why?

[divetheworld]

I guess this is a "please flame me" link but-

There are no laws governing the recreational use of scuba equipment. It is not like driving a car, where you MUST have a licence. Now I do appreciate the need for people to have the proper training so they dont kill themselves or others but--

did J Cousteau get a wreck diver badge?

Why cant I service my own regs? I built my first one!

and why is it that the BSAC do not recognise HSE Commercial Diver: HSE Scuba Diver / HSE Surface Supply Diver / HSE Surface Supply (Top Up) Diver / HSE Closed Bell Diver, HSE Diver Part 4, 3, 1 and 2 any further than a SPORTS DIVER?

That means as a HSE closed bell, mixed gas (Heliox) saturation diver(same certification as the Kurst divers), a dive leader has better training? when was a dive leader last to 400m?

hmmm.

 

[nickjb]

You can service your own regs. You can build all your own dive kit and your own compressor and your own boat and dive to your heart's content. If you want to dive with others or with a charter boat then they can decide whether they feel you are competant and qualifications are an easy way to do this.

There are pleny of places you can do wreck diving without a wreck badge or even scuba without a C card if you want. I don't like forced restrictions on when and where I can dive but i am willing to listen the opinion of more experienced divers.

On the subject of BSAC crossovers there is a range of equivalent qualifiactions, although I am no expert on what they are. It is hard to say what is equivalent but I don't think that being able to dive to 400m in a bell neccessarily qualifies anyone to lead a group of recreational divers. I dived with a very good ex-pro HSE diver in Egypt but what made him able to teach was his PADI OWI training.

I suppose the idea is that you can dive however you like but if you want to dive with others then you should play by their rules.

 

[devilfish]

Originally posted by divetheworld


There are no laws governing the recreational use of scuba equipment. It is not like driving a car, where you MUST have a licence.

The diving industry had a self governing rule regarding non certified divers handling/owning scuba equipment. That went out the door with dive shops started pushing equipment to students before certification.
However here in US DOT ( dept of transportation) does have rules regarding transporting high pressure cylinders which include scuba tanks. that includes vip's and hydro testing. OSHA regulates the use of gas other than air in commercial use, which means recreational divers are allowed to dive nitrox, however instructors when teaching and themselves diving nitrox during class while being paid to teach are in a gray area.

 

[JimC]

And pray that the gov does not get involved, or expect to see crap like they are doing in Quebec (Canada). Its not inplace yet, but its comming.. and it will require $$ to get a Quebec cert to dive in Quebec waters. This cert will have to be displayed on your rig. It will probably come in the form of a 3x4 sheet of yellow cardboard which is invalidated if laminated or damaged. lol.

Remember the laws are created by non-divers, and have little to do with diveing safty and a lot to do with politics.


The only actual laws I can think of are transportation of compresed gas, the purchase/use of gas other than air and dive flag laws.

 

[divetheworld]

___________________________________________________
On the subject of BSAC crossovers there is a range of equivalent qualifiactions, although I am no expert on what they are. It is hard to say what is equivalent but I don't think that being able to dive to 400m in a bell neccessarily qualifies anyone to lead a group of recreational divers. I dived with a very good ex-pro HSE diver in Egypt but what made him able to teach was his PADI OWI training.
_______________________________________________________

Hmm, so are they saying I can supervise trained commercial divers on large projects but the fact that the BSAC diver may be a novice, is dodgy? I have seen the Dive leader supervisory part of the training and have to say that if that is their argument, then it is a bit thin. I would say they should accept the C51 module "IMCA Trainee Air Diving Supervisor".
By the way, the bell is the means of transport, not the diving device! A closed bell is used at depths greater than 300 fsw, except when diving is conducted in physically confining spaces.
We still have to go out and get wet.
The closed bell is pressurised.

 

[art.chick]

There is an old film from the Los Angeles County Underwater Instrucors Assoc. called "Anyone for Diving." It's purpose was to encourage divers to get certified before diving. Yes, there was a time when Navy surplus dive gear hit the resale shops & anyone could buy it & try diving. There were popular magazines telling people how to "do it themselves." And the people who survived these experiments were the pioneers of recreational diving. The ones who died in the attempt, however, nearly ended the sport before it began. The purpose of the LA County Program was to try to teach people how to dive safely as an alternative to outlawing SCUBA on beaches.

I respect the pioneers who made their own equipment and took all the big risks, but I don't envy them. Remember that many of them were working in technical fileds & understood gas laws & could rig gadgets. I am an artist; I can draw cool fish, but I would have died if I tried to re-invent this wheel. Perhaps we who have certified in this modern world take a lot for granted, but equipment is a lot more complex than it was originally & takes a while for a newbie to master. The fear of someone's death being blamed on whoever facilitated the dive has only grown since the early days. We are indeed better off self-regulating than waiting for some court of law ruling on particulars that they can' understand.

 

[Liquid]

I belive that the thousand or so first car owners also didn't need to have any kind of license. The first guys alwais get the free ticket.

Now seriousely- what you'r saying here was already thoroughly discussed here, so you can try to search for older threads, where discussions became quite hot and may give some quite different opinions.