Should Dive Certifications be a "license"

[Tigerbeach]

In legal circles this is what we call a "slippery slope".

Let's cede all freedom, then turn around and ask the government for their permission to engage in every conceivable human endeavor.

Feel free to dissent....but....

If ye doubt your courage or strength, go no further, for DEATH awaits you all, with nasty, pointy teeth!

I am not ceding anything to any government.
We need to govern ourselves.

Some divers don't belong in the tub.
If a simple test weeds out the fish from the bait, we are all better off.

[SCUBA411]

NO, there should not a mandated renewal process. Dive Centers and clubs should continue to make refresher courses available, and let prudent individuals take advantage of them. You can not regulate good/common sense. Frankly, I have no interest in saving people with bad judgement from themselves. I have not abdicated my personal responsibility to anyone and do not wish to be a nanny for anyone else.


This may sound harsh, but that slope is very slippery.

[cajunfla]

from the observation / opinion of a lurking newbie:

Apparently many of you were born with hundreds of dives already in your logbooks. It seems that you have forgotten what it is like to be new to diving. I feel fairly safe in saying that many of you old-timers made some of the same mistakes you now bitch about.

How about giving new divers the same chance to learn that someone obviously gave you.

Yes, I am a newbie. Obtained my c-card in 1989, and never went back beause of $$. Now it's 2007, living in Guam, with the funds and opportunity, and recently took a refresher course that I demanded of myself.

Please, nothing personnal here, just remember when you had less than 100 dives in your books.

[amtrosie]

from the observation / opinion of a lurking newbie:

Apparently many of you were born with hundreds of dives already in your logbooks. It seems that you have forgotten what it is like to be new to diving. I feel fairly safe in saying that many of you old-timers made some of the same mistakes you now bitch about.

How about giving new divers the same chance to learn that someone obviously gave you.

Yes, I am a newbie. Obtained my c-card in 1989, and never went back beause of $$. Now it's 2007, living in Guam, with the funds and opportunity, and recently took a refresher course that I demanded of myself.

Please, nothing personnal here, just remember when you had less than 100 dives in your books.

We speak, not from the sodden pages of our logbooks, but rather from the MANY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCES we have endured while diving in and around or in the vicinity of the unqualified! We were young and inexperienced, and knowing this, sought to mitigate those short comings! It is the divers that do nothing more than take a class and then think (very falsely) they are capable of any diving. After many dives, we quickly learn that we have much to learn, and those that don't dive often are a danger to themselves and every other diver around them.


I applaud your self awareness and the recognition of your short comings. You are the exception, not the rule!



Again, I can not emphasise enough the abysmal preparation that is often the infrequent diver. Their ignorance and ARROGANCE, and refusal to subject themselves to the learning process that is diving, is to the detriment of all that love this sport. Their selfishness is not to be tolerated!

[Tigerbeach]

from the observation / opinion of a lurking newbie:

Apparently many of you were born with hundreds of dives already in your logbooks. It seems that you have forgotten what it is like to be new to diving. I feel fairly safe in saying that many of you old-timers made some of the same mistakes you now bitch about.

How about giving new divers the same chance to learn that someone obviously gave you.

Yes, I am a newbie. Obtained my c-card in 1989, and never went back beause of $$. Now it's 2007, living in Guam, with the funds and opportunity, and recently took a refresher course that I demanded of myself.

Please, nothing personnal here, just remember when you had less than 100 dives in your books.

Make that thousands of dives. And we were trained differently. Old time divers were often hardcore watermen before they learned to dive. We were trained in self reliance, and swimming skills.
We have earned the right to bitch about newbies, if we choose.

YOU too, have the ability to learn what we know. Just keep training.
And along the way, trade your mouth for your ears.
Nothing personal...

[thalassamania]

I answered "yes" in this context. In the science community continued certification requires that you turn in logs each month that add upo to a total of 12 dives over the previous 12 months. Maintaining your depth qualification (30, 60, 100, 130, 150, or 190) requires a dive to that depth in the previous three months.

[littleleemur]

It's more an issue of responsibilty, that you have to others mostly. It's an activity that can endanger others if you royally F-up. People trying to save you, your buddy, other divers in the water having other issues that can escalate to emergencies....

In a perfect world (ha! ) there would be fair and honest "renewal processes", but in a fair and honest world, there wouldn't be shake n' bake dive "pros" or renewal of driver's license by simply taking a new photo and updating your address. We would all have to take the road test again!

Have you seen suburban moms trying to negotiate the school parking lots? You'd think they were all driving tanks in Iraq!

I voted yes

[littleleemur]

Make that thousands of dives. And we were trained differently. Old time divers were often hardcore watermen before they learned to dive. We were trained in self reliance, and swimming skills.
We have earned the right to bitch about newbies, if we choose.

YOU too, have the ability to learn what we know. Just keep training.
And along the way, trade your mouth for your ears.
Nothing personal...

We all started as OW divers, but one of the things that pissed me off was a DM implying that being a Newbie in Scuba meant you were a Newbie at swimming too

On a dive trip, I caught that same DM "trying to get used to" the sensation of salt water! Hilarious!

Too bad we didn't do any "real" shore diving, I would've loved to walk by him as he would be laying face first in the sand clobbered by miscalculating the wave sets

[Papa Bear]

Only when the pry my C-Card from my cold dead fingers! We in this country, and it will effect the world, have created a beast named Government and it is ugly and huge! It sucks life from the economy and when ever you try to trim it its employees scream the loudest! Its entitlements will eat 90% of a three "Trillion Dollar" budget, yet we bitch about fighting terrorists because we have been too effective it killing the SOB's and "That money could be spent here" on more welfare!

And for anyone to suggest that the government regulate and license an individual activity, that even if someone screws up will not necessarily involve anyone else, is the most insane thing I have heard next to electing a man named Obama President of the United States of America! Wake up America do we want the next three supreme court judges to be put in place by a man who's has only been a senator for 4 years and is left of Stalin? If so then a SCUBA license will be the least of our problems and will be mandatory in a few years!

I didn't mean to get political, but that is the point you will inject politics into SCUBA on a daily bases! Is that what we want? If we get socialized medicine we will get SCUBA licensed just like Canada! Why because if they are going to insure you they want to make sure your save to keep coast down! It is way beyond a slippery slop it is the Grand Canyon!

[littleleemur]

Now PB, socialized medicine isn't all that bad (although it isn't all that good either). & unfortunately Canada is not a very good example. At least kids with asthma get treatment and no one is trapped into a loveless, torturous job because of fear of being denied treatment for a pre-existing condition for switching to a better job & hence a different insurance plan/company.

There should be a middle ground.

Did you know that there is minimum requirement for keeping your real estate license? There should be something like that for some other (more important) things too. Maybe only for instructors?

Some people are just so inconsiderate and irresponsible and no one says anything. I don't beleive in over-policing, I much prefer laissez-faire, but some of the stuff going nowadays on is really ridiculous. Crap - I think I'm getting old.