How do specialty C-Cards work?

[CoyKoi]

First of all, congratulations on becoming Open Water certified. This is a Giant Stride into a whole new and fantastic world! Dive Training Magazine isn't joking, good divers really are always learning. If you want to be good diver take courses that will help you improve in whatever area of diving that interests you and will help you be a safer, more confident diver.

Don't worry about collecting cards -- its the knowledge and experience that really counts. Take the course for the knowledge and experience you will accumulate and don't focus on the card. If you are more comfortable taking a specialty course, such as boat diving, with an instructor then pay the $$ and take the course. If you feel comfortable just diving from a boat without any special instruction other than the divemaster's briefing, then just do that. This is one of the things that makes scuba diving way more cool than any other sport -- you can take it in any direction that suits you!

For recreational diving, the only card(s) you really need are your highest certification card (OW, AOW, Rescue or MasterDiver) and your Nitrox card, if you want to dive enriched air. I also recommend DAN divers insurance (www.diversalertnetwork.org). Be sure to carry your DAN card with you on all dive excursions.

As for the zippered dive log book? My zippered log book comes in handy for keeping together some of the stuff that might get lost if I had a log book without a zipper: extra underwater pencil, solar calculator, loose sheets, etc. I make my own logbook sheets.

Dive safe!

 

[Belce]

Why still need cards? I know that PADI at least has all your certification information available online including your picture. I know that some places don't have PADI site access and/or don't have internet access, but if you have certification and the shop has access to that organisation they will have your certs available online.

 

[D_B]

Not having your C card is not too handy when your on the boat .. bring it.

An AOW card or an equivalent is often needed to be seen by operators to do the dives they have planned so you will probably want to get that as soon as feasible

Rescue is probably the most important card to get, for your own piece of mind .. hardest, funnest, most rerwarding class there is

the above classes with a good instructor that will push you, stress you, make you see that you can be better than you thought you could, is well worth paying for

Nitrox can be handy if doing multipul dives a day

 

[Phrenzy]

There ARE cards that are handy to have with you -- AOW, Nitrox, dry suit and I've heard some operators want a night dive card, although I've never run into it. And for me, my helium and cave cards are sometimes necessary.

I would think that helium and cave cards would trump all the other cards, right?

Your comment has gotten me just a tiny bit concerned. I have done a fair number of drysuit and night dives, but I don't have a magic card saying that I am trained. Does anyone know the likelihood that I wouldn't be able to rent a drysuit or dive a night dive becasue I do not have the proper squares of plastic?

 

[Damselfish]

It seems people have told stories on here of the occasional op not wanting to accept some technical card in place of an OW card, which is stupid and hopefully rare but ya never know.

I've never seen anyplace ask for a night dive card, and I've seen plenty of people on boats in the Caribbean anyway doing their first night dive.

I've definitely heard of a card being required to rent a drysuit, at least one of the shops I frequent does. If you are always renting from someplace local that knows you I'd think they're unlikely to suddenly start asking you for one, but if you're going to travel someplace and rent someplace unknown never know. You'd want to check ahead. Maybe they'd agree to accept a log.

 

[scubadada]

I carry my PADI MSD card with nitrox and my DPV card, as it has been requested for rental. I've never been asked for a night, deep, drift card, etc. I don't dive a dry suit yet. I use a very compact zipped log available from a UK company, dive-logs.com. The standard nitrox log pages are all I need and refills are easy to obtain. They have plastic credit card holders I use for the C-cards. I often also take my driver's license, credit card, hotel door card, cash in the same holder when I need them and do not want to take my wallet. There is a zipped compartment on front for pen, pencil...and 2 small mesh pockets inside for extra stuff. Works for me, everyone has their own system.

Good diving, Craig

 

[mikemill]

My AOW card actually has the "Advanced Open Water" text rubbed off of it on the picture side. Still haven't had anyone complain about that though.

 

[NudeDiver]

Your comment has gotten me just a tiny bit concerned. I have done a fair number of drysuit and night dives, but I don't have a magic card saying that I am trained. Does anyone know the likelihood that I wouldn't be able to rent a drysuit or dive a night dive becasue I do not have the proper squares of plastic?

There are two shops in town that will NOT rent you a drysuit if you don't have a drysuit card. One of them started this policy recently - and refused to rent someone I know a drysuit whom they have previously rented one to - so he had to get a drysuit card to continue renting one there.

 

[Belce]

The people that learn to dive in our armed forces get 0 cert cards and 0 rights to travel and do recreational dives with their training. I mean think it about it, the naval clearance diver has to take an open water diving course so they can go diving with their sigo some where on vaction.

 

[tedtim]

So, I guess that I cannot log my night dive off of a boat where we drifted by a wreck in drysuits while taking photos below 100 feet and later could identify the fish we saw because we did not have the appropriate c-cards (boat, deep, photo, drysuit, wreck, drift, naturalist).

At least I was not solo.

Time for another Grand Marnier. Happy New Year.