long enough so you can learn the rest of it your own. Get the training.