Posted by CalAbDiver on June 19, 2001 at 11:30:13:
In Reply to: Renewing/recertifying posted by Ken Kurtis on June 19, 2001 at 10:40:02:
wanna race?!
it seems like all the major rec diving agencies [NAUI, PADI, SSI, YMCA, etc] would need to vote together on the issue of recertification, then one uniform standard could be set. it seems like C-cards for rec diving should expire every 5 or 7 or 10 years. good idea. those only cost about $250 to get around here anyway. maybe there could be a special rate and a special class for renewals only, at half the price for the OW1 class.
since dive instructors and dive masters have preset professional requirements, they should be excluded from any rec diving recertifications, based on my thinking. but that would be up to NAUI, PADI, SSI, YMCA, etc. only 10% of all divers are an OWSI or D/M, based on the last statistics that I have seen.
on the tech side, since it costs around $2000 to certify as a tech diver, even more as a tech instructor or tech D/M, that seems like recertification would be problematic for that group. the tech divers probably should be exempt from renewal, as long as they had some minimum of logged dives signed off by a tech instructor or boat captain. thats easy enough. TDI doesnt follow NAUI or PADI or SSI anyway. they do what they think is best.
As you can see, this issue gets sticky fast. you also have a conflict of interest problem. a store owner might say he/she was concerned with dive safety, when he/she really just wants more store revenues from the renewal process.
also, the current "scuba review" is fully within the purview of the divemaster professional group now. if you implement "certification renewal" you are taking a revenue producing activity from the divemasters and shifting it to the instructors, who definitely do not need more revenue because they now have the major share of all dive revenue now, second only to the store owners on equipment sales.
there is enough conflict of interest on this issue to go around for everyone. that is probably why your friends at your annual NAUI instructor meeting wisely boo-ed this issue down. if NAUI tries to do this alone, it would be suicide for NAUI, which is already struggling enough in view of the business success of PADI and by the further inroads being made by SSI.
my fifty cents worth.