Too many Cert Cards..

[Paulmal]

That didn't work for me when a shop refused to put "air in my nitrox tanks" because it is illegal." I asked him for a EAN 21 fill. He started to drag my tanks off into the back and then realized what that meant.

Shoot just ask for EAN 22 you loose very little depth. And it is not "air"

[floridakid]

Shoot just ask for EAN 22 you loose very little depth. And it is not "air"

The whole reason I asked for air was because they were charging $14 a tank for nitrox reguardless of the FO2 or how many cu ft you needed. Air was only 8 bucks a tank and I figured that the EAN 25-26 that an air fill would create in my tanks would be fine for the 50 fsw pretty fish beach dive I was doing. The added no deco time wasn't worth giving those assholes 12 more bucks to give me a 3000 psi hot fill in my HP tanks that still had 1500ish in them.

On top of that, I didn't trust them to properly partial pressure blend in my tanks. They kept bragging that they had "J grade air." On top of that, the only reason I was even getting fills from them was because the compressor I was using was down. The first time I went in there, the guy who owned the place asked my why I had never gotten fills there before and I explained that I was filling my own tanks. He then spent 10 minutes explaining why I shouldn't do that and how if I kept doing it I would die. Then he refused to fill my tank without letting them VIP the tank because he couldn't read the VIP sticker because part of it was torn off.

One of the times I went in there he proceded to tell me that he "used to be a cave diver" and that he used to do all his cave diving while sidemounting a single tank since he didn't like the idea of diving 2 independent cylinders since if he had an emergency, he would only have access to half his gas. He continued to ramble about his "dive buddy" back then, that also dove sidemount, that didn't like the idea of not having a manifold either. He went on to explain that his buddy just put the old yoke style "Y" valves on his tanks and "manifolded" them together with a transfill whip while diving.

It absolutely amazes me some of the people that are actually considered dive professionals

[Rich]

One of the times I went in there he proceded to tell me that he "used to be a cave diver" and that he used to do all his cave diving while sidemounting a single tank since he didn't like the idea of diving 2 independent cylinders since if he had an emergency, he would only have access to half his gas. He continued to ramble about his "dive buddy" back then, that also dove sidemount, that didn't like the idea of not having a manifold either. He went on to explain that his buddy just put the old yoke style "Y" valves on his tanks and "manifolded" them together with a transfill whip while diving.

That made me LOL...

Safe diving,

Rich

[Paulmal]

The whole reason I asked for air was because they were charging $14 a tank for nitrox reguardless of the FO2 or how many cu ft you needed. Air was only 8 bucks a tank and I figured that the EAN 25-26 that an air fill would create in my tanks would be fine for the 50 fsw pretty fish beach dive I was doing. The added no deco time wasn't worth giving those assholes 12 more bucks to give me a 3000 psi hot fill in my HP tanks that still had 1500ish in them.

On top of that, I didn't trust them to properly partial pressure blend in my tanks. They kept bragging that they had "J grade air." On top of that, the only reason I was even getting fills from them was because the compressor I was using was down. The first time I went in there, the guy who owned the place asked my why I had never gotten fills there before and I explained that I was filling my own tanks. He then spent 10 minutes explaining why I shouldn't do that and how if I kept doing it I would die. Then he refused to fill my tank without letting them VIP the tank because he couldn't read the VIP sticker because part of it was torn off.

One of the times I went in there he proceded to tell me that he "used to be a cave diver" and that he used to do all his cave diving while sidemounting a single tank since he didn't like the idea of diving 2 independent cylinders since if he had an emergency, he would only have access to half his gas. He continued to ramble about his "dive buddy" back then, that also dove sidemount, that didn't like the idea of not having a manifold either. He went on to explain that his buddy just put the old yoke style "Y" valves on his tanks and "manifolded" them together with a transfill whip while diving.

It absolutely amazes me some of the people that are actually considered dive professionals

Best case for owning your own compressed, are there any other shops that know a little about Scuba?

[CaveMD]

....that he used to do all his cave diving while sidemounting a single tank since he didn't like the idea of diving 2 independent cylinders since if he had an emergency, he would only have access to half his gas. He continued to ramble about his "dive buddy" back then, that also dove sidemount, that didn't like the idea of not having a manifold either. He went on to explain that his buddy just put the old yoke style "Y" valves on his tanks and "manifolded" them together with a transfill whip while diving.

It absolutely amazes me some of the people that are actually considered dive professionals

Wow. This is frightening.

[DA Aquamaster]

Best case for owning your own compressed, are there any other shops that know a little about Scuba?

One of the shops used to work with out west got sold and the new owners were not particularly, friendly nor knowledgeable. And their hours were incredibly inconvenient for anyone outside the immediate area to get fills (and I lived about an hour away). Then they killed the co-located Amigo'esque air club that actually owned the "shop" compressor and eliminated the option of 24/7 club member fills that had been a staple in the area for 20 years. So, between "unfriendly" a poor customer service model and issues over fills, I just bought my own compressor as it was so much easier.

[DA Aquamaster]

I tend to agree that even with a large umber of cards, I only need to carry the NACD Cave card, the Cave DPV card, the Trimix card and the Solo card to cover pretty much any contingency - short of ignorant dive shop staff wanting proof of AOW or nitrox training. Putting pictures of cards on my iPhone seems like a good idea to cover the encounters with the incredibly ignorant.

The government went with a PIV card a few years ago with an encrypted chip that holds pretty much all your information, security clearance, etc. That would work great to record dive training and vital medical information. The cards cost about $140 on government contract, so the cost to PADI would probably only be about $20, but it would require shops to have equipment to read it, and that will never happen. It could potentially however resolve the concern about divers cooking up their own training records and claiming certs they don't have.

[DA Aquamaster]

From the NACD S&Ps, the following are the courses the NACD teaches (note, there is no "FULL" cave).

Cavern Diver Course
Cavern Tour
Cavern/Introduction to Cave Training Course
Introduction-to-Cave Diving Course
Double Cylinder / Introduction to Cave Diver Course
Apprentice Cave Diver Course
Cave Diver Course
Specialty Cave Diver Courses
Underwater Cave Surveying Course
Stage Diver Course
Side Mount Course
DPV Course
Cavern Diver Instructor Course
Intro Cave Diver Instructor Course
Cave Diver Instructor Course
Specialty Cave Diver Instructor Course
Training Director Course
Instructor Crossover Evaluation Course

Walter, pretty much every one knows that, especially NACD trained Cave divers.

But some of us use the Full Cave terminology anyway as it has greater clarity. When I say I am a Cave diver it's ambiguous as it's not sure if I am referencing my certification level. In that regard the NSS-CDS "Basic Cave' and 'Full Cave" certification levels make a lot more sense than "Intro to Cave" and "Cave" certs given the generic use of "cave diver", "cave training", etc.

The waiver at Ginnie for example, has the option "(full) Cave", so apparently they had some issues with just "Cave" as well.

[ams511]

One of the times I went in there he proceded to tell me that he "used to be a cave diver" and that he used to do all his cave diving while sidemounting a single tank since he didn't like the idea of diving 2 independent cylinders since if he had an emergency, he would only have access to half his gas. He continued to ramble about his "dive buddy" back then, that also dove sidemount, that didn't like the idea of not having a manifold either. He went on to explain that his buddy just put the old yoke style "Y" valves on his tanks and "manifolded" them together with a transfill whip while diving.

I know nothing about sidemount diving but this seems very stupid.

[CCR Josh]

I know nothing about sidemount diving but this seems very stupid.

You have good instincts