Are specialties becoming required for diving?

[engdiver]

I have been diving for nearly 20 years (AOW,Rescue,EANx) and I have noticed a trend toward diving specialties. It seems that to do certain dives such as wreck, deep, and night diving, LDS and boat operators are looking for the diver to have the specific specialty.
I can understand having experience in the areas covered and an AOW cert and EANx for Nitrox, but not necessarily the specific specialty. Is this the future of diving or am I just seeing some unique situations?

 

[TSandM]

We were surprised to find, at the first resort we visited in Indonesia, that they actually recorded diver limits on their roster sheets. If all you presented was a C-card, you were limited to 60 feet. I had my AOW, so I was good to 90, but I would have had to present a "deep" specialty card to have been allowed below that. I have never carried my specialty cards with me, but I may from now on.

 

[Web Monkey]

I have been diving for nearly 20 years (AOW,Rescue,EANx) and I have noticed a trend toward diving specialties. It seems that to do certain dives such as wreck, deep, and night diving, LDS and boat operators are looking for the diver to have the specific specialty.
I can understand having experience in the areas covered and an AOW cert and EANx for Nitrox, but not necessarily the specific specialty. Is this the future of diving or am I just seeing some unique situations?

I suspect it's partly to compesate for the dumbing down of the OW class, and partly as a Cover Your *** by the dive op.

If you present a card that says you're good to 130', it means that if you get hurt, your lawyer would have a hard time proving that the dive op shouldn't have let you go that deep.

Unfortunately, I've never see a "s*** hitting the fan" card, which would be useful when selecting boat buddies.

Terry

 

[PerroneFord]

LOL! You must be kidding me. It's a conspiracy to sell more classes. That's about all I can imagine.

I wonder if a cave card would suffice for "night". It's pretty dark down there! Think they'd let divers go below 60 with a Trimix card?

The more I read this crap, the less I want to patronize these "holiday" dive operations. 20 years experience and worried about not getting to dive a wreck without a cert card. What a sad situation.

Someone told me I couldn't do the Spiegel Grove without an AOW card. I said no problem. Heck with 'em.

 

[isurus]

LOL! You must be kidding me. It's a conspiracy to sell more classes. That's about all I can imagine.

I wonder if a cave card would suffice for "night". It's pretty dark down there! Think they'd let divers go below 60 with a Trimix card?

The more I read this crap, the less I want to patronize these "holiday" dive operations. 20 years experience and worried about not getting to dive a wreck without a cert card. What a sad situation.

Someone told me I couldn't do the Spiegel Grove without an AOW card. I said no problem. Heck with 'em.

Well I've experienced similar treatment - "do you have qualificiations x, y and z?" but it was always done in a well-handled manner - ie when I responded "no but I've done a couple of hundred dives including a, b and c so reckon I'll be ok" they were fine with that.

If anyone just relied on the cert cards as their sole guidance in such a situation I'd be worried and probably go elsewhere if necessary but I'd rather they ask me and stopped someone inappropriate from diving than not ask me and wind up with a recovered body on the boat after dive 1.

 

[amascuba]

LOL! You must be kidding me. It's a conspiracy to sell more classes. That's about all I can imagine.

I wonder if a cave card would suffice for "night". It's pretty dark down there! Think they'd let divers go below 60 with a Trimix card?

No! They will probably think it's some hyperoxic trimix card that only allows you fills with 50% O2 and 25% He.

I'm with you. I would be inclined to think that it's a conspiracy to sell more classes. Who wants to lug around upteen different specialty cards for different dives? Atleast SSI will put all your specialties on a single card, but I think it's dumb to have to show a specialty card for certain dives. Unless it's in an extreme or overhead environment that requires special training to be safe I think the whole idea is just lame.

 

[JKSteger]

I too belive it is a mixture of both cover your arse and ..."how can we get more people to Put Another Dollar In?"

Most of these dives are not very difficult but there is some risk involved. On the flip side I've been on some of these "cattle boats" and most of the divers on them are the 2 or 4 dives per year divers! They scare the crap out of me. Personally I don't think that I would want to be responsable to take them diving in a backyard pool, much less trust them out in the ocean...specialty card or not!!! Better qualifier is something like..."hey, let me peek into your logbook". You should be able to weed them out pretty quickly then.

Jeremy

 

[wreckchick]

From an operator's standpoint it's very hard to judge who will or will not present a problem on a dive. I tend to guide dives that are outside of OW standards not to be the classic cattle herd DM, but to be on hand in case something goes funny. I'll almost always dive the wreck if I have a trip and I just plain advertise that all night dives are led dives.

I'm doing everyone a service, including myself! I like to dive, it's why I do what I do. I don't get a chance to dive the wreck as often as I'd like so I consider myself a tag-along more than anything but it's clearly dual-purpose. I LOVE night diving so that's easy for me to get excited about. From a customer perspective, I know the area better so I'm far more likely to be able to find the boat when it's all over which means they can relax and enjoy the dive instead of navigating.

I don't require specialties for anything although I'm unlikely to let you dive the deeper sites unless you can prove you've done something like that before. Even if I'm leading the dive I don't like taking very new divers into new territory unless I'm made aware of it in advance.

In some destinations the ops will do a "check-out dive" with everyone before sending them out into the blue. I think that's a great idea since it's much easier to suss someone out underwater than looking at a stack of cards. If I had more of a multi-day clientele I might try to do that but it's not really how things are done down here.

Rachel

 

[tstormdiver]

I can see in some instances where an operation would ask to see a cert card for a particular specialty that would involve greater danger. I am also AOW & Rescue (specialties in night, deep, navigation, underwater communications & Equipment specialist), but not EANx. I wouldn't expect an operation to give me nitrox without the proper proof of training (not that I'd even try). I would also expect an operation to bar me from doing cavern, wreck or diving situations that could put me at greater risk for an accident without proof of proper training. In my AOW, I did go over some wreck diving (I have only 1 training dive on this, so far), but as of today, I refrain from penetrating a wreck, with the reasoning that because of the greater risk, I should have more training before attempting it. I can't see the fact that the one operation only allowed a cert. deep diver to go to 90'. Most agencies say that a diver with deep diving certification is capable of going to the recerational limit of 130' or so. That part seemed a little silly to me. True ,there are some specialies that are there, not because of safety, but to enhance the diving experience. I would say that I'd be a bit upset if I weren't allowed to take a camera just because I'm not certified as an underwater photographer. Are there any true safety risks to photography? I can understand the need to see credentials for more dangerous activities because of liability of the dive operations, but if the activity doesn't present a greater safety risk, then let it be. I know my view may not be a popular. That's my two cents worth.

 

[Jibeho]

I remember in 1990 I dived a few days with UNEXSO. I present my PADI OW card and the DM asked when was the last time I was wet. I was honest and said a year. He said get in the pool and had me complete a few tasks. I was impressed that this operation as an added value required this.