meagicano:
Basically - he told me that as an AOW it wasn't "legal" for me to dive without DM supervision and that many places would refuse to rent me gear without either supervision or a DM cert.
As several have said, the AOW comment is absurd. Ignore it (no, you are not being obstinate). The ‘many places’ comment may be partially true – I certainly have not had the chance to dive in every country in the western hemisphere, so I cannot categorically challenge the statement. ‘Many’ seems unlikely, but I presume there may be one / some countries / operations where what he said is partially accurate. I wouldn’t worry about it. There are plenty of dive destinations in the Caribbean where his comments have absolutely no basis in fact.
DeputyDan:
Some countries require a dm lead dive. Saba is one. There are several reasons for this (some mentioned above) but another one is to provide employment opportunities in poorer areas.
I was in Dominica in June and learned that (most / all) boat dives are DM-led. However, unlimited independent shore diving is allowed (at least from one op).
In addition to the employment initiative (which is quite understandable in a number of Caribbean countries) I also suspect there are legitimate concerns about protecting reef systems (also very understandable), and possibly, even diver safety. In Dominica, for example, a particular point was repeatedly made about the depth of the water, just a 100 yards offshore (>2500 feet). You can drown in <10 feet of water, so depth, per se, isn’t necessarily the issue. But, if you lose buoyancy in 2000 feet of water, body recovery may be more challenging. J
In any event, ignore what was said by this person. He may be a DM, in which case he already has AOW, but he appears to have reached his MFCT (maximum fecal containment threshold).
dfx:
The province of Quebec has the FQAS, which does indeed put some very legal restrictions on what you can and cannot do as a diver.
Good point. And, if he does happen to be from Quebec, more than a few of my Canadian friends (not from Quebec) would say, 'That explains it, eh. He is simply a member of the Amalgamated Supercilliously Scathing Hotshots Of Lower Egypt.'