Certification card dilemma

[rhwestfall]

1988

Class included dive planning with decompression.....

 

[Saboteur]

Thank you, that had occurred to me but doing so would amount to duplicative course-work and expense, both of which I want to avoid.

How about an enriched air course?

 

[oly5050user]

How about an enriched air course?

Enriched air / nitrox certification is valuable but still may need to show a ow or advance card

 

[tridacna]

Frau Blücher again. Can’t believe you’re still getting “tips”.

 

[JackD342]

My name was legally changed, so I will have to pay the name change fee, but it's good to know I dont have to pay the exorbitant change fee twice. Absolutely crazy that a 30 second clerical edit to a database entry is that pricey.

Who in the world quoted you a PADI name change fee?!?

A few times a year I send in photocopies of a marriage certificate for a customer to change their name, never any discussion of cost for the update. Only a new card should have a price. And if you have both an OW and an AOW card, why replace them both? Just replace AOW.

They would probably do it for a diver via direct contact, but I am happy to do it for my customers, and I have my favorite "inside rep" that takes care of those for me, and/or helps when I have trouble finding a certification record.

PM me if you want me to take care of it for you.

 

[JackD342]

There was a lot of confusion back then about names of cert levels and what they meant. One thing for sure: just one or two OW dives does not complete an OW class, even back then. One motivation for the WRSTC formation was to put in place some standard nomenclature and minimum training standard. The small number of OW dives is now called "supervised diver," meaning you must dive with a professional.

I can't speak to the YMCA Basic card, but here is the scoop on the PADI Basic card:
For the purposes of diving, it can be considered an Open Water card - same recommended depth limits, no added supervision required. But it is not a valid prerequisite for any Con Ed such as AOW; the diver first needs to upgrade to Open Water by taking a skills and academic refresher, and completing dives 3 & 4 of the Open Water course, being sure to include Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent which was NOT part of the Basic course. (Although no doubt some instructors covered it anyway, but you can't know based on the card.)

So at first glance folks tend to equate the old PADI Basic card with the current Scuba Diver card based on both having two Open Water dives, but there is more to it than that and they are not the same.

 

[Erich S]

My “Basic“ course consisted of 6 weeks of training, 4 OW dives and CPR certification.

 

[Manneca]

I did the YMCA course in 1980. I never felt the need to upgrade until I started traveling in SE Asia. Nobody has any idea what it is. And then I started running into resorts/LOBs that wouldn't let me dive unless I was AOW. So I bit the bullet and did the AOW. (My son is an instructor and my basic course covered everything he did through rescue.) I have no desire to do deep dives, but having a PADI card just makes things easier. Lately, I haven't shown my physical card. I just email a copy to the dive op and it's all good. (But up until this year, everyone wanted to see the physical card.)

 

[tridacna]

My “Basic“ course consisted of 6 weeks of training, 4 OW dives and CPR certification.

 

[EFX]

Note that my card has "Basic" stamped on it, is yours different

NASDS also had two different certs: basic and open water. The basic cert only included pool work. The open water had the student performing the skills in open water after the pool work. I don't know what qualifications were earned for each cert. I still have my basic card and it never prevented me from doing any charter dives back in the mid-late 70's. Things were pretty loose back then.