By self serving crap, I mean this "we can't do it for liability" excuse that is standard in scuba.
I would ask you, please, to take more care with your language. If I'm working at an LDS and it's my call, I don't make the decision based on
liability because although there may be one, it's the person's safety I'm interested in. Let me qualify this. Actually, I'm interested in the safety of the guys who may have to out and rescue him or retrieve the body. It's also a question of taxpayers' money. Why do we all have to pay for people who
may be plain stupid? Then of course there's my own inconvenience and embarassment of explaining to the the Police, the public safety dive rescue team and the Coast Guard why I gave him the fill.
If we had the same "we are going to make you safer and us less liable approach" adopted by the rest of society, you couldn't eat in a resturant because you might choke, we can't sell you gas because you might wreck, we can sell you rope because you might hang yourself ect. Fortuneatly no one blames the rope manufactures or the hardware store selling the rope.
Within this context, I don't care about what other people or businesses do.
The argument of a LDS selling air or a service is like arguing a resturant isn't selling food but is providing food preparation services.
Restauants reserve the right of admission. Apart from this I have never thought of offering an air fill as the service that an LDS performs. At the ones I have worked, it's not very common and we usually gave them to boat owners who have tanks on their boats for maintenance purposes (before you ask, yes, they are all divers with a proficiency level to do so).
The industry is over self regulating on the issue of filling tanks and much of that self regulation is instructional profit driven.
There is no profit in tank fills.
Buying food at a McDonalds is a convenience, just as buying air at a shop is a convenience.
You really think that LDS are in the air fill convenience business?
My beef is with the training monopoly the established agencies have created and the "no card no air" rule they employ to enforce it.
You are mixed up and mistaken. There is absolutely no rule, no guideline or even suggestion on the part of agencies about LDS giving air fills to people, certified or otherwise.
Where do you get these ideas?
Yes, it is a form of monopoly.
I beg to differ. There is healthy competition. Definitely not a MONOPOLY. Not even an OLIGOPOLY.
Just because there are a handful of agencies with slightly different rules does not change this. They have agreed on how they want things done, how they can maximize their profits and have devised a way to enforce it. In a sense, they have become a law unto themselves.
"A law unto themselves?" And you're the guy that supports GOVERNMENT REGULATION?
I've taught a number of people to drive. Over the years since, some of them have had accidents...
Now you're frightening me.
...under the law, the responsibility for those accidents rests on them, not me.
Wow, you must be very popular in your neighborhood!
So now you need to see a solo c-card to do a fill? You now ask everyone what their dive plans are for that bottle of air?
No. I need to know if you know how to dive and if you are planning to Solo Dive, if you have had training and are experienced.
If you don't like it, get your fill at the next LDS.