How often are you asked for C-card and/or dive log?

[ArcticDiver]

It's interesting that C-cards are all about training (variable dependent on agency) and not at all about experience. Checking logbooks is one way to sample experience. To my knowledge, only one agency, SSI, has an experience-related card (?100, 500, 1000 dives). I have no idea how they issue or verify the experience cards, does anyone? The combination of training and experience is probably the best way to judge diving competance.

True, the combination of certifications, recurring training and experience has proven itself in other fields for a good many years. But, for that to be meaningful there has to be some independent verification agency and agreed standards, neither of which exist in scuba. To me it makes no sense at all to worry about log books in scuba. As posts to this thread have shown different people use their logs for different purposes and probably log different facts, or fictions, as the case may be.

Can't say about all SSI cards; but when I got my SSI Nitrox card the number on it was the number of dives in the course that the instructor personally observed.

Walter, so you were the "culprit", eh? At the time I read the proceedings with great interest.

 

[Walter]

To my knowledge, only one agency, SSI, has an experience-related card (?100, 500, 1000 dives).

When I issue an SEI card, I have the option of listing the number of dives you've completed to that point on it.

 

[ScubaSteve]

When I issue an SEI card, I have the option of listing the number of dives you've completed to that point on it.

What is the purpose of putting that number on there? If it is to show experience, then that would, to me, imply that the "proof of experience" (logbook) would have to be completely scrutinized to ensure it is valid (to the best of the instructor's abilities that is). Without that, I cannot see an agency endorsing someone's experience level. Perhaps it is just me.