Scuba Q and A:

Do You Need A Diving Certification?

Q. Does someone need a certification for scuba diving?

Answer:

You need to be aware of certain specific risks and proficient in the physical protocols to effectively mitigate them.

The most assured way to confirm that you have the right knowledge and proficiency is to take a course syllabus of formal training with a qualified instructor.

You could learn by yourself, or from an unqualified friend, but you won’t know if there was a critical knowledge deficit or if you were actually incompetent due to missing or improperly learned skills.

An unknown short-fall in capacity would potentially leave you very vulnerable to a life-threatening accident.

About the Author

Andy Davis is a RAID, PADI TecRec, ANDI, BSAC and SSI qualified independent technical diving instructor who specializes in teaching advanced sidemount, trimix and wreck exploration diving courses across South East Asia. Currently residing in ‘wreck diving heaven’ at Subic Bay, Philippines, he has amassed more than 9000 open circuit and CCR dives over 27 years of diving across the globe.

Andy has published many magazine articles on technical diving, has written course materials for dive training agency syllabus, tests and reviews diving gear for major manufacturers and consults with the Philippines Underwater Archaeology Society.

He is currently writing a series of books to be published on advanced diving topics. Prior to becoming a professional technical diving educator in 2006, Andy was a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force and has served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Belize and Cyprus.