which cert. card to carry

[Thalassamania]

I did once have to have a guy look for me in the index of Bret's Deep Diving book before he'd tank me up on devil gas.

 

[Doppler]

I did once have to have a guy look for me in the index of Bret's Deep Diving book before he'd tank me up on devil gas.

LOL... Love it!

 

[Searcaigh]

Nitrox and Rescue are all I carry.

If you are PADI qualified and diving with a PADI centre then they can check your qualifications online.

 

[beester]

I have found that Nitrox is a must if you plan on doing multi dives in a day so I would carry that one with you. Deep dive would not be a bad one also. Then carry your highest to date level of core or professional card and it should be suffice. I have a wallet full of cards and I am proud of every one despite the belief by many they are worthless but at the same time many of them are glorified proof youve spent a lot of money in diving.

I would not carry ones like a boat diver, Fish ID, and even some of the more helpful ones like Peak performance buoyancy and navigation are often overshadowed when you present say a dive master card or instructor card since these are core eliments required to achieve these certs.

To be short carry the ones you want. After all you earned them but make sure you carry the ones I mentioned above for sure

Mmmm I'm not sure... sure be proud of your cards but come on... fish id, boatdiver, nightdiver, drysuit-diver, lobster-catcher, underwater-painter, cocktail-server... it's not the card but the skill, which depents alot on your mentor, be that a real certified instructor or just a companion diver with alot of experience in that specific skill.

In most practical non technical dive situations nobody is going to ask any relevant card as long as you are insured and pay for that dive. (nitrox might be an exception). To be quite honest unless you are a really new to diving or only dive once a year on holiday the dive op will know very fast if you 'can walk the walk'.

On technical dives they might ask cards for liability reason, however that can also be completely bogus, because for Trimix or cave your skill is even more reflected by your experience and who thought you then what agency. You'll see alot of full trimix divers who worked to get the card but don't do any full trimix dives anymore because too expensive or no local opportunities, etc... so what's that card worth? Most will unless from a standardized agency like gue or utd do some work up dives to get to know you and your setup before doing a 'big' dive... so that's also not relying on the card alone.

On the other hand just 'talking the talk' also isn't enough... I've got quite alot of experience doing deco dives, wrecks, etc... I've got a standardized setup (hogarthian) and have done a fundies, I read alot... so I'd probably be able to talk my way into full cave dives if no certification proof was needed. In fact I've been asked to do cave (Mine shaft in this case) dives but declined for obvious reasons (no experience and not certified in cave diving).

My post has become too much a philosophical argument on 'the value of a c-card'... but from a practical point of view I feel c-cards are most of the time irrelevant.

Cheers

B

 

[tbone1004]

that in no way helps the OP... I don't agree with all the specialty nonsense either, but that's why we said carry x-fundamental card. He's also talking about his wallet not his divelog which would be with him when he's diving.

so @ the OP
Carry whatever you want in your log book, if that's everything or a selection, go for it. In your wallet, I'd carry an AOW or rescue card and a nitrox card. Again, personally my wallet has nitrox diver and usually technical cave. That will get me any O2 fills if I need them, and if tech cave doesn't get me on a boat I call it quits there. Rescue card usually stays in my reg bag, but that's more so I don't lose it in the house.

 

[D_B]

I normally carry AOW , Nitrox ... and always, my DAN card

my Rescue and DAN O2 are in my logbook along with my National Geo and Drysuit cards

 

[Bob DBF]

That's about it.

Just for warm water pretty fish diving, likely a nitrox card would suffice, altho some dive ops have supposedly wanted an AOW (to dive below whatever depth). I have heard of this happening, but after 50+ years of diving I have yet to ever once see it in person. This is usually focused on any French (CMAS) dive op, but again- I aint seen it.

Or you can wait and look much older than your picture on your card. Dive op people will be polite but snicker at the obvious age differences between the Cert Card and your old face. They really won't care if you handed them a Bubblemaker Card, something that I often carry. It pays to be old.

When dive op people see an old geezer with gear peiced togather from the past 50 years the last thing they want is to start up the "well when I was Mike Nelson's buddy, no one ever got close enough to cut his hoses" stories that may not end till he needs a nap.

I carry an old OW card and a Nitrox if I'm going to use it. So far I have only had to show the ow card at some dive shops for air. The boats I've been on have you fill out paperwork but they don't check the card, or mabe it's just me.

The down side of being old is that you have to log your symptoms of DCS before you get in the water as a baseline.

Mmmm I'm not sure... sure be proud of your cards but come on... fish id, boatdiver, nightdiver, drysuit-diver, lobster-catcher, underwater-painter, cocktail-server...

I couldn't certify on the underwater cocktail-server, my drinks were always too watered down.



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

 

[TSandM]

I fall into the "core curriculum" camp, pretty much. If you think about the things a dive op might limit about your diving, it makes it a pretty easy choice. They may limit your depth, so carry the card that proves the most advanced training on depth that you have. (And I did a trip to Indonesia where the dive op segregated folks into groups by their cards; I only had my AOW with me, so I was limited to 80 feet. I didn't mind; there was nothing particularly spectacular 20 feet below me ). They may limit your gas choice, so carry your Nitrox card. They may refuse to rent you a dry suit, so carry your dry suit card (personal experience with this one, too). I have never heard of or seen anybody restricted from boat diving, drift diving, or night diving for lack of the appropriate card.

Steve, your story is funny, and reminds me of one Fred told me about Danny Riordan. He was in Australia, and the dive op told him if he wanted to dive Nitrox, he had to demonstrate fin pivots. (What the two have to do with one another baffles me, but that's what they did.) Danny fussed, and showed them his cave instructor's credentials, and got his buddies to vouch for him . . . to no avail. Somewhere there is video of Danny Riordan doing fin pivots for Nitrox . . .

 

[marco58]

Thanks for all the input. I can see that while most dive op will not ask for certain cards, it will be a good idea to have certain c-cards so you can get the most out of your dive. I will be getting my nitrox training in Jan. And hopefully I will be getting my frozen toes into a bit of ice diving at Wazee Lake in Wisconsin. Love this site and all the information that I learn.

 

[Brendon]

In short, if you don't log them, then you can't satisfy any training prerequisites that demand 'proof of logged experience'. You may not be accepted for training.

I never had anyone demand anything of me when I went thru the ranks... Most good instructors these days, really dont pay attention to the prior logged dives. I quick conversation with the student is a far better gauge then a forged logbook... Now if they were being honest and didnt have enough logged dives to meet the prerequisites thats different...