PADI: How do I cancel my certification?

[cosminadi]

I have the PADI advanced open water (AOW) diving certification.

Question: How do I cancel my PADI certification?

My reasons are: (1) shopping for life insurance and want the lowest rates, and (2) I had an incident at a PADI shop detailed in further posts below, that made me risk-averse to diving. I own part of the guilt on the incident.

PADI is great about training/certification, except for not responding or doing anything about the incident.

Thank you all for your answers.

I did join today, for this exact question. There is no information on PADI website, and I will call them on Monday. I will also post the answer here for anyone that cares.

 

[boulderjohn]

You can't cancel certification. Once you were OW certified, you were certified for life. Your AOW is just one more level of certification, and it does not make any difference.

Your middle paragraph makes little sense to me--perhaps you could rewrite it for clarification.

Ask the insurance company what you can do about it.

 

[Karibelle]

You're only a scuba diver if you dive. Just quit diving, and answer "no" on the policy. And if you had an incident (the "experience at a PADI dive centre") that is causing you to not want to "risk your life at the hands of careless dive masters" PLEASE REPORT THAT TO THE AGENCY.

Ph: 800 729 7234 (US and Canada)

kari

 

[Scubadawg]

As far as I know you cant "cancel" your C-Card, just don't dive and sell all your gear. I know if you dont dive in about a year, most charters would make you take a refreshers course.

My suggestion is find another Dive Center, I wouldn't let one person ruin something I love to do. If you take your vehicle to a mechanic and he does a crappy job, do you sell your car? NO!! You take it to someone else.. Get a refferal.

Let others know about the experience you've had and prevent others from having it happen to them.

have a look at this page,

Consumer Alerts - Quality Management Reports - PADI Scuba Diving Training Society

FYI... What gear you got and how bad you want rid of it....

 

[drrich2]

Diving is not worth risking your life at the hands of careless dive masters.

Get the right training and dive under the right conditions, with a reputable professional operation if you need one (such as for boat trips) and that should not be an issue. Like Scubadawg said:

If you take your vehicle to a mechanic and he does a crappy job, do you sell your car? NO!! You take it to someone else.. Get a referral.

Richard.

 

[Tanked]

I can see fish at local market or aquarium.

And you will get the same enjoyment from this as you would from diving.
Trust me, I'm a PADI Divemaster.:cool2:

 

[Jim Lapenta]

The real key is to get training that will allow you to dive without a DM. Their job is not to keep you safe, plan your dive, monitor your air, be your buddy (unless being paid to do so), or get you back to the boat. If someone told you any of these things was the job of a DM they lied. The good DM's point out cool stuff if you want to look, give good briefings, and kind of keep a group together. The best ones IMO, give a good briefing, tell you where you might find cool stuff on your own, and stay on the boat to help with emergencies if needed. They don't need to be in the water watching over you if you've been properly trained and using good judgment about whether or not a dive is within your reach.

In short you should want a DM in the water. But you should never need one to be there.

 

[cosminadi]

You're only a scuba diver if you dive. Just quit diving, and answer "no" on the policy. And if you had an incident (the "experience at a PADI dive centre") that is causing you to not want to "risk your life at the hands of careless dive masters" PLEASE REPORT THAT TO THE AGENCY.

kari

kari, thanks for your response. The incident has been reported to the dive shop and PADI, but neither could care less. Neither did anything. In fact, PADI never bothered to respond. The PADI contact was Mike Hill.

The incident was a mild case of bends due to faulty equipment rented and a dive master very aggressive on the time spent underwater (way over PADI tables). My rented dive computer failed on second dive (I know, I was supposed to surface at once). I fully recovered, but it cost me $3,500 in decompression chamber bills, and a good scare. I was in no condition to pursue the case further at the time, for health issues.

Feeling "bubbly" is not fun, don't try it at home.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Again, why would the DM being agressive on time have anything to do with you? Your time is up you surface. Simple. To hell with the DM.

 

[cosminadi]

Jim,

You are true. But, if you rent equipment from a dive shop, you expect it to work. When the dive computer fails, and you got no timer underwater, you need to trust your buddy. And the dive master WAS my buddy on second dive, for this particular reason.

For those accusing me of being a troll, my question did not "rip PADI", merely asking information that is not available on their website. And it was my first post, as I registered for this exact reason.

Perhaps my comment about fish and local market has no merit, as I did enjoy diving, especially wreck dives. I do have training and experience (25+ dives), but not a dive master by no means.

Thanks all for your comments. No harm intended here, but to ask a simple question: you become a member, you should be able to cancel that membership, be it AAA or PADI.