fabasard:
I do understand what a recreational dive certification is, and every dive master or instructor I have spoken with (around 10 or so, from different agencies and areas) have stated that if you don't have a C card (at LEAST OW) you may not rent tanks. That being said, they may have meant from THEIR store, but that was always what I was told.
These are agency and dive shop rules. If you go to my gas supplier, you can buy whatever kind of gas you want. They will even mix custom blends without a care concerning what you are going to use it for.
The difference? The agency affiliation. Diving can be and is done apart from the control of the certification agencies. That control, only extends to it's own members.
Now, as to the shop owner, I would expect that if your going to run a DIVE shop you should know how to dive, otherwise how could you dispense usable knowledge to those inquiring at your store?
You just hire someone to do that. Lots of people own businesses that they wouldn't be able to run on their own.
I have never been in a dive shop where the owner and his employees were not at least OW certified.
If you're like most of us, there is lots of things that you've never seen or done.
For those NOT certified, I say the agency that they are trying to ally with does not grant them status with the agency until THEY are certified.
A dive shop does not need to align themselves with any agency. What status exactly does a dive shop need an agency to grant them?
I have even gone to Mexico (and they have pretty lax standards from time to time) and was not permitted to dive without the DM being over my shoulder (resort course) for the duration of the dive. It's a liability issue, if you don't want to keep going to court, you don't rent to those who don't know what their doing, its fool-hardy.
Do you have case presidence to offer? I don't know if this has been tested in court or not.
Say you own said store, and I walk into your store. I want to rent a tank, compressed of course for me and the wife, we want to try this diving thing. You rent me the tanks and off we go. My wife dies during the dive because neither of us is certified and has no clue as to what we are doing, rest assured I am going to sue your company. How could you possibly defend yourself in court? You wouldn't be in business long.
Now, sorry about barking, you just rubbed my fur the wrong way.
Why would I have to defend myself? I just sold you air. Why do I need to even care what you do with it. I'm not your momma. Did the air kill her? If there's something wrong with the air I sold you then by all means let me know, otherwise, why should it have anytthing to do with me? You and her decided to go diving. Why bring me into it? In fact, I might have a case against you if you fail to return or otherwise damage the tank in the process of getting your wife killed. Your assumption that I wouldn't be in business long is demonstrably false since the companies that so many of us buy helium, oxygen and various pre mixes from simply trade gas for money without regard for any dive industry considerations at all. They are still in business.
A civil suit is going to be based on the duty of care that exists. If I lead you to believe that I am somehow looking out for you then I might be held responsible for doing so. If I just sell air and only promis to deliver good air, you might have trouble holding me responsible for anything else.
Say a compressor company sells you a compressor and you fill her tank. Are you going to sue the compressor company?
What if the hardware store sells you a chain saw without checking for a chain saw certification and you cut your leg off?
I think you've been brainwashed with dive industry nonsense. BTW, you have now talked to an instructor who sings a different tune. I have owned a dive shop and taught through two different agencies and I'm completely convinced that this "certification = access" nonsense has causes far more problems than it solves for every one accept the agencies who, of course, want to sell certifications. The first problem is folks like yourself who somehow feel that the agency is doing something to insure your safet. Many, if not most, of the certification agencies are just businesses like any other. Giving them any regulatory power at all is a mistake. They have no authority over anyone who isn't a member of the agency and that's how it should be.
