uncertified divers in the ocean?

[Rhone Man]

My Dad taught me to dive, and used to regularly teach his friends to dive.

Eventually, with enormous reluctance, he finally got an O/W certification himself from PADI so he could dive whilst on holiday. Some instructor who hadn't been born when he was out diving with double hoses and J-valves gave him a card.

A number of his friends (students?) still dive without any more formal training than he gave them. So far as I know, none of them have died of diving related causes. Sadly I cannot make that claim for all of my friends who are instructors.

 

[Hoomi]

It's not just the training, either, but rather how much the student wants to learn. Our school system has a remarkable ability to generate students that just want to pass the class, and that attitude carries over into a lot of other endeavors.

A scuba student that just wants to pass the class is going to be a higher risk than one who wants to learn the material and get as much knowledge as possible before getting certified.

While I enjoyed my PADI class, I will be one of the first to admit that it would have been very easy to just skate through it. Multiple-guess tests are fairly easy to bluff your way through, and even on the skills checks, there seemed to be an awful lot of leeway given to those who weren't quite catching on to what they were supposed to be learning.

All that a cert card proves is that a given diver passed the requirements of a given agency to get said certification. It doesn't prove the diver learned everything they really need to know to be a safe diver. It doesn't prove the diver has demonstrated good-sense skills in the water. It doesn't prove the diver understands their limitations and will dive within them, and more than passing a driver's test proves someone is going to be a good, safe driver.

Conversely, as has been mentioned, lack of a certification card doesn't mean the person isn't a good, safe, diver. It just means they haven't undergone the screening of a certification agency to get a card saying they're qualified.

I know a lot of very intelligent folks who didn't pursue higher education. I also know a lot of absolute idiots that somehow managed to get degrees from institutions of "higher learning".

 

[Garrobo]

I suspect that most dive shops wouldn't even acknowledge your existence without some sort of certificaton these days.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I read once that Jacques Cousteau never got certified.

 

[captain]

I know a lot of very intelligent folks who didn't pursue higher education. I also know a lot of absolute idiots that somehow managed to get degrees from institutions of "higher learning".

What do you call the person who finished last in his class at medical school, answer Doctor. Same goes for divers who finish last in the cert class.

I was diving for 13 years before I bought a certification card

 

[sabbath999]

I suspect that most dive shops wouldn't even acknowledge your existence without some sort of certificaton these days.

I bet you they would sell you any bit of gear that you want, as long as they make a good markup on it... just not air.

BCD? Fins? Regs? They aren't going to ask for your C-Card to buy a reg or a fancy expensive dive computer...

I've yet to be asked for a c-card for an air fill from any shop (to be fair, I have done my training with two of those shops so they already know).

Just wear a dive t-shirt from some location far away from where you are at, and you will get your fill.

 

[Hoomi]

What do you call the person who finished last in his class at medical school, answer Doctor.

I was thinking of that same joke earlier in relation to this topic.



Sadly, I think I've been treated by several doctors that represented that line...

 

[Rhone Man]

I suspect that most dive shops wouldn't even acknowledge your existence without some sort of certificaton these days.

I find that the experience of a non-diver walking into an LDS is like that of a High School kid walking into a room full of crack dealers. All of them start trying to push their highly addictive product onto a new client...

 

[Jayde323]

My husband and I have helped out in a few OW classes and last summer and one of the students had been diving for years uncertified. He was only taking the class because he and his uncertified dive buddy were having issues getting air fills. They had split the cost for him to take the class. Halfway through the class the guy said he couldn't believe how much he didn't know and is very lucky he and his buddy didn't have an accident. He said he was giving his buddy back his half of the class fee and wouldn't get air fills for him, and would encourage him to take the class. I don't know if the buddy ever took the class, but I hope he did.

 

[steve1969]

I started diving in 1980, living in Hawaii on a marine base. I was in 7th grade, One of my neighbors always dove at the cove and I was snorkeling. One day when he returned from his dive he stopped before exiting the water and asked if I would like to try diving. I was like sure. We were in about 20 ft of water. After that I would dive 2-3 times a week in that area with him and eventually got some gear of my own and dove with him and then by myself in the area.
I continued diving over the years in Hawaii and Japan. While in the Marine Corps I went through Pre-Scuba which is a 2 week course to prepare you for dive school. I never went to scuba school to get cert but I continued to dive with gear from our unit.
On vacation I would still dive from time to time and only recently got certified last Oct because I was going to Australia on vacation. I went through SSI and the instructor now a good friend was aware of my background went through the class as everyone else then would laugh and asked if I learned anything new. Me personally, always enjoy training and will always learn something no matter how small something may be, I always strive to learn more and more.
While in Australia I did my PADI AOW while on a live-aboard for $100 ausi dollars, ($64 usd) I could not pass that up. When i got back a few month later I did another AOW (SSI) for courses like drysuit, nitrox and a few others. Now I am working on Advance Nitrox and Deco, Rescue diver and then Dive Con at the end of the year.
I really wish I would have gotten certified years ago because I now have the tech bug and really enjoying wrecks, shallow and deep. I like exploring and now with the creds it makes it easier.

But there is a cave diver in the UK that also does speeches that talks about that. He has diving for over 15 years and has never been certified. I forgot his name but his is big in the cave diving specialty.