PADI C Cards

[drbill]

I scan my c-cards and post them on my website so I don't lose them while traveling. I still have my paper LAC c-card from the 1960s as well as a few plastic PADI cards. Of course you don't need to post them on a website if you copy them (both sides?) and carry the copies.

 

[NCjones]

It is a good story but doesn't sound quite right. To be certified, the instructor has to send in a form - or do it on-line -- that requires a picture. The cetification is then on file at PADI HQ. Yes, the card is incidental, but the certification itself rquires a picture. Similarly with an email address for the student. No email, no certification.

I'm telling you what happened. How it sounds is irrelevant. PADI's instructions were to send in the forms without the pic.
Now if you work for PADI America's your opinion might mean something, but we followed instructions that PADI Americas gave us for certifying a student without a photo. It may have been an exception for those soldiers due to their job sensitivity. PADI is a private, for profit corporation and has no need for Special Ops soldiers biometrics in their for-sale-to-anybody database. The no photo mandate came down from USASOC in 2015 when a team of body snatchers got busted at al-Watiyah Air Base on a “snatch and grab” operation against Ahmed Abu Khattala. Some of the locals snapped pics posing with the soldiers and posted them to social media. OpFor used those photos to determine the Identity of the Americans. The team was posing as a group of techs from America who were "updating a fiber optic network for a hospital". Once they were made, the Libyan government asked them to leave the country due to concerns of retaliation. The mission had to be aborted and a few million dollars was lost as a result.

According to my contact at PADI, a photo is kept on file for 5 years and then deleted. I don't know if this is true, but I tend to believe him because when I look myself up on PADI online, there's a generic outline torso there with "No photo available" across it. That may not be the case for IDC professionals as they have to renew every couple of years and that would update their photo.

And I'm calling ******** on the email. I've always left the emails blank on all my certs and always got a card from PADI.
Me thinks you think you know more than you actually do, comrade.

I'll inquire with my contact at PADI and see how the "no email, no cert" joke works. Email access is not a requirement for SCUBA certification on any planet. Are you a better and safer diver if you have an email address????

I'll let you know the punchline for the "no email, no certification" joke when I receive a reply.

 

[tursiops]

I'm telling you what happened. How it sounds is irrelevant. PADI's instructions were to send in the forms without the pic.
Now if you work for PADI America's your opinion might mean something, but we followed instructions that PADI Americas gave us for certifying a student without a photo. It may have been an exception for those soldiers due to their job sensitivity. PADI is a private, for profit corporation and has no need for Special Ops soldiers biometrics in their for-sale-to-anybody database. The no photo mandate came down from USASOC in 2015 when a team of body snatchers got busted at al-Watiyah Air Base on a “snatch and grab” operation against Ahmed Abu Khattala. Some of the locals snapped pics posing with the soldiers and posted them to social media. OpFor used those photos to determine the Identity of the Americans. The team was posing as a group of techs from America who were "updating a fiber optic network for a hospital". Once they were made, the Libyan government asked them to leave the country due to concerns of retaliation. The mission had to be aborted and a few million dollars was lost as a result.

According to my contact at PADI, a photo is kept on file for 5 years and then deleted. I don't know if this is true, but I tend to believe him because when I look myself up on PADI online, there's a generic outline torso there with "No photo available" across it. That may not be the case for IDC professionals as they have to renew every couple of years and that would update their photo.

And I'm calling ******** on the email. I've always left the emails blank on all my certs and always got a card from PADI.
Me thinks you think you know more than you actually do, comrade.

I'll inquire with my contact at PADI and see how the "no email, no cert" joke works. Email access is not a requirement for SCUBA certification on any planet. Are you a better and safer diver if you have an email address????

I'll let you know the punchline for the "no email, no certification" joke when I receive a reply.

From the PADI Training Bulletin, 3rd Quarter 2013, page 6:

 

[Saniflush]

Why would spec ops guys be getting a PADI cert?

Had they not gone through a military course and just wanted to be able to rec dive?

 

[mmerriman]

In the future just take a photo of front and back of your C-Cards and keep them on you cell phone. You can show this as proof anywhere you go, plus all Padi Instructors can check your status as diver from your full name and date of birth info...

while we can - its a lot more convenient if you show a card, or a copy of a card...

 

[Adam Grose]

I scan my c-cards and post them on my website so I don't lose them while traveling. I still have my paper LAC c-card from the 1960s as well as a few plastic PADI cards. Of course you don't need to post them on a website if you copy them (both sides?) and carry the copies.

I stored mine on my Dropbox page... with copies on my smartphone. And I carry my plastic one in my wallet. Not taking any chances.

 

[dcg69]

Why would spec ops guys be getting a PADI cert?

Had they not gone through a military course and just wanted to be able to rec dive?

May be because they just need a piece of plastic to be able to join diving activities or rent gear while on vacation.

 

[Saniflush]

May be because they just need a piece of plastic to be able to join diving activities or rent gear while on vacation.

Ummmmm, yea I think that was the question on the table.

 

[icechip]

Back in the 70s, for YMCA scuba certification you got both a wallet card AND a silver-foil certificate to hang on the wall!

 

[Erich S]

Back in the 70s PADI also sent you wall certificates along with your C-Cards.