Certification Requirements to Dive

[gconner]

Note sure what dive shop you talked to but if you want to dive out of Morehead City, Olympus Dive Center should take you. Here's the requirements from their web site:

Requirements: Advanced certification OR 20 logged dives including 1 dive to 100'+, 1 boat dive and 1 dive in the past 12 months

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Despite my experience level and my Fiance as a dive buddy, they told me I would have to either take their Advanced Open Water Class the day before the trip or pay $50 extra on my trip to have an extra dive master "babysit" us on the dive since BOTH of us did not have an advanced open water certification.

Am I reading that right? Are they proposing to give you an AOW class in one day?

Besides the fact that you wouldn't get anything out of it ... even if you didn't already have the experience ... it's a standards violation.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Consider the "training" that goes in AOW, I laugh whenever these professionals try to tell me that it's suppose to mean something.

Depends on who's teaching it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It's ALL ABOUT LIABILITY. That's it. Very simple. If all you had was OW cert and a diving accident happened at 61 feet, the dive operator could and would get sued, possibly forcing them out of business.

Not really ... except for junior certifications, the 60-foot depth is a recommendation, not a limit. Of course, anybody can sue for any reason at any time ... but exceeding a recommended depth limit by a few feet isn't going to be sufficient to prove negligence. Now, if they dropped you on a site where the only thing to look at was at 100 feet, you might have a point ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[spectrum]

Yeah, just a weird situation, such as this one. My fiance is much much less experienced and wouldn't be comfortable diving without me. She dove twice last summer, while I dove 48 times. She would probably need me to oversee her hooking her gear up, yet she's qualified for the dive, and I am not. I just thought that seeing instructor #s and signatures on 120ft dives would validate a diver's experience level. I'm sure it is more the insurance companies and lawyers to blame, rather than the dive shop. Frustrates the heck out of me, but she certainly is getting a kick out of it, ha ha.

Nothing weird about t it. An instructor has certified her. In this world a certification is the only portable instrument of qualification. Like it or not, agree or not but if someone is going to enter into a contract with risk they need some paper trail that say's a person is qualified. Keep in mind they may be executing requirements of their insurance carrier.

A log book can be forged in many ways and provides no measure of competency. You may be the more qualified but she has the card. Suck it up, take the course and carry the card.

 

[lowviz]

I got my AOW after 30 years of diving. .....//....It was a pre req for rescue so it wasn't totally useless

I can't belive that this post didn't go thermo, been waiting and waiting but nothing...

So I can only read this as: "after OW a diver isn't ready to learn to save someone else because they aren't really expected to be capable of saving their own @$$."


If it makes the OP feel any better, his logbook and his OW cert will get him an inshore open ocean "let's see your stuff" dive on any boat that I care about. If you call me on it, I'll PM the captains' names.

 

[Searcaigh]

After 300 dives you are an advanced open water diver.

Unfortunately the only way to prove it is to pay for the AOW ticket, I had over 100 dives when I did mine many years ago, and as already mentioned it is a prerequisite for doing the Rescue course

 

[Firefyter]

After 300 dives you are an advanced open water diver.

Unfortunately the only way to prove it is to pay for the AOW ticket, I had over 100 dives when I did mine many years ago, and as already mentioned it is a prerequisite for doing the Rescue course

It's only a prerequisite for PADI and maybe SSI Rescue. It is not required for NAUI or SEI rescue courses.......

 

[KozMcCharlie]

FWIW, I booked a weekend of diving in NC for late July and while the first question was "what level of cert do you have?", when I said OW the question was "have you done any diving at 100'" followed by questions about those dives and my comfort level. I guess it worked for them, though they did ask that I consider getting a Nitrox cert before the trip. The reasoning was that the dives would be better for me...

 

[elan]

I think the AOW not a prerequisite for the Rescue for at least a couple of years in PADI. You can be an adventure diver to take the Rescue I think navigation must be one of the adventure dives.