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MA-Horus posted:Just got my certification card in the mail. Terrible picture, but that doesn't matter. You'll need to at least have your card or jump through some hoops if you want to dive since most places check your C-card at the same time they have you fill out the medical questionare. Logbooks are optional but useful; some dive shops want to see a certain number of dives before taking you to certain dive sites, or in the case of one dive op in Cozumel I like, before insisting you have a dedicated divemaster for your first day's dives. I have a bunch of cert cards (NAUI Scuba Diver, PADI AOW, NAUI Nitrox, PADI Rescue) so I usually keep my Nitrox card in my wallet and the others with my gear. And I make sure to use a NAUI card when travelling overseas, since NAUI doesn't have much presence outside of the US and the fact that they don't give out cert numbers to non-professionals (as in not a DM or Instructor) confuses the hell out of some dive operators. 
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Feb 27, 2012 16:50
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ZoCrowes posted:They are even printing it on the card now. That's changed in the past three years or so. What confuses most people about NAUI is that their Openwater Certification is called Scuba Diver while PADI and SSI's Scuba Diver card is not actually Openwater qualified. OK, so I use my old(ish) NAUI card to sow confusion when I travel then. I haven't had them try telling me that my certification isn't open water qualified, but I have PADI cards to fall back on if I need to. And I'm sad I didn't follow through on my NAUI Master Diver class which is a lot closer to Divemaster than PADI's Master Diver card which is what, 5 specialities? NAUI basically takes you through all the Divemaster knowledge without hitting the liability/leadership parts of full Divemaster.
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Feb 27, 2012 19:58
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IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:Padi is also way more "accepted" around the wold. probably 80% of the world is "padi padi padi" so if you plan to travel... And what does "accepted" mean? You don't need a PADI card to travel. The only real benefit is that a PADI resort/dive op can look you up if you don't have your PADI card. Honestly if you show up with a card that says you're a scuba diver that isn't done in crayon on construction paper you're probably fine. I joked about using my NAUI card when traveling rather than my PADI ones because it doesn't have a number on it, but they never question its validity, only that they have a form that they have to put a non-existent diver number in. The instructor is the most important factor in where to train. Given a good instructor, I'd probably prefer NAUI over PADI since NAUI's syllabus is more open to instructor discretion (at least as it was explained to me by someone with both instructor cards).
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Mar 2, 2012 06:45
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IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:"Accepted" means that all these places around the world that are PADI will better understand your current level of certification. They also usually offer the ability to continue your diving education in the padi system. So while im sure they accept you enough to fill your air and take you on dives if you have a card that looks half legit. Its still not as "accepted" as padi divers diving with a padi dive shop. I've used my NAUI Scuba Diver card in many non-US locations with no issues other than that it has no number on it to copy on to their forms. I used the NAUI card as the basis to do a PADI Advanced Open Water course on a liveaboard in Australia. If I'm diving someplace with Nitrox I'm most likely to hand them my NAUI Nitrox card rather than the PADI AOW or PADI Rescue Diver cards I have. I've never had an issue. It doesn't really matter who you get your card from. PADI, NAUI, SSI, BSAC, GUE, whoever. (actually, does GUE offer a basic-level class? Hmm.) If the Instructor seems competent and someone you're likely to be able to learn from and the associated shop doesn't seem shady, learn from them, regardless of certifying agency.
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Mar 2, 2012 15:52
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Crunkjuice posted:Also, i'm gonna pimp DUI here a bit since Susan Long (CEO) did my custom measurements for my suit and was super awesome. Everyone should try to attend one of these Dog Day Rallies http://www.dui-online.com/2012_demo_tour_participating.asp . Basically, you pay like 10 bucks or so and get to try DUI drysuits for a day. You don't need to be drysuit certified as you'll be diving with an instructor, and you get to play around with all their crazy new stuff like silicone wrist seals, electrically heated undergarments etc. Even if you have no interest in buying a drysuit, getting a chance to test them out is a lot of fun and is definitely a new experience underwater. It was at a DUI Dog Day that I learned via my air-integrated dive computer what my panicked (or at least very stressed) air consumption rate was. Someone told me incorrectly that diving dry would take more weight than a 7mm wetsuit, so I added a fair bit of extra weight to my setup. My head is apparently too big for the neck zip seals, so I had to find something in their older suits to fit. Instructor was in the "drysuit for buoyancy, BCD on the surface at the end of the dive school of thought, so while standing on the quarry ramp I inflate my dry suit and step off the end of the ramp into 25 or so ft of water. Start sinking fairly rapidly. Hit the chest inflator, watch it all dump out the shoulder valve which is apparently wide open. Reach over to adjust it, and the suit is so tight I can't reach the valve. Finning like mad to try and arrest my descent, I go to pinch my nose to equalize and discover that the great mask I picked up down in warm-water Australia won't let me get my gloved fingers into pinch my nose closed. Had the whole vision-narrowing thing down to the depth gauge on my dive computer, which was slowly increasing despite my finning, so I ended up inflating the BCD to get back on the surface. I mean, I wasn't trying to climb over my Instructor to get to the surface, but I spent some time floating and chilling on the surface to calm down before heading back in to take off the suit that didn't fit right. Bishop posted:They do. That would be an interesting way to start out diving because they want you on a basic DIR setup (longhose, backplate, etc) from the start. The class looks harder than a normal open water class too... for instance they have very specific standards for buoyancy and trim control. In other words, it's GUE. I guess if you could see into the future and knew you wanted to be a cave diver that would be the best place to start. My intro Scuba Diver class trained us in the pool and the quarry to use pony bottles rather than octos, since around this area (NJ/NY) if you want to dive in the ocean the dive boats require either a pony or doubles. Obviously not DIR, but a bit closer to the tech side of the house than most intro classes. IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:I totally agree its the instructor more then the agency. And I wasn't aware you could cross train with different cert's and they were counted as equivalent. Yeah, if they didn't recognize each other's certs, sticking with PADI would be the way to go, but happily you can switch back and forth, at least pre-professionally.
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Mar 2, 2012 21:43
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SlicerDicer posted:IFew people want to carry pony bottle for whatever reason... Even when I explain the failure possibility and what it means if I am 50ft away.. 50ft is a LONG way when poo poo gets real. For some reason this area seems to have a lot of same-day, same-ocean buddies, so a redundant air source is fairly mandatory (and a drat good idea). Bishop posted:What size tank do you and people in your area use for a pony? 40cft? Less? Just curious because I've never seen a stage bottle being used on a recreational dive. 19cft as I recall. Which at my stressed air consumption rate means I need to spend very little time trying to resolve whatever issue put me on to the pony and start for the surface fairly quickly. I was planning to step up a size or so if I ended up doing more local diving, but I tend to do travel diving mostly, and not a lot recently (hoping to do a liveaboard later this year). Found a pic of some of the other divers from my certification class where you can see the pony:  The danglies make me twitch now, but you can see the pony on the diver near the center.
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Mar 3, 2012 07:44
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SlicerDicer posted:Where you wanting to liveaboard? And what depths are you doing to need more than 19cf? I mean even breathing like a freight train you should be able to get the hell out? Is that not the idea in a emergency? Or are you in overhead? I had been thinking south pacific, but more likely Caribbean because I don't have vacation time to burn for the travel out there. Waiting for a friend to figure out what he wants to do. My dives hit typical max depths of 80-100ft or so. Sometimes deeper, but I'm mostly a pretty fish/pretty coral diver and there isn't much past that depth given the light. Sometimes 100-120 to see a turtle or shark or the like. My breathing rate in the drysuit story above hit a peak of just shy of 3cf/min SAC. 19CF would definitely get me to the surface, but if I was at that SAC and at depth, it doesn't leave a lot of time to try and resolve an issue before you need to ascend. I'm not talking about strapping an 80 to my 120 as a pony, just bump the size up a bit, like from a 19 to a 30. And I'd have to dive off the NY/NJ coast, which having done once isn't my cup of tea anyways. I'll take my local quarry and dive travel.
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Mar 5, 2012 03:28
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SlicerDicer posted:I would say if you have to strap something to you do a 40cf Worthington for the weight characteristics. Those things are FANTASTIC!! Finally pulled up the VM with my dive software in it to check again, and I was high; the actual SAC for my exciting 2 minute 15ft max depth dive was 2.258 ft3/min. 
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Mar 8, 2012 19:46
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SlicerDicer posted:Just remember results are not that great when your first going down + water etc. It was mid May in PA, so probably 70-80 external temp. The tank was at least partially submerged for several minutes while we stood stomach/chest deep in the water on the ramp dealing with gloves/hoods/people in front of us/last minute pre-dive discussion. edit: and given that I was using it as a stressed/scared diver SAC rate for me, I'd prefer not to give a larger sample size, thank you.
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Mar 8, 2012 20:58
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SlicerDicer posted:As a decompression diver! I must say the number one thing hydrate hydrate hydrate. Pee like a madman underwater if needed. Put it to perspective just for real life. I drink enough water than I pee 10-15 times per dive (3 hours). There are two types of divers in the world: those who pee in their wet suit, and those who lie about it. (and dry suit divers too I suppose)
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Aug 27, 2012 23:42
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Crunkjuice posted:I REAAAAALLLY want that rapid diver system. I float the river a lot, go kayaking, camping etc around water but never want to carry a full set of dive gear. I could easily lug that thing around in my backpack and mess around in the water for a few minutes to get my diving fill and go back to another activity. And rocks from the shore as weights?
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Aug 29, 2012 19:39
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