Posted by Bill Johnson on June 20, 2001 at 11:57:52:
In Reply to: Kendall's Probationary Card idea posted by Ken Kurtis on June 19, 2001 at 18:02:41:
Ken,
Kendall's idea you outlined above, along with the expiring c-cards are all good ideas, but they all come down to one thing: follow-up enforcement. This is not happening now and there is no guarantee that it will happen if these changes are implamented.
For example, I can't remember the last time I was required to present my a c-card.
Another example: And even when divers do present a c-card, they are allowed, by the operators, to dive beyond their certification level. Case and point: divers are allowed to dive the Yukon with just an Open Water Diver card.
Having an expiring c-card or probationary c-card would not solve the training and experience problem in either of these situations because dive operators don't go by c-cards even now!
Another problem is divers. I recall past strings where posters on this board, who proport to be divers, refuse to be certified at the level they wish to dive. Here are some certification limits for review:
Open Water Diver: certifies divers to dive in open water (as opposed to overhead environment water) to 60' ndl during the day.
Advanced Open Water Diver: generally, this is an experience certification that often certifies the diver to dive to 100' ndl and at night in open water.
Deep Diver / Master Diver: Generally certifies the diver to 130' ndl in open water.
Nitrox Diver: Generally makes deeper recreational diving safer.
I think the easiest fix is to:
1. Require divers to be certified at the level they wish to dive.
2. Make a 25 dive minimum for Advanced Open Water Diver (like SSI already does). One would consider the Open Water card as a probationary card (as brianc does) and consider the AOW card as the end of the probation. This would accomplish the same thing as probationary cards.
3. Require nitrox for dives deeper than 70'
4. Require Overhead Environment certification for OE dives.
5. Require decompression certification for required deco dives.
The system is already almost in place. Get the rest of the agencies to increase AOW to 25 dives and it will be there. The problem still remains that no one wants to enforce it though.
Bill