Online Nitrox Course, any difficulty in using the C card?

[zugbug99]

Hi everyone,
I am thinking of taking the online beginner Nitrox (Ean) course as I live about a 2 hour drive from a diveshop that offers the standard brick and mortar classroom sessions and the obligatory 2 checkout dives prior to getting a certification card.
The training will be a brush up, as I was a US ARMY Dive Medic and a lot of time was spent on diving physiology, using mixed gas, and nonrebreathers (Draager closed circut) and hyperbaric chamber operations. But that was also 20 years ago (geeze how time flies).

Has anyone had problems getting a dive store to honor the Nitrox certification card if it does not come from one of the large certification agencies?

It lists SBA as the certifing agency.

I would appreciate your input.

Thank you!
Mike

 

[Islandheart]

See my PM about this.....

next ... understand dives are not required with a Nitrox certification.

that shop is not being truthful about the cert.

 

[DevonDiver]

Has anyone had problems getting a dive store to honor the Nitrox certification card if it does not come from one of the large certification agencies? It lists SBA as the certifing agency.

Never heard of SBA. (sure it wasn't SDI?)

If a customer presented that card, I'd check it out online to see if it were valid and met my/my agencies' approval.

I can find zero references to a scuba/nitrox agency named "SBA". Not reassuring. I probably wouldn't risk liability by supplying nitrox for that card.

obligatory 2 checkout dives prior to getting a certification card

Most of the main agencies no longer require dives. They are optional.

Further to that, most main agencies also offer online nitrox training. You still need to finish the course with a practical module at a dive center through - actually analyzing the nitrox tanks to determine the %O2.

I believe I read somewhere (probably an instructor memorandum) that PADI don't recognize certain online nitrox courses - especially if they don't have that practical (O2 analysis) element in their syllabus.

 

[Lemna]

Has anyone had problems getting a dive store to honor the Nitrox certification card if it does not come from one of the large certification agencies?

It lists SBA as the certifing agency.

Are you sure it's not SDA? If so, take a quick look at this, this or this (and many more like that) before handing over your money.

 

[DevonDiver]

Are you sure it's not SDA? If so, take a quick look at this, this or this (and many more like that) before handing over your money.

This is precisely what PADI have to say about SDA (from the quarterly member bulletin):

 

[crosshairs]

Use the PADI online course, then you wont have any problems with someone recognizing it as valid


PADI The Way the World Learns to Dive? - Find Scuba Diving Lessons, Scuba Certifications, Dive Shops, Dive Resorts, Scuba Gear, Scuba Diving Trips and Vacations, Scuba Diving Careers

 

[theduckguru]

​

It would not take a lot of effort for anyone to design an effective Nitrox training course and the dive training agencies blocking this guy are effectively enforcing a monopoly.

 

[nimoh]

It would not take a lot of effort for anyone to design an effective Nitrox training course and the dive training agencies blocking this guy is effectively enforcing a monopoly. Maybe he should get a good attorney, visit a couple thousand LDSs, and pursue legal action. It would be interesting since the LDS's insurance likeybwould not cover them.

PADI is not blocking SDA.

I think PADI takes the position that an instructor is necessary in the education process to evaluate whether or not the student has enough of a grasp of the material to approve the certification. Since the SDA Nitrox course is 100% online, PADI would not accept this certification has equivalent to their own since the cardholder was never evaluated by an instructor. I don't know about the other programs SDA offers, since their website doesn't work at the moment (Scuba Divers of America - SDA Scuba Certification Agency)

I think it is a big stretch to say that PADI is trying to create a monopoly when they so often accept cards from other agencies such as NAUI and SDI to satisfy pre-requisites for their programs.

 

[DevonDiver]

It would not take a lot of effort for anyone to design an effective Nitrox training course and the dive training agencies blocking this guy are effectively enforcing a monopoly.

I don't think the agencies are 'blocking' anyone. They just won't credit his courses towards their own certifications. That's nothing unusual - not all agencies partake of 'universal referral'.

The reason PADI make specific note of SDA was because they claimed their course would be widely accepted for referral, when they actually are not. Specifically, the claim (on their website of "The Academic portion of the scuba course and it's certification works for ANY scuba certification agency, ANY scuba instructor, Any where, Worldwide" was untrue and fraudulent.

Here is another example: "...we will issue a Nitrox Scuba Certification card valid at any scuba facility worldwide". Again, false and fraudulent. I can categorically say it is false, because I wouldn't accept it....so that's at least one

 

[Bob DBF]

​

It would not take a lot of effort for anyone to design an effective Nitrox training course and the dive training agencies blocking this guy are effectively enforcing a monopoly.

Read up on this charactor a bit and you will figure out he does not actually want to be in a courtroom.



Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.