Do most dive shops require the Original PADI Cert cards or will a copy be ok?

[Akimbo]

I can certainly imagine that if you present a card that doesn't look like one of the agencies that the dive op recognizes raises an issue about how to tell if the card really is valid…

True, but there were only a handful of agencies in the 1970s, only two cert levels (diver and instructor), and no means of verifying anything online. It is like denying an Advanced Nitrox card for an air or 32% fill. It isn’t too hard to figure out that OW and Nitrox cards are required to get an Advanced Nitrox card. It also isn’t too hard to figure out that any training for a Navy Diver exceeds the minimum required for an air fill.

For any number of reasons, some people just don’t think or enjoy exerting their “power” over others. It’s not like there is a government agency mandating any certification for a fill or for a spot on a dive boat. Insurance requirements maybe, but they are non-specific.

 

[descent]

... The cards that they see every day all "look recognizable", but suppose that I laminate my own card from some made up agency. How would they be able to verify it? ...

They might never figure it out.

You get to dive, they get to sell boat rides. The waves lap and the sun shines. Everybody is happy.

If you come to a bad end on their insured vessel, run by their insured business, I am guessing that they would find out quickly.

How do you think they would they feel -- after they rip open the FedEx envelope, as they read through the pages of the lawsuit for the first time -- to discover that you tricked them by creating a fake certification?

They would be delighted.

Why?

They would be relieved, because when you bought your way onto the carefully guarded boat ride, you defrauded them. You tricked your way into a dangerous place by forging credentials and fooling the guards. If something bad happens after you sneak into a heavily guarded area, how much should the insurance company be required to pay your grieving widow and your fatherless children?

Less. Maybe a lot less.

Now who's sad?

 

[Akimbo]

… Now who's sad?

Hmmm, the lawyer that took the case on contingency?

 

[KathyV]

I tend to bring my actual cards with me, but always also travel with a simple front/back A4 color print out tht includes all relevant cards (including insurance) in my bag in case something goes missing. When asked for "my certifications" I always show that sheet, simply because it's easier than handing over a deck of cards. In nine years, dozens of trips/ops/boats/countries, and nearly 1,000 dives I've never been asked to produce the actual cards themselves.

I was once robbed in the Cozumel airport. I was careless and a thief lifted the wallet out of my bag and it contained my license, cash, credit cards, and my C-card and my husband's C-card. Luckily we were on our way home but it was a lot of grief to get my license and credit cards replaced.

Since then we always travel with the originals but also with separately stored photocopies of our C-cards, passports, DAN cards, etc. just in case they are needed. I am sure that immigration would not accept photocopies of our passports, but hopefully having the copies will make it easier to get replacements if we ever need them. I have never tried giving the photocopies of C-cards to a dive shop but since they contain all the pertinent information I hope they might accept them - or at least use the information to confirm them.

The funny thing about the theft of my wallet. A few months later I received an anonymous envelope from Texas containing all of my cards (no money or wallet). I had already replaced my license and credit cards but I had not yet replaced the C-cards and that would have cost us $50 each from PADI, so I was very glad to get them back. All I can figure is that someone from Mexico carried my cards across the border but threw them away when they didn't work - and some good Samaritan found them and mailed them back.

 

[RJP]

suppose that I laminate my own card from some made up agency. How would they be able to verify it? I could have also created a dummy web site for it (if I was severely dedicated to this scheme). If they don't understand that I am certified by FIHVI, or cannot validate a US special forces ID card, should they just accept it on faith that this is valid?

A google search on such a made-up agency that only yielded ONE search result - that one dummy website - would be pretty telling.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

There are some agencies that don't have websites. I was keyed into this by a few operations that dealt with cards issued by certification agencies from the former soviet union. When that broke up places were surprised to see cert cards from agencies that no one ever heard of. Little regional ones that sprung up after the fall also were (perhaps still are) training divers in club like settings. When I conducted the email campaign to familiarize places with SEI this came up several times. They were turning out excellent divers with unfamiliar cards. A quick checkout dive was usually all that was required to verify training