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I have a NAUI cert card that says "Advanced SCUBA Diver" on the front. All these years I thought that was my level of certification. Now just the other day I was going through my old NAUI training log, and I see that there is another level. I just checked the NAUI website, and now I'm more confused than ever.
I went to my local dive shop to get certified so I could dive. I took the basic course, got certified and now I could dive; but I had no buddies. The internet was not really going yet as it is now, I was not in a club, and it was very hard to hook up with other divers so I took the next course in the progression, and got the card I have now.
So now I find out that the progression in my old training log is: Open Water I Scuba Diver, Open Water II Scuba Diver, Advanced Scuba Diver. I only took 2 courses, and the Advanced Scuba Diver section of my training log is empty, so I guess I took only OW I and OW II. So why did they give me an Advanced card?
On the NAUI website, the training progression chart is so confusing it's ridiculous. It loops back around in on itself, it has something called "Skin Diver" (what the heck is that?), it makes it look like you can take specialty courses before you get your basic certification... I mean it's just crazy! And it doesn't have I and II any more.
So what's the deal? Why can't they just have a simple progression from beginner to advanced?
And another thing: why can't they just give you a number like every other agency? I don't know how many times people have asked me for my certification number and I have to give them this explanation that, yes, I am certified but no, I don't have a number because they don't give you one. There have even been a few times when the person almost didn't let me on the boat because they never heard of such nonsense. They never heard of someone being certified who didn't have a number from their agency.
the old owII level is the 'new' advanced [ to be on par with the other agencies. the old advanced in your log book was equvilent to the advanced plus padi had for awhile.
your diver # is your social security #, used to identify you to naui, but for 'security' [yours] reasons not listed on your card.
Thanks. I never did understand the logic of using the SSN, especially if the reason was security. I remember back when it said right on your Social Security card, "Not to be used for identification." So if somebody asks me for my certification number I'm supposed to give them my SSN. Right. That's security.
Happy Birthday!
your diver # is your social security #, used to identify you to naui, but for 'security' [yours] reasons not listed on your card.
No company or organization should ever use an SSN as an identifier. Ever.
It is so easy to generate a number in the backend database to be used in place of an SSN, and the exposure is so large to identity theft, that there is simply no excuse for this to happen in this day and age. If NAUI is still doing this, they should stop it immediately. Tomorrow morning wouldn't be too soon to begin working on it.
No company or organization should ever use an SSN as an identifier. Ever.
It is so easy to generate a number in the backend database to be used in place of an SSN, and the exposure is so large to identity theft, that there is simply no excuse for this to happen in this day and age. If NAUI is still doing this, they should stop it immediately. Tomorrow morning wouldn't be too soon to begin working on it.
Wow, John B, you're on a roll tonight....agreeing with your posts all over the place
Many years ago NAUI training chart looked like this:
Open Water I (five training dives, cert to 60 ft)
Open Water II (6 dives including night, deep and nav plus 3 more)
Advanced ( 8 dives and lots of physics, physiology, equipment theory etc...)
Master (More theory and swim tests and skill evals..)
Rescue Diver could be taken any time after OW I
You then moved on to the pro level.
A few years back they simplified the chart to this:
Scuba Diver (5 dives , cert to 60ft)
Advanced Scuba Diver (6 dives night, deep, nav + 3 more)
Master Scuba Diver (minimum of 8 dives lots of physics, physiology, equipment theory, dive skill evaluations etc..)
Rescue Diver taken any time after SD.
You then go on to AI or DM. A very simple system.
I just looked at the training progression chart on the NAUI web page and its seems to go in a staright line to me SD- ASD-MSD, yes they do have a skin diving cert class- as most agencies do and there are specialities that can be taught to skin divers- including fish ID, photography etc... so yes you can take a speciality w/o being scuba certified.
Now when NAUI was founded (1959)there was no worry about identity theft and they used your SSN for your diver number - this is no longer the case and NAUI stopped using your SSN as your dive number at least 10 years ago. If you really want to give the guy on the boat your cert number - if he is that much of a moron he needs a number to prove you are certified make on up- when I was teaching years ago and people did not have a SSN we just used their birthdate mmddyyyy and then added the month of the class. So your diver cert number would be mmddyyyymm with the last month being the month of your certification class. Now you can please the moron on the boat asking for a cert number since your card wasn't good enough.
I was certified through NAUI June of this year and they did not ask for my SSN. The only number on my card is my instructors cert. #. Has anyone asked NAUI why no cert. numbers? If not then I will.
Certification levels aside, I know that I have NEVER been questioned on it when I gave my diver # 37619 ( I think that is the standard NAUI number if I recall correctly) with my NAUI Advanced Opern Water card in hand. If I am ever questioned, I will hand the card over to them and tell them to take it up with NAUI, not me.
And FYI, I did the NAUI AOW three years ago and it WAS 5 dives (deep, Nav, S&R, PPB and night) with additional physics and physiology but it was not what is called out for in previous posts for "Advanced Diver".
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