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Posted by Tom D on July 12, 2007 at 7:11:47 pm EDT
In reply to Beginning climbing posted by Climbing (Guest) on July 4, 2007 at 3:14:33 am EDT

FMD, I was an NASDS instructor in Hawaii and later crossed over to PADI. Bill has a good point. The big difference is really one of legal liability. A shop who rents gear to an uncertified diver, even one who has the training and skills, but no C Card, risks being sued if the diver has an accident. They stop this from happening by refusing to fill air tanks. Even if you have the gear, with no air, you aren't diving, at least not without an instructor. There are obviously ways around this. My neighbor bought a small compressor that sat on my deck. We didn't need to go to a shop for anything, unless we were buying a new piece of gear. We had it all-a bunch of tanks, compressor, a couple of sets of gear. We would load the compressor on his boat on occasion and head for Maui. There was no one to stop us from doing anything we wanted, except our own common sense.

Climbing is like that. I can go into REI or A16 and buy enough gear to climb anywhere. Whether I can do it or not is another story. The liability issue is different. Should it be? Probably not. As Dirty Harry said "A man should know his limitations." But it is. The danger of diving is perceived, rightly or wrongly to be greater than climbing. I'm not sure that is the case, but I think the perception is there, so the certifying organizations, and no doubt insurers have agreed that "no card, no air" is the best policy.

Trying to stop people from buying ropes, biners, chocks, etc. just isn't practical. As long as you are on your own and the manufacturers are free from liability in general (there will always be product liability suits if a piece fails), people will climb without the right skills and get hurt.

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• Re: Beginning climbing - FMD 07:46:13 07/13/2007

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