NAUI "Sport Diver" Certification from 1977

[JamesBon92007]

Oh yeah I completely get that. None of the agencies have records going back that far but NAUI is usually pretty good about these things. I'm a NAUI Course Director and former Regional Manager for them so PM me all of your info including copies of the logs. I'll see what I can do. Fair warning the card you will receive, if they accept your records, won't be a sports diver card but will instead probably be an Advanced card (IIRC the Sport Diver cert if equivalent to a modern advanced)

For what it's worth, when I requested my updated card I sent along copies of my old cards plus the name of my instructors and dive shops etc. They also told me that their records didn't go back that far. However, when I went to Costa Rica in 2016 the dive op told me that NAUI had a record of my original certification and number along with my updated info. If I go on NAUI's web site now it says I'm AOW and no mention of the Master card. Perhaps they sent it to me because I've been diving so long and I'm still alive so I must be doing something right

 

[scrane]

Well, I have upgraded my training--with PADI--since I started diving again a few years ago.
But, like @scrane, I was proud of my 1975 Naui certification. I also was certified at the Coral Reef Marine Center on Guam, and it was not easy. I remember that the instructors didn't think I was a strong enough swimmer (even if I passed the swim test), and I had to take swimming classes before completing the class. We had to attend classes at Coral Reef in the evenings and weekends over many weeks. For the basic certification, we did 8 open water dives.
Hey @scrane, was your instructor Annette Donner? Mitch Warner was also teaching there around that time.

I got my OW in 1974 on St. Croix in the USVI. I lost that card & etc. I got my Sport Diver at Coral Reef in 1977 and that's the one NAUI replaced with a AOW because nobody could remember what a "Sport Diver" was. My instructor at Coral Reef was a guy named Richard Allis. It was an interesting course that even involved some tight cave work. I lived in Inarajan for about a year with my new bride. We converted and lived in an old tool shed that sat about 150 feet from the high tide mark and I was able to dive each time we drove to Agana to get groceries and fill the tanks (car and SCUBA) . Then we continued around the world via Japan, Trans Siberian Railroad, A month in Turkey, three months in Israel, and two months Eurail Pass and England. It was a great honeymoon.

Now I'm old, but still diving. I'm off to Indonesia for the month of September. Same guy, different backpack.

Good luck with your card. Just call them up and tell stories 'til you wear them down,