60 ft.

[MaxBottomtime]

I looked through my NAUI OW1 book from 1985. I could find nothing in the book about the 60 foot limit, but my instructor stressed very heavily that OW1 divers would be limited to 60 feet, while Advanced level divers could go to 130 feet. I made about 200 dives before I went to 67 feet.
BTW, the book also describes in-water recompression, so obviously things have changed in OW teaching.

 

[Wookie]

A charter boat is a water taxi and should act as such.

As things change in the dive industry, so too should this attitude. It is outdated, and has no place in modern thinking. If you are a captain of a charter boat, the Coast Guard WILL hold you directly responsible for the lives of your passengers, whether they are on or off the boat when they get hurt. Your insurance company (you do have in-water liability for your charter boat, eh?) feels the same way. Willis Canada has been dropping charter boats from insurance for defending their actions by saying "I'm just the transportation to the dive site".

I assure you that you will lose your license when you flip that attitude to the investigator when he comes to investigate a fatality or serious injury on your vessel. It used to be that Coast Guard investigators were relatively stupid when it came to sport diving accidents. I assure you that the ones in Galveston, Panama City, and Key West are not stupid or inexperienced when it comes to sport diving accidents. They know the regs, they know how to dive, and they don't take attitude from charter boat captains. Imaging my surprise at my last investigation.....

 

[captain]

As things change in the dive industry, so too should this attitude. It is outdated, and has no place in modern thinking. If you are a captain of a charter boat, the Coast Guard WILL hold you directly responsible for the lives of your passengers, whether they are on or off the boat when they get hurt. Your insurance company (you do have in-water liability for your charter boat, eh?) feels the same way. Willis Canada has been dropping charter boats from insurance for defending their actions by saying "I'm just the transportation to the dive site".

I assure you that you will lose your license when you flip that attitude to the investigator when he comes to investigate a fatality or serious injury on your vessel. It used to be that Coast Guard investigators were relatively stupid when it came to sport diving accidents. I assure you that the ones in Galveston, Panama City, and Key West are not stupid or inexperienced when it comes to sport diving accidents. They know the regs, they know how to dive, and they don't take attitude from charter boat captains. Imaging my surprise at my last investigation.....

By the certification agencies placing all the arbitrary limits all is does is give the USCG and insurance companies ammunition to go after basically a boat driver. If the boat driver is negligent and runs over a diver or leaves one at see than sure he is responsible but how can he be responsible for Joe dive at 100' below the boat.

 

[Boiler_81]

The problem in my opinion is "modern thinking" where people are not accountable for themselves.

As things change in the dive industry, so too should this attitude. It is outdated, and has no place in modern thinking. If you are a captain of a charter boat, the Coast Guard WILL hold you directly responsible for the lives of your passengers, whether they are on or off the boat when they get hurt. Your insurance company (you do have in-water liability for your charter boat, eh?) feels the same way. Willis Canada has been dropping charter boats from insurance for defending their actions by saying "I'm just the transportation to the dive site".

I assure you that you will lose your license when you flip that attitude to the investigator when he comes to investigate a fatality or serious injury on your vessel. It used to be that Coast Guard investigators were relatively stupid when it came to sport diving accidents. I assure you that the ones in Galveston, Panama City, and Key West are not stupid or inexperienced when it comes to sport diving accidents. They know the regs, they know how to dive, and they don't take attitude from charter boat captains. Imaging my surprise at my last investigation.....

 

[Walter]

The AOW diver has been certified by a training agency to have the ability to make the dive.

Nope. The AOW diver has a similar recommendation as the one the OW diver has - not to exceed the limits of their training or experience. When you see an AOW card (or an instructor card for that matter) you know the diver has made at least one dive to 60 feet or deeper. You do not know they have the experience or training to dive to 100 ft. If you're going to a 100 ft deep site and tell a diver he's qualified to make the dive based on seeing an AOW card, you've just certified him to make the dive from your boat.

 

[Tigerman]

Well, you've certainly covered your butt against an injury/death suit from the OW diver you didn't let on the boat, but what about that AOW diver who has made exactly one (1) dive to 60 ft, has eight (8) dives to 20 ft and a total of nine (9) dives in his life. You are letting him dive to 100 ft and you just told him he's qualified to make the dive. I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect you have just uncovered your ass in a very big way.

No, I didnt just tell him hes qualified. The certifying instructor did. You can always enforce higher standard than the agencies does, but (s)hes certified for it and that would pretty much cover your ass the same way as making sure the one whos not doesnt do the dive?
Im not saying you should take cards at face value, but they are better for covering your ass from a lawsuit than a book with numbers and no certificate to back it up with is. As I said, I like the "Egyptian approach" of sending everyone on a checkout dive or 3 the first day you arrive. And thats regardless of wether youve dived with them before or not in many (most?) cases..

I was just explaining why I understand the ops requiering, I dont wanna go into another "cert standards should change" discussion/argument here. We have enough threads about that for a while I think

 

[Walter]

The certifying instructor did.

Look at that card again. It does not say the diver is qualified for a 100 ft dive.

 

[Wookie]

By the certification agencies placing all the arbitrary limits all is does is give the USCG and insurance companies ammunition to go after basically a boat driver. If the boat driver is negligent and runs over a diver or leaves one at see than sure he is responsible but how can he be responsible for Joe dive at 100' below the boat.

I don't know, and I agree with you, but they do. When we had our rebreather fatality on the Vandenberg, I filled out more paperwork for the Coast Guard than I did for the Sherriff's office or my insurance company. I wasn't there, I have no idea what happened, I wasn't a buddy, he wasn't on the boat, but somehow I was the guy all the questions were asked of. Being a smart captain and a sea lawyer extraordinaire, I only stated what I saw. Which wasn't much.

How did I get put in charge of someone else's health or diving skills?