Is dive certification really necessary?

[dcarpa]

The Great Dive Podcast is a goldmine of fun stuff and useful information, and a great way to burn an hour in the car. It's just two real people, that love to dive, and share their perspective with fun stories and topics. It's like the old classic comedy duos with James playing the straight comedian while usually using carefully worded opinions and stories, and then Brando is....welll the opposite. There are a bunch of other podcasts that have good info but they are dry and can come across as condescending and turn me off, while The Great Dive Podcast can still be direct, and Brando can go on a rant, but I'm laughing all the way through it.

 

[Anthony in NC]

We got fills at Rainbow Reef in Key Largo last year all week. They didn't ask to see a cert card or a nitrox card. Maybe we just "looked like divers" or something? They did say they couldn't fill two of our cylinders because they didn't have a nitrox band on them, but I suspect that was because they had nitrox bands for sale. After we bought two of their bands, we were good to go. All together we got 18 fills over the week were there. No C-card or nitrox card ever asked for.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

What's next, asking if a driver's license is really necessary? Sure, someone can learn to drive competently and not get a license, but that doesn't change that there are good reasons why driving without a license is illegal.

...And this is coming from somebody with a dive count of “None, not certified” ?

Let’s take your drivers license comparison one step further. You can learn to drive through several venues, your parents, a friend, a paid instructor at a driving school, etc. when you turn 16 and feel you are ready to take your test you go to the DMV and they test you both written and on the road. If you successfully pass you get your drivers license.

In diving you have to go through an agency, but the agency affiliated instructor could be a total flake and theoretically pass even the biggest idiot.
So how is this system better?

What if you were able to learn to dive through a variety of venues like your parents, a friend, by a paid instructor at a diving school, etc. then when you feel you are ready, you go to the place that issues certification cards and when you pass the written and physical performance exams you get your certification.

Can you imagine what it would be like if any agency affiliated flaky driving instructor was able to issue drivers licenses to any idiot that payed the money? Skill levels would be all over the place, it would be a nightmare!
This is pretty much how dive instruction and certification works right now.

 

[Anthony in NC]

Well the drivers license thing is actually a good analogy.

See it actually isn't illegal to drive a car without a license. You just can't drive it on the governments highway without a license. I grew up on 300 acres in rural North Carolina. As a 12 year old, I drove the heck out of that raggedy old jeep, all over the place. To the river and back, down the trails in the woods, across the fields. And it was legal. But the minute I drove my jeep out onto the state-owned road, I was "driving without a license" and might get a ticket. We had a racetrack in Johnston County. It was privately owned. Anybody could drive a car on that racetrack without a DL if you paid for the thrill.

Dive cert is like that. At least here in the U.S. there isn't any law that says you must have a C-card to dive. Now if you want to rent the dive shops gear, or have the dive shop fill your cylinders, or ride the dive shops boat to the dive site, then the established "industry standard" (and probably the shops insurance company) says you have to provide proof of certification. Now the dive shop will sell you one of everything in the dive shop without seeing a C-card, up until your credit card is declined. They just won't rent it to you without a C-card.

But if you were dumb enough to do it, you could buy all your gear, buy a boat, buy a compressor, fill your tanks, and go dive, and there's no law in the U.S. that says you have to be certified. Now there's some ordinances in the State Parks and local municipalities that might say you have to be certified to dive. But generally, there's no law that requires it.

In 16 years I've never been asked for a C-card by any law enforcement. I've been asked for my fishing license by the Marine Patrol while spearfishing, but he didn't car one bit to see a C-card.

 

[BRT]

We got fills at Rainbow Reef in Key Largo last year all week. They didn't ask to see a cert card or a nitrox card. Maybe we just "looked like divers" or something? They did say they couldn't fill two of our cylinders because they didn't have a nitrox band on them, but I suspect that was because they had nitrox bands for sale. After we bought two of their bands, we were good to go. All together we got 18 fills over the week were there. No C-card or nitrox card ever asked for.

Did they need to look inside the cylinders before the nitrox bands were installed?

 

[Anthony in NC]

Did they need to look inside the cylinders before the nitrox bands were installed?

No. They just said they couldn't fill them because the cylinders weren't properly marked. Then said they had nitrox bands for sale in the dive shop. We just wanted fills, so we said, yeah sure, whatever. They put the stickers on and filled them.

(and then labeled the contents wrong because they didn't analyze them)

 

[BRT]

No. They just said they couldn't fill them because the cylinders weren't properly marked. Then said they had nitrox bands for sale in the dive shop. We just wanted fills, so we said, yeah sure, whatever. They put the stickers on and filled them.

(and then labeled the contents wrong because they didn't analyze them)

I feel much safer, didn't you?

 

[Anthony in NC]

I feel much safer, didn't you?

At least the stickers were only $5 each.
I suppose we could declined and drove all over the Keys looking a place that would fill cylinders without a nitrox label with nitrox, but it was less hassle to just pay the sticker fee.

 

[boulderjohn]

At least the stickers were only $5 each.
I suppose we could declined and drove all over the Keys looking a place that would fill cylinders without a nitrox label with nitrox, but it was less hassle to just pay the sticker fee.

I have spent 1-2 months a year a little north of there in the Pompano Beach area, and I have done that for a decade now. I bring a half dozen of my own tanks with me each year. All are oxygen cleaned, and none has a nitrox sticker. I have had them filled in 4 different shops there, and never with air. No one has mentioned any need for a nitrox sticker.

 

[Anthony in NC]

I don't know. it was out first time down there. I don't know how knowledgeable the guy was or what the shops policy was/is. Carlos was his name I think. Said he was a former Marine and a scuba instructor.

Two of our shops here don't care about oxy clean for their banked nitrox. They fill cylinders with air or nitrox, labeled or not. One other shop won't fill banked nitrox unless the cylinder is oxy clean.

Technically he was right though about the stickers, that's why we didn't gripe about it.

We were down there 10 days. I spent 3 grand myself, the other three guys probably as much. $15 bucks for stickers wasn't even going to amount to a drop in the bucket.