What do you think about scuba diving, and certification to dive? Do you feel that a person needs that C-card before strapping on scuba gear, and jumping in?
My local dive club celebrates its 50th birthday in 2011. When it first formed the big scuba training organizations (PADI, NAUI, YMCA, SSI, SDI, etc. There is a bunch.) weren’t all that big.
John Cronin and Ralph Erickson dreamed PADI up in 1966.
Midwest Diver’s (my club) started with a small group of diving enthusiasts, and to attract new members they offered scuba training. Later the club became an affiliate of PADI, but still maintained an “in house” instructor. (Now with PADI instructor certification.)
The concept of a club maintained instructor worked well. The offering of scuba training as part of the club membership admission attracted large crowds, and the club grew.
But those first members had no formal dive training.
That certification card is not a must-have item for a person to enjoy the sport of recreational scuba diving.
But before you decide to jump in and descend to 80 or more feet I recommend you consider some very important issues.
You need a tank to breathe from when you dive. Since you’re not a fish you don’t have gills to process oxygen from the water. (Unless you’re more evolved than I am.) No reputable dive shop will fill a scuba tank with air for any person who doesn’t have a certification card.
So you might dive once, but you’ll find it difficult to get the air you need to dive again.
During the training program for certification you learn how to handle yourself at depth.
It’s a foreign environment. And it is rather intimidating for the beginner. (Of course maybe you have no fear, and nothing intimidates you. That’s not the case for most people.)
During basic open water classes you make a few dives with instructor supervision that helps you feel safe. By the time you earn your certification you feel fairly comfortable underwater.
You face health risks when you dive if you don’t have certain bits of knowledge up front. The scuba course gives you the knowledge that keeps you safe.
As you descend the pressure of the water gets higher than the pressure inside your body. You feel this most in the ear cavities. If you don’t know how to even that pressure out you risk bursting your eardrums. It’s very painful. Basic open water classes teach you how to equalize.
If you don’t know how to keep an even position in the water you risk murdering sea life. Scuba diver training teaches you the basics of buoyancy control.
If you try diving alone you risk getting tangled in plant life or fishing lines, or possibly hung up on some projection. Basic courses teach you the value of never diving alone.
If you ascend too fast you risk burst lungs. In basic scuba you learn the safe ways to get back to the surface without harming your health.
These are merely a few of the things you learn during your basic certification course.
You might dive without completing the course.
But your scuba diving adventures will be happier, and healthier, if you get that C-card first.
Joe Jackson certified as a PADI Divemaster and Master Diver in the early 1990s. He currently administrates a recreational scuba diving blog dedicated to more fun underwater at: http://www.scubadivingunderwaterblog.com.