Questionable advice

[kodiak]

You know I just dropped a bottle off to get hydroed, and I wasnt asked for my card either, but if they do sale you gear, air, or dont ask you for your card when on a dive trip, then they are breaking there own rules. With the way the leagal system is in this country now day's no one takes responsibelity for there own actions, and the dive shop that sales them the gear without the cert. could probably be held liable if someone was injured or killed. And I have been in a few dive shoppes myself in the last 30 years.

 

[MikeFerrara]

kodiak,
What about buying gear online? What about people buying equipment for gifts? Gear is Ok, we just won't sell breathing gas without a card.

 

[kodiak]

Mike, I dont know the answer to that question about the internet, but I do know that I have been asked for my card when buying gear and air, thats the reason I did do my OW in 90, I was also asked for a card in a shop in Bellingham Wa, when I tried to rent gear. I have also been looking for new gear on the net and have found that seaquest well not sale over net or allow there dealers to do so. I beleive that Tusa is the same, and others that I have looked up.

 

[dc4bs]

My buddys dad refuses to get certified. He bought some of his original equipment from his neighbor who dove with Cousteau at the time and built the rest himself.

He still has some of that old gear hanging on the wall in his basement. He figures he's been diving longer than prety much all of the agencies have existed so he doesn't want one of their cards.

There are several diveshops in his area that know him and will fill his tanks but he's had problems getting airfills on trips.

It REALLY annoys my buddy who is an instructor for several agencies...
.

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by sdexcalibur
My brother and his wife went to the LDS to talk about classes.
[...]
why don't just your wife take the class then go with her after she is already certified

The devil's advocate in me would have to ask if the LDS made an incorrect assumption that your brother was already certified?

Originally posted by MikeFerrara
As an lds I will gladly and properly sell you anything you want without a card, except air

Interesting. I know a lot of the LDSs around me actually _don't_ check cards for air fills, as you don't need scuba training to use compressed air [for example paintball guns]. They do check cards for regulators, consoles, etc...

 

[MikeFerrara]

PADI shops sign an agreement stating that they will not sell air to other than certified divers. No such agreement for equipment. When we fill for paintballers or other non-diving uses, we insist that their tank be marked as not for breathing. No big bold marking - no air.

 

[MSilvia]

Aside from the trips I've taken, I don't remember being asked for my C card for air fills or when buying equipment. Of course, the LDSs I go to all know me by face, if not by name, and I've taken cert classes through them, so they know I'm trained. When I have been asked by an LDS for a card, it's been for rental equipment.

 

[MikeFerrara]

We require a card to rent equipment but not to purchase it.

 

[Tavi]

Originally posted by MikeFerrara
We require a card to rent equipment but not to purchase it.

That's how it is here in New York too.

 

[rstone]

Originally posted by funky__monks
Interesting. I know a lot of the LDSs around me actually _don't_ check cards for air fills, as you don't need scuba training to use compressed air [for example paintball guns]. They do check cards for regulators, consoles, etc...

Well there is a difference between compressed air, and filtered compressed air used in scuba. I wouldnt use a standard air compressor to fill a tank and go diving with it, as you have no idea what else got sucked into that tank.

In most the dives shops I've been into in florida, they dont ask for IDs for scuba gear, except tanks, and always ID for air.

At the shop I worked for we even had people come in who wanted a tank/air to jump in there pool and turned them away. As you remember, a diver can be hurt in even shallow water.

Ryan Stone
IDCS