"C" card dives limits

[Scuba]

This is largely a self regulating industry, at least in the US. Which means there may be different standards from operation to operation, and possibly none at all in some cases. It also means regulations monitoring and enforcement by a licensor or operator may be lax to none existent.

These are facts that should guide the diver in his quest on these matters. Enquire beforehand what exactly is provided and required for a dive trip or guided dive. Be specific regarding personal needs.

Use the internet and forums like this one to ask questions and get feedback from divers who have used a particular operator.

 

[YCW]

One local island operator I dived with a couple of years ago actually required all divers to have an orientation dive with their DM, regardless of the diver's experience. That way the operator get to know the "true experience" of a diver, before continue diving with the diver. I think that is a good idea.

Needless to say, some "experienced" divers weren't too happy about that.

I wonder if they are still doing the same thing...

 

[del_mo]

IMHO i do not think a AOW card mean you are an advanced diver.

I am proof that AOW doesn't mean a diver is automatically advanced. I will consider myself a newbie for a long long time.

 

[Iruka]

YCW, that reminds me of an experience a friend of mine had. He was, and still is, a diving instructor on Guam with THOUSANDS of dives.....while on vacation in the Caribbean, he wanted to do a boat dive with Club Med. They required that he do a beach checkout dive with a DM before being allowed to do the boat dive. Of course, the checkout dive would not be free. I can understand, even if I don't necessarily agree with, the idea of checkout dives for inexperienced customers, but I think it seems to be too obviously a ploy for more money when the "customer" probably has more dives than the person doing the "checking out!" I know of shops that basically use the AOW course as "ransom" to be able to do a deeper dive......rather than giving any weight/credence to one's diving experience, they try to....umm...."encourage" you to take an AOW course in order to be "allowed" to do a deep or night dive. It's great if someone wants to do, for example, a night dive as part of the AOW course, but if not, I can explain what they need to know to do a night dive, then go do the dive, and not force them to pay extra to get a card.

 

[Web Monkey]

YCW, that reminds me of an experience a friend of mine had. He was, and still is, a diving instructor on Guam with THOUSANDS of dives.....while on vacation in the Caribbean, he wanted to do a boat dive with Club Med. They required that he do a beach checkout dive with a DM before being allowed to do the boat dive. Of course, the checkout dive would not be free.

I don't think it's all that dumb. I'm very happy dropping in to 36 degree fresh water with 10' visibility in a drysuit, looking around a wreck and safely returing to the boat. However, it's an entirely different story in warm salt water. Suddlenly the weighting and trim that was perfect is way off, the topology of the floor is completely different and there may be a lot of current.

Doing a checkout dive isn't an insult. It's the sign of an organization that has a documented process for assessing a diver's skills before taking them out on a potentially more dangerous dive.

As a diver, if I did a checkout dive with a DM and they said "I don't think you'll be happy diving in x", I'd say they just did me a big favor.

Terry




Terry

 

[miketsp]

YCW, that reminds me of an experience a friend of mine had. He was, and still is, a diving instructor on Guam with THOUSANDS of dives.....while on vacation in the Caribbean, he wanted to do a boat dive with Club Med. They required that he do a beach checkout dive with a DM before being allowed to do the boat dive. Of course, the checkout dive would not be free. I can understand, even if I don't necessarily agree with, the idea of checkout dives for inexperienced customers, but I think it seems to be too obviously a ploy for more money when the "customer" probably has more dives than the person doing the "checking out!"
..snip..

That's a perfect rip-off. I could understand a shallow boat dive as a checkout for a deep boat dive or a beach dive as checkout for subsequent (unsupervised) beach dives. The latter happens at a few places to protect the reefs.
However, I dive with a few older experienced divers that have no problem whatsoever when boat diving, equip at the platform and unequip before climbing the ladder, but that would have back problems with the equipment weight during a shore entry.

 

[blueeyes_austin]

I guess I'm just gonna be an ornery cuss on this one. I have meticulous logbooks that an operator is welcome to look at it. If they have a policy of doing checkout dives, I'm cool with that--great way to shake down equipment.

But if they require an "advanced" certification that proves nothing, then my custom will go elsewhere.