Difficulties getting C-Cards

[Joneill]

I spoke to the Aggressor Fleet administration office this morning. It appears they cannot find any records for that cruise. They are recommending "rinse and repeat" due the lack of records and the amount of time that has passed.

SDI training department did find shop that will redo the OW dives for $600, which is less than $1200. I've also had offers of help from folks on this board. I'm sure we will get their C-cards somehow, but I would strongly suggest to any new student NOT to use the Global Referral program. It has serious problems.

No offense intended, but it seems your issues are related to mixing agencies used for the Classroom/confined water and OW certification dive portions of the certification process?

I can’t directly speak to SDI’s Global Referral Program but I know (via my own experience) that PADI’s referral program works perfectly fine.

As other’s have mentioned, the SDI Global Referral Program would have required you to give the Aggressor Instructor the Global Referral Form that would have been filled out and returned to you so you could give it back to the original SDI instructor to complete the SDI cert.

https://www.tdisdi.com/UserFiles/File/SDI/Referal/global_referral.pdf

It seems maybe you did not understand how the process works upfront and follow it correctly to be able to complete the certs? Certainly, the original SDI instructor should have informed you of the process - so much fault lies with them!

 

[divezonescuba]

That global referral program is interesting.

As a Padi instructor, I would be extremely surprised if I was legally covered by V&B in the event of an accident. The first thing they would probably say is that the students did not receive classroom and confined water training to PADI standards and had no business doing open water dives. I think, I would have passed on a non-PADI student under the global referral program.

 

[boulderjohn]

Folks, this was thoroughly covered earlier in the thread. PADI instructors are allowed to use the Global referral system rather than the PADI system if they wish. This is all covered on the PADI website. It could have been handled either way, and it is handled either way hundreds if not thousands of times a year. It should not be a big deal, and the fault for the problem clearly lies with both the instructor who did the dives and the Aggressor Fleet that ran the program.

 

[divezonescuba]

So, I found a 15 year old document from PADI. I don’t know if it is still effective.

Here is what the 2018 manual says:

Referrals from Other Organizations
When receiving a referred diver from another training organization for course completion, follow the Referral Procedures in the General Standards and Procedures Guide. To assess the referred diver’s knowledge and skills, administer the Open Water Diver Online Quick Review, ReActivate Quick Review or Open Water Diver Course final exam, and conduct a confined water dive that reviews Open Water Diver course skills in preparation for open water training dives.
Note: See PADI’s Guide to Teaching for more details

 

[Joneill]

So, I found a 15 year old document from PADI. I don’t know if it is still effective.

View attachment 474240

Here is what the 2018 manual says:

Referrals from Other Organizations
When receiving a referred diver from another training organization for course completion, follow the Referral Procedures in the General Standards and Procedures Guide. To assess the referred diver’s knowledge and skills, administer the Open Water Diver Online Quick Review, ReActivate Quick Review or Open Water Diver Course final exam, and conduct a confined water dive that reviews Open Water Diver course skills in preparation for open water training dives.
Note: See PADI’s Guide to Teaching for more details

So that does seem like not sticking with 1 organization for your certification can cause extra work and, at least, potential confusion - best to pick an agency and stick with them for the entire certification process to avoid any issues!

 

[boulderjohn]

So that does seem like not sticking with 1 organization for your certification can cause extra work and, at least, potential confusion - best to pick an agency and stick with them for the entire certification process to avoid any issues!

That sounds like a good plan, except that you really can't do it in many cases. There are dive destinations all over the world in which only a few (or sometimes even one) agencies are represented, and if the one you prefer at home is not one of them, you have little choice.

 

[Joneill]

That sounds like a good plan, except that you really can;t do it in many cases. There are dive destinations all over the world in which only a few (or sometimes even one) agencies are represented, and if the one you prefer at home is not one of them, you have little choice.

Understood - but then one has to make sure they connect with both sides (i.e., PADI and SDI Ops) to fully understand how the certification process is going to work before they sign up and pay for all of it.

 

[Superlyte27]

I’ve spoke to the OP about this. They were on the boat trying to process his SDI cert online and the instructor said that he had internet issues and would have to wait to get it done. I don’t know if that’s true or not, or if he wasn’t an active instructor. Whatever, the case may be, the OP seems to have done his homework. The instructor knew what he was getting into at the time of class completion. Sounds like the OP didn’t know he was going to get screwed after doing his homework.

 

[Damselfish]

Understood - but then one has to make sure they connect with both sides (i.e., PADI and SDI Ops) to fully understand how the certification process is going to work before they sign up and pay for all of it.

Still I think it is on the ops and instructors to get it right, and tell people what they need to do or not do. Not the customer. All well and good to say one should connect with both sides and understand the process. But someone new at this can easily be in a situation where they don't know what questions to ask, or even know there are questions that need to be asked. Or they tried to ask and didn't get the right answer. They are looking to the "professionals" to handle things which seems reasonable. (I was on a dive trip with friends one of whom did SSI at home and then referral at the PADI shop where we stayed. It eventually got worked out, but was a cluster I won't get into the details of. I had no idea in advance or I would have suggested not to mix agencies, as in that case it would have been pretty easy to avoid. Hindsight is wonderful.)

 

[tursiops]

I feel sorry for the OP.
PADI should never have been involved, but if the instructor only had PADI credentials then he should have followed PADI standards.
It is too bad the OP does not seem to know the instructor's credentials, especially his PADI number, because then he could be tracked down and there would be a chance to make things right.