Question to PADI: Cert cards

[Damselfish]

What is useful beyond a plain old c-card or maybe an EAN nitrox card? When you get that EAN card, you can use the certified diver card for scraping ice off of your windshield.

Actually not. It's useful to show an AOW card in many cases. From a Nitrox card, they don't know what your basic certification level is.

 

[Doc]

Actually not. It's useful to show an AOW card in many cases.

I have never ever been asked for an AOW card over and above my basic c-card... and that is the only one I ever pull out- people laugh at the picture of the young kid with hair.

Are there really dive ops that want to see an AOW card lest you be limited to 60fsw? Really? Anything else they want it for? I mean, it doesn't show you did the night dive, so how do they attempt to limit your diving?

 

[NudeDiver]

Are there really dive ops that want to see an AOW card lest you be limited to 60fsw? Really? Anything else they want it for? I mean, it doesn't show you did the night dive, so how do they attempt to limit your diving?

I've had some that advertise dives as AOW only - but they didn't actually check my card.

 

[Sas]

Are there really dive ops that want to see an AOW card lest you be limited to 60fsw? Really? Anything else they want it for? I mean, it doesn't show you did the night dive, so how do they attempt to limit your diving?

Yes there are. The dive op I use makes every new customer show their cert card, or if you get an additional qualification you have to show them your new one if you want to do deeper dives. OW to do 18m dive site, AOW for 30m, Deep for 40m and so on. However some of the sites it just means they don't put down the shot deeper than the cert level they require and the site is actually a lot deeper. so there is nothing stopping one from diving beyond their cert level. Once you've shown the card once, they have it in their computer so it is a one-time thing.

Two clubs I know of (and possibly more) require you to show a night diving card if you want to do club night dives, drift diving card for club drift dives and wreck diving card if you want to do wreck dives. I think this is a bit OTT. About 20% of my dives are night dives but I was not able to go on a club night dive with a shop because I did not have a PADI Night cert (I even have an SSI night cert as part of my SSI AOW).

 

[rstofer]

As someone who did his RD in a drysuit, I have to completely disagree with you here.

I was talking about MY RD cert. My course was in warm water with neither wetsuit nor drysuit. Hence, changing buoyancy was not much of a concern. That's why my RD cert is useless.

There is some chance I could control the victim's ascent if they were wearing a wetsuit. There is no chance at all for a victim in a drysuit with the misfortune of having air in their suit. Until I actually buy a drysuit (highly unlikely), I don't plan to spend much time figuring out how they work.

So, I never carry my RD card. Having the cert integrated on a cumulative card would imply a competence that doesn't exist.

Richard

 

[NudeDiver]

I was talking about MY RD cert. My course was in warm water with neither wetsuit nor drysuit. Hence, changing buoyancy was not much of a concern. That's why my RD cert is useless.

I know...I'm just saying that I don't think it's worthless

So, I never carry my RD card. Having the cert integrated on a cumulative card would imply a competence that doesn't exist.

Any cert card implies a competency that may not exist

 

[leapfrog]

I was working for a dive op this last summer. Island in the Atlantic. We checked every single diver A. Cert cards (I say plural because the op gave Nitrox for free to certified EANx divers), B. Insurance covering them, C. Logged dive question they didn't actually have to show a log)
Why? Because the op had two boats minimum in the water and sometimes three. So we sorted out the divers per boat and therefore per dive site on the basis of the divers' qualifications and experience and also sent out the appropriate instructors/divemasters for each boat. If there was any particularly more difficult dive, even the most experienced or highly certified divers were asked if they wanted it before allocating them to that particular boat.

Most diving was done by taking the boats out, coming back in for a surface interval to change tanks and have coffee, water and some food and going out on a second dive.

 

[Damselfish]

I have never ever been asked for an AOW card over and above my basic c-card...

and that means it must happen to no one?

Are there really dive ops that want to see an AOW card lest you be limited to 60fsw?

yes

 

[Doc]

We checked every single diver... A. Cert cards (I say plural because the op gave Nitrox for free to certified EANx divers), B. Insurance covering them, C. Logged dive question they didn't actually have to show a log).... we sorted out the divers ...on the basis of the divers' qualifications and experience.... and also sent out the appropriate instructors/divemasters for each boat.

My head is now all mixed up. The staff made a judgement based not on the voluntary optional display of a log book, but on their evaluation of cert cards presented?

And then, based on that, the company decided which or how many appropriate instructors or DM's were needed? How did they make that decision?

And not to be a internet spelling corrector, but here's a fun fact to know and tell: If you use the word nitrox, it isn't capitalized.

I fear that many dive ops might use card presentation as a shield from liability more than anything else.

and that means it must happen to no one?

Just a way of asking, initiating repartee, a form of grown up conversation, that's all. Read between the lines. Hasn't been a landslide of response so far.

 

[Sas]

And not to be a internet spelling corrector, but here's a fun fact to know and tell: If you use the word nitrox, it isn't capitalized.

Usually I do not get so pedantic myself unless others start it but actually nitrox and Nitrox are both acceptable as they are both commonly used.

I fear that many dive ops might use card presentation as a shield from liability more than anything else.

Yes, this is true. At least in my experience.