Verifying dives

[100days-a-year]

Nope, nopity and no chance.
SSI is the new PADI. Glad to to have ditched them both years ago. It's no wonder people switch agencies and have little loyalty to shops anymore.

 

[Ukmc]

Which two?
Certainly not the first one.

Yes the first one as well. If you get 100th dive verified all hundred will be verified. Many dive shops or dive professionals will verify it for you. Some will check your log, some will not, depending how well they know. More importantly, if you don’t have SSI shops or a relationship with SSI why do you care about their reward system? Just go with whatever you are doing and stop bashing the other agency you don’t know much about. SSI‘s goal is provide comprehensive education and travel experience and retain you as a customer for a long haul . Is it gimmicky? I don’t think so, but you may. Can you game the system, sure… You can forge paper logs , bring someone else’s dove computer to the operator that may require certain number of dives - but you are cheating yourself.
The most importamy thing you do not seem to understand is that SSI is NOT verifying your dives!!! They are verifying your award recognition status for their system - you do not have to use it.

 

[Ukmc]

Nope, nopity and no chance.
SSI is the new PADI. Glad to to have ditched them both years ago. It's no wonder people switch agencies and have little loyalty to shops anymore.

Too cool for school…
Bashing both agencies with one sentence? Strong work. And a broad generalization with the next sentence. On the roll there…
I have a loyalty to my shop. However, it is great that there is no monopoly there so each can find what suits them.

 

[Dody]

Centrals, I don’t think you or OP get a point. SSI verifies award recognition. You can get certified by SSI but keep track of dives whichever way your choose. Your dives “count” for whichever purpose you choose, regardless wether they verified or not by a SSI shop or SSI professional. The only time it matters is if you want their recognitio…

Yes, I checked and I think you are right.

 

[Dody]

Yes, those dives need to be verified and they will be as you are with a SSI shop. I have over 100 dives now, so I don’t think that I will be bothered by the dive count in the future. Unless some training or dives requires a minimum of 150, 200 or 300 dives.

It appears that SSI AOW is 4 specialties and 24 dives. Do those 24 dives need to be "verified" in order to get AOW? Some operators want to see AOW for certain dives. Do operators realize the training difference and readily accept Advanced Adventurer?

The verification process seems overly burdensome, and several other things

 

[Centrals]

Yes the first one as well. If you get 100th dive verified all hundred will be verified. Many dive shops or dive professionals will verify it for you. Some will check your log, some will not, depending how well they know. More importantly, if you don’t have SSI shops or a relationship with SSI why do you care about their reward system? Just go with whatever you are doing and stop bashing the other agency you don’t know much about. SSI‘s goal is provide comprehensive education and travel experience and retain you as a customer for a long haul . Is it gimmicky? I don’t think so, but you may. Can you game the system, sure… You can forge paper logs , bring someone else’s dove computer to the operator that may require certain number of dives - but you are cheating yourself.
The most importamy thing you do not seem to understand is that SSI is NOT verifying your dives!!! They are verifying your award recognition status for their system - you do not have to use it.

Every agency is providing comprehensive education etc etc and SSI is no exception. As for "travel experience" what is the attraction of finding a SSI shop in far flung places. It is a lot easier to find NAUI/PADI operators! Why would I want to limit myself in travelling?
I travel with my IANTD and PADI card and never been denied. Both cards are the proof of the "recognition status" of my training by IANTD/PADI.
I will be only cheating myself if I only dive with certain affiliated agency. There is absolutely no need for me to search for certain "approved" operator.
"Retain as a customer for a long haul"? they cannot be serious because I seldom saw SSI logo in most operators that I had patronized. Freedom of choice.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Nope, nopity and no chance.
SSI is the new PADI. Glad to to have ditched them both years ago. It's no wonder people switch agencies and have little loyalty to shops anymore.

Too cool for school…
Bashing both agencies with one sentence? Strong work. And a broad generalization with the next sentence. On the roll there…
I have a loyalty to my shop. However, it is great that there is no monopoly there so each can find what suits them.

A bit over sensitive or might you have a skin in this silly game? Attacking someone for sharing a simple opinion when they never attacked you personally? Who's "on a roll"?

Both PADI and now SSI are masters at gimmicks to suck you in and keep you sucked in. It's up to you whether you want to play their little game.

 

[johndiver999]

Yes, those dives need to be verified and they will be as you are with a SSI shop. I have over 100 dives now, so I don’t think that I will be bothered by the dive count in the future. Unless some training or dives requires a minimum of 150, 200 or 300 dives.

The value of a dive log should be primarily to the individual diver - particularly if you have enough dives logged for any qualifications you might pursue in the future. To seek "verification" after attainment of this objective seems strange to me.

Put the information you need/want in a dive log and keep it to yourself. I wish I had logged all my dives, it would be cool to review, but NOT cool enough to make me actually start keeping a log now.

 

[Belzelbub]

I will be only cheating myself if I only dive with certain affiliated agency. There is absolutely no need for me to search for certain "approved" operator.

Who says you need to dive only with a certain affiliated agency? You can dive with whoever you want. The original premise that started this discussion was wrong. You don’t need to have 24 (or whatever) dives done with SSI for them to count.

While I meet the 24 “verified dive” minimum many times over, I’ve only ever done a max of 12 dives with anyone affiliated with SSI. If the requirement is 24 dives, but SSI only has a record of the 4 checkout dives you did with Open Water. That would seem to not be enough, right? Worst case, the instructor may ask to see your log. If you have 30 dives logged since OW, you are in. Your “verified dive” number is now 34. And when you complete the course, any checkout dives will be added in, so you might be at 38 or so “verified dives” upon completion.

 

[Belzelbub]

Yes, those dives need to be verified and they will be as you are with a SSI shop. I have over 100 dives now, so I don’t think that I will be bothered by the dive count in the future. Unless some training or dives requires a minimum of 150, 200 or 300 dives.

OK, maybe technically, they need to be verified. Perhaps the trouble is with what constitutes verification. It does not mean that a Dive Pro affiliated with SSI needs to witness those dives. A glance at a dive log will count as verification. If it even goes that far. For EAN, I was simply asked. For the other specialties, I believe I was asked again. I may have consulted Subsurface Mobile to get the number, right, but I doubt it. I certainly was never asked to submit proof or anything.