Is dive certification really necessary?

[boulderjohn]

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

I don't know what this means.

 

[Anthony in NC]

I don't know what this means.

Cylinders that contain anything other than air are supposed to be "conspicuously labeled to their contents" according to the "industry standard". Although nobody cares around my area. Most dives shops interpret that to mean the usual nitrox band.

When he said it was "the law" I kind of asked him what the law said the sticker had to be like. He didn't know but told me it couldn't be "just a piece of tape with nitrox written on it". The reason I asked was because I was afraid my cylinders with my custom "not your tank" nitrox band wouldn't meet the requirements of this "law" he said existed.

 

[boulderjohn]

Cylinders that contain anything other than air are supposed to be "conspicuously labeled to their contents" according to the "industry standard". Although nobody cares around my area. Most dives shops interpret that to mean the usual nitrox band.

See if you can find the law.

 

[captain]

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.
[/QUOTE

Then just call me dumb enough. By the time I was 24 I had the equipment, the compressor and the boat but no certification.

 

[Bob DBF]

See if you can find the law.

I didn't know you had a mean side to you.

 

[Anthony in NC]

See if you can find the law.

At the time the relevant law was, "It's my fill station, Jack." LOL

He was probably a PSI graduate and was citing the PSI policy for cylinder handling.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I hand lettered my own nitrox tanks.
I’ve been a professional sign painter for the last 30 years.
Does that count?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

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.

I started driving when I was 9.
My dad was Russian and they have a much different outlook than most of America. They are total hands on do it yourselfer types and teach their kids basic hands on living skills very early in life. He used to take me out to the back roads even though they technically were public and taught me how to drive. There were never any cops where we went. Later when I was 14 yo up to past high school I lived on a 3000 acre ranch up in the boonies of Northern California. We didn’t even have power only candles and wood for heat. The whole ranch was a maze of dirt roads and our parents gave us a VW bug to drive to the school bus stop an hour away. Then we had another hour and a half ride to school on the bus. I was amazed at how much abuse VW bugs could actually take! Two teenage boys with a tank of gas and a Baja bug, look out!
By the time I got my actual license I had been driving already for 7 years.
Drivers ed in high school was a total cakewalk.

 

[BRT]

I hand lettered my own nitrox tanks.
I’ve been a professional sign painter for the last 30 years.
Does that count?

Kinda funny, but a handwritten piece of tape on a cylinder is much more likely to tell the truth of what is in it than a nitrox band.

 

[Anthony in NC]

Kinda funny, but a handwritten piece of tape on a cylinder is much more likely to tell the truth of what is in it than a nitrox band.

Remember I said he labeled them wrong.

My HP100's were about half full of 36% when I dropped them off. They only banked 30, so I told him that was fine. He filled them with 30% and wrote 30% on the yellow tape. I suppose his theory was that if he put 30% in a cylinder, it must be full of 30%? They didn't have a nitrox log so we just took the tanks and on the boat I plugged my analyzer in just because.... 33%.

On the shallow reefs we were diving that day it didn't really matter, but it's the idea that it was labeled wrong. And that's why you always check your own cylinders. That's why I found it kinda silly that he was being such a snob over a nitrox decal. I've had no fill station training so I don't know the procedure, but I do know around here, the guy fills the tank, he analyzes it, then when you pick it up you analyze it and sign the log. Unless it's a hot fill while you wait, then you watch him analyze it and see the readout so there's no need to analyze it again.