Posted by Bill Johnson on November 20, 2001 at 12:36:06:
In Reply to: Re: Cert. Cards - I normally don't get into the frail, but posted by finfan on November 20, 2001 at 11:38:41:
FinFan,
You were certified in 1973 and appear to have been diving ever since. It is fairly well known that Open Water courses have become watered down since Nitrox and computers came onto the scene. This means that people certified Open Water before then, like you were, were probabley better trained and capable of some advanced dives, assuming they kept diving.
Captains do police by where they park the boat. I have dug sand on many open boat dives trying to get deeper than 100', and unless the boat is in the right spot, depth is difficult to attain.
Different classes have different lengths and nuber of required dives. Considdering you can get nitrox certified through TDI with no dives, I am not surprised that some "mixed gas" (I assume you mean nitrox) divers scared the hell out of you. But not all classes are like that. Also, I never said that a nitrox diver is prepared for all situations. What I will say is that I think nitrox divers are one step closer though.
You wrote, "I never said my open water certification qualified me to dive any depth. Where did you get that from?" The position you seem to have taken in your posts is that an Open Water certified diver is certified to do whatever he wants, regardless of the operator. My point is that Open Water certification doesn't mean that at all.
We could go on and on about who is ultimately responsible for an Open Water diver's fuck up beyond their limits, but I am getting tired of this. Do what you want.
Safe diving,
Bill