Historical equivalencies

[drjtprice]

While scuba certifications may be forever, the knowledge of what they might mean is not. I have seen the 2007 article of equivalencies but what about older ones? I was certified NASDS Basic, Advanced, and Dive Coordinator. The cards say diver (which was certified), open water (which was advanced and required 10 open water dives including navigation, search and rescue, night, deep, etc), and Dive Coordinator training was really equivalent to what is now called Dive Master. I can't find any documentation of equivalencies that go back that far and am beginning to have trouble with shops accepting my certifications. I missed the SSI cut-off for crossing over so am beginning to feel a little put-out and not that happy. Does anyone have a publication of equivalencies from pre-2000?

 

[rick00001967]

what is it that you are trying to accomplish ? perhaps if you let us know we can help. do you just want a new OW cert card from ssi ? or do you think somehow you can get an advanced and / or dive master cert ?

 

[drjtprice]

It would be nice to get replacement cards but I have been told SSI does not do that anymore. The problem is that more and more shops are beginning to not recognize my cards or will recognize NASDS but have no idea what the different cards mean. Even my LDS (SSI/PADI) had no idea what the different card levels meant but accepted my explanation. I did a reactivate course before I headed off to Australia - neither SSI nor PADI would issue a reactivate card as I was not certified by them. So, I see this as a growing problem in the future. There was a very good article giving equivalencies and I carry that with me. The problem is that my cards (and many other diver's cards) were even earlier than that.

I am not interested in being a Dive Master again, but my training surpassed that taught in the stress and rescue and rescue diver courses (much of that material was actually covered in my advanced open water course). So, my solution was to try and get recognized via a Master Scuba Diver program (I know what people think about that on this board) - it would give me a card from one of the large existing organizations. So, while I was in Australia I did 5 PADI specialties (no SSI store available where I was). But when it came time to fill in the equivalencies they said my gold card only said open water and not advanced open water. I have had to track down my original certificates which say Open Water at the top but the text clearly says certified as Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver. This was because in the early days of NASDS it was just certified diver (basic), open water (advanced) then in the 1980s Dive Co-Ordinator (then equivalent to Dive Master and was signed off by Gaffney from HQ). I have no idea what that equates to now in the SSI scheme.

So, it is a combination of concern that at some point in time in a remote country I am not going to be allowed to dive as nobody recognizes NASDS, and that I really am in a position where even advancing my skills is becoming difficult as shops don't recognize my certification levels. I am not interested in taking AOW again (which is what I understand the SSI current policy is over NASDS). After 170 dives and being DM on liveaboards I am much more interested in spending my training dollars on new skills - perhaps even rebreather (but only for sport diving depths and no deco limits; it would be for photography and research diving).

Thanks.

 

[oly5050user]

If certified around 2000 and having 170 dives in all this time I would suggest doing advance ow.
You did maybe 10 dives a year since 2000. That is not a lot of experience over all these years. It would solve card recognition problem you have and you may learn something new. Advance ow is inexpensive way to do this ( here in NY we charge $200 for this) and maybe have fun doing it.

 

[Akimbo]

Does BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club) offer any options?

 

[rick00001967]

first off, if you have no intention of moving to the professional levels it makes no difference really what certs you have in your pocket. any one of those 5 cards you got recently will allow you to dive anywhere you want.
however, if you do want to move to the pro levels or move into special tech training there may be certain prerequisites needed. in these cases you may have no choice but to take some courses that you feel you dont need to in order to be properly registered with whatever agency you are training with.
so if you have recently done 5 full specialty courses with padi you can do as suggested above and simply take an advanced diver course with them as it is required in the padi system i believe to move forward. you would probably need to retake rescue as well.
if you want to stick with SSI you can apply to them to have all 5 padi specialties recognized. this would give you your ssi adv cert. then all you need is stress and rescue. that will automatically generate the SSI master diver cert for you.
if you are looking at doing tech training i would sit down and plan out where exactly you want to go with that, which agency you prefer, and then map out what courses you need to get there.
all that being said, if all you want is a new ssi open water diver card, then ask your ssi dealer about the experienced diver program. you need to write and pass the ow exam, do a water fitness test, one pool session to evaluate your skills, and 2 ow dives. you will also need to show you current certs you have along with a log book showing dive experience.

 

[boulderjohn]

so if you have recently done 5 full specialty courses with padi you can do as suggested above and simply take an advanced diver course with them as it is required in the padi system i believe to move forward. you would probably need to retake rescue as well.

If you took 5 full PADI specialties, you already have much of the PADI AOW course covered. This was discussed in a recent thread. You should be able to negotiate a special course and price that gives you credit for those dives and only have to do what is left that is required.

 

[Edward3c]

Does BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club) offer any options?

The BSAC Advanced Diver certification doesn't have a PADI or SSI equivalent as its higher than Divemaster, but not an instructor grade. We have a level above this called 1st Class Diver which is all about expedition planning and leadership.

To the OP. BSAC do not issue qualification cards based on other agency's qualifications. Equivalence is used to get onto a diver grade course.

 

[tursiops]

while I was in Australia I did 5 PADI specialties.

What were the five specialties?

 

[drjtprice]

Deep, nitrox, UW photographer, UW naturalist, Fish ID. The instructor on the last deep dive said as far as he was concerned I earned my first boat and salvage dive as well. I was safety diver while he and another instructor salvaged an anchor for a nearby boat - we had to dive out of a very small RIB....overall I already had 71 deep dives, 8 night dives, 147 boat dives though.....