Overtaken by the Race for Certification or Age?

Many years ago, while flying from the Bahamas, I was sitting next to Rob Palmer, a founder of the technical diving training agency TDI, when he surprised me by suggesting I take a nitrox course.

"But you and I have been diving together with nitrox for a couple of years," I replied.

"I know," he said, "but I've just written a course."

And that's how I instantly became unqualified to use nitrox.

Many Undercurrent subscribers are finding themselves in similar circumstances. They've been diving for years and have made hundreds if not thousands of dives, but diving education has progressed, with courses for virtually everything. And now, one might find that a dive operator considers him or her unqualified to participate in a dive because he or she began diving before today's courses had been conceived and developed.

Via email, we asked our subscribers if any had been refused a dive under such circumstances, and we received many responses.

Joel Hirsh (Ridgefield, CT), aged 67, was typical in that he arrived at Kimbe Bay in PNG in 2017, with 500 dives logged, but with no certification beyond Open Water Diver, except for a nitrox card.

"The dive manager insisted that since I was only certified as an OWD, I couldn't dive below 60 feet. She claimed that if something happened, the insurance wouldn't cover the chamber. I later checked with DAN, and they said that was not true. To save the trip, I put another (100) dollars in (PADI) and took the deep dive module of the Advanced Open Water, learning absolutely nothing new. I knew more about deep diving from the nitrox course I did in 2008.

"But it made them happy, and I had a good 20-dive trip. I still carry a copy of the certificate but nobody since has asked about my ability to dive below 60-feet."

"I have over 700 logged dives all over the world," wrote Jeff Devine (Frankford, DE), "in every conceivable condition; rough seas, night dives, strong currents, minimal viz, sharks, decompression (160 feet my deepest). I've worked as a dive-mate on a New Jersey wreck dive (Deep Adventures) and been on numerous multi-day liveaboard trips (including the Conception). Since 1975 I have been doing UW photography. In other words, I am very comfortable underwater.

"I booked a dive for the Spiegel Grove wreck with Pleasure Divers in Key Largo, but the day of the dive, they told me I couldn't go because I didn't have an Advanced Open Water certification. This was the first time I had ever been asked for such a card. I was happy to pay for a dive guide to accompany me, but they wouldn't let me go with a paid guide either. The next day, I tried two other dive shops in Key Largo that also shot me down. Eventually, I found Horizon Divers. They agreed to take me if I paid for a guide.

"I believe this Advanced requirement is a scam. The course for my dive shop near Baltimore, MD, requires an amount of bookwork followed by five checkout dives in a quarry. So, some newly certified diver with a minimum number of ocean dives (maybe even none at all) can be considered advanced while my experience counts for nothing."

Bruce Weiner (Goshen, NY) offered another case in point. "I went to Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, FL, a few years ago with my wife. She was a recently certified diver with open water certification. I was certified in 1975 in college by a former Navy Seal. My certification was Basic Scuba despite the fact we were certified in the Atlantic Ocean. I was also nitrox certified in 2004. When we checked in, they wouldn't allow me to dive because we were going on their boat but with no divemaster. All this despite my 500-plus logged dives, with wreck dive depths exceeding 160 feet. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed."

Phil Karp (Scottsdale, AZ) told us he felt a "bit miffed" when he was asked to take a further course, but looks back more amenably:

"I received my PADI open water certification in 1983 and dove off and on regularly without ever being given any restrictions," he wrote. "In 2014, I booked two weeks of diving with ReefCI in Belize. I had around 150 dives logged. To my surprise, they imposed a depth limit of 50-feet for my dives. I agreed to do an Advanced Open Water course with them, after which the depth limitation was removed. I actually learned a lot in the AOW course, and in hindsight appreciate their diligence."

Well, Maybe You Better Take the Course

Divers must recognize that it's difficult for a dive operator to judge a diver's skill level simply from a logbook. While Florida may offer easy diving in some parts, other places can be more challenging. But, if dive operators want to limit divers without Advanced Open Water Certification, the least they could do is post their rules on their website or query them when they sign up. Signing up and traveling some distance for a dive, only to find out with no warning you're not permitted to take it, is grossly unfair, to say the least.

However, advanced certification courses have been around for a very long time now. If you don't have an AOW certification, there's always a chance you could be refused a particular dive. For the most part, they require online learning and as many as five open water dives, and if you're already a skilled diver, these dives may just be fun dives for you.

And, as Phil Karp admits, he learned a lot.

When You're a Little Rusty

Clement M. Clapp (Maplesville, AL) says, "Pirates Point (Little Cayman) advertises that a checkout dive is required if the diver has no dives in the previous 18 months. I have seen something similar to this at another shop or two. Down Under Divers (Gulf Shores, AL) used to require an AOW before allowing a dive on the wreck of the Oriskany.

Alice Ribbens (St. Paul, MN), a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, wrote she was concerned about how people can book liveaboard dive trips for which they are not sufficiently skillful or experienced (despite having done plenty of dives).

On a Nautilus liveaboard in the Revillagigedo Islands/Socorro in December of 2020, she "could see other people complaining about the currents, the visibility, the rough seas, why we were staying at Roca Partida for so long - all things that would have been better understood with some research before the trip." In fact, the conditions they encountered on that occasion were relatively benign for that dive site.

Alice makes the valid point, "After diving for 20-plus years and being on the pro side for more than ten years, I know that some people are fantastic divers after 25-50 dives and others take a lot longer. I'm sure I was not as prepared as I could have been for some trips I did earlier in my experience, but I always tried to understand what I was getting into, including possible strong currents, cold water temps, and so on. Lots of issues can be avoided by a little research."

It seems many of us will have to bite the bullet and get more certifications under our belts if we don't want to lose the race to be allowed to dive by younger, more modern dive center operators.

Are You Physically Up to It?

There's also the question of fitness to make a particular dive. People age, gain weight, have a hip replaced, go on blood pressure meds, take sleeping pills to get through the night, or just lose their strength. Operators might be wary about divers in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.

"Beaches, Turks and Caicos, refused to allow us to dive without a doctor's clearance despite only stable medical conditions we've had for years on stable meds we've been on for years," wrote Deb Lyon (Jacksonville, FL). "Seeing a (resort) doctor cost us $20 each so that she could say the same thing. It didn't even help when I told them I am a doctor. They claimed they were following PADI rules, but I've been diving over 20 years all over the Caribbean with mostly five-star PADI shops and have never had this rule applied."

To avoid arbitrary medical interpretations at dive centers, 75-year-old Thomas Diehl (Melbourne, FL), who gets a physical examination once a year, says, "My physician provides a written statement, on her letterhead, that the most recent physical had no indications that I was unable to continue diving. (It does not say that I'm fit to dive, as physiology is a tricky business). Upon arrival, before any questions are asked, I show the letter."

And My Nitrox Certification?

But how did it end for me on that airplane flight with Rob Palmer? I agreed I'd take his nitrox exam. If I didn't get 100 percent, I'd pay for his course. But first, I rewrote some poorly worded questions, removed the ambiguities, and took the exam. I got the highest marks ever awarded in a TDI exam. (We were flying at 38,000 feet at the time!) I've used the card he later supplied ever since.

- John Bantin

P.S.: Brian Harper of DAN confirms DAN dive accident insurance does not have depth restrictions and based on the information provided above, the member's dive accident insurance coverage would still apply.