Diving without Certification (A RANT)

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JTH2711

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Messages
66
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Location
North Carolina
# of dives
100 - 199
Alright, I have to get this off my chest!! I have a friend who decided to go diving without any certification. The guy that took him was a Tech Diver with over 250 dives. I told my friend that diving without a cert is a pretty big risk. He may try it and love but by never taking the class he doesn't know what he doesn't know. I'm pretty upset at the Tech diver, because a guy with his experience and training should have put the brakes on this.

Am I making a big deal for no reason or do ave a point. No one here seems to think it is a big deal.
 
You should provide more details. In the past there were no cards and people just figured it out. Diving without a certification doesn't have to mean diving without training. But, training makes diving much safer and I highly advocate training before diving.
 
Strictly speaking, sure, it's wrong. If I was you, would I give a rats? Hmmm, I don't know, I suppose it would depend a lot on what I know of both people.

It's entirely possible that this tech diver is squared away and will spend some time in a safe confined water setting to teach the needed skills for an open water tour dive. I will say that there are a lot of people out there who were diving long before they ever got certified. However, those days are mostly long gone and I personally wouldn't take the liability like that.

I don't know if you want to steer clear of this or not but you could go along to watch and politely ask questions from a newbie point of view if you feel something important wasn't discussed during the briefing. This way the tech diver doesn't feel challenged and he'll probably happily answer your questions. Even though you already know the answer it'll get it said out loud for the benefit of the trainee.
 
First time I was ever on scuba gear was 11 years before I got certified. Back then I was into racing sailboats, and we had a guy on our crew who was into scuba diving. He had a bunch of extra gear and told me he could teach me everything I needed to know ... which consisted mostly of how to put the equipment together. We went to a lake in New Hampshire and went scuba diving in a cove. It was great fun, but we didn't go very deep ... he forgot to tell me how to equalize, so pain in my ears was a limiting factor.

Once I decided to take a class I realized how much else he forgot to tell me ... like that little bit about not holding your breath ... :shocked2:

Experience at doing something does not equate to ability to teach someone else how to do it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
My instruction was: never hold your breath, go down, pinch your nose and gently blow, swim around, when it gets hard to breathe pull the lever and come up. Never come up faster than your slowest bubble.

We read books and listened to experienced divers.

I bought a card in 78 because shops and boats were asking for them.

Although there is a plethora of schools, agencies, and training available, it is not necessary.

Does not a "discover scuba" experience not consist of the same instruction I worked from? Sans "pull the lever"...
 
My instruction was: never hold your breath, go down, pinch your nose and gently blow, swim around, when it gets hard to breathe pull the lever and come up. Never come up faster than your slowest bubble.

We read books and listened to experienced divers.

I bought a card in 78 because shops and boats were asking for them.

Although there is a plethora of schools, agencies, and training available, it is not necessary.

Does not a "discover scuba" experience not consist of the same instruction I worked from? Sans "pull the lever"...

That is how I started. Bought a tank, reg and a book on how to use them in 1970. Got certified in 74 because shops started asking for cards. Being an experienced diver does not mean you are a good teacher though.
 
I had a guy take the OW class a couple of years ago. He had been diving for over 20 years. He never did any dive travel just spearfished on a couple of lakes in Arkansas. Several of his buddies were certified and they would always run the tanks in to be filled. His buddies kept telling him he needed to get certified. Yeah I will one day.

One weekend he was on the lake and needed air. The local dive shop at the lake refused since they didn't know him and of course no card. Really put a damper on the weekend. So he and his daughter who wanted to get certifed took a weekend class.

After the class was over he came up to me and told me he actually learned some stuff he didn't know. Surprise. They went on their OW certifications and had no problems at all.

Although I never ordered anything I remember seeing the old Dacor catalog at my hardware store. This was back in the day when things were in bins, hung on the wall, and you could walk in and buy rods, reels, shotguns and fishing baits, along with stove pipe and scrub boards.
 
Okay, Hold on just sec. This isnt 1970 (no disrespect). Both guys are under 30 of age. The friend is my brother-in-law. The tech diver is friend of his from work. My point is if he wanted to learn to dive he should have found an instructor. I have friends who are instructors who let me strap on a tank in their pool. This was not one of those instances.
 
Okay, Hold on just sec. This isnt 1970 (no disrespect). Both guys are under 30 of age. The friend is my brother-in-law. The tech diver is friend of his from work. My point is if he wanted to learn to dive he should have found an instructor. I have friends who are instructors who let me strap on a tank in their pool. This was not one of those instances.

What kind of dive was it?

Keep in mind, that PADI and other agencies offer a "DSD" - discover scuba diving "class" - which is a brief lecture, then they take people on a guided dive. So before you condemn everyone involved. What exactly did they do?

I don't think anyone here is advocating unsupervised, uncertified diving, but many people get a taste of scuba without certification, which is not required by any law.
 
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