Lost or Forgotten C-Card… Here’s the Scoop

Lost or Forgotten C-Card… Here’s the Scoop

What happens when your student forgets to take their certification card with them on vacation?

Well, in no particular order the immediate reaction tends to be: disappointment, panic and stress! At least that’s the most common situation based on our experiences, both as dive pros and as divers.

Let’s face it, our customers work so hard to earn their certification, so imagine the disappointment they feel when they arrive at their destination, ready to spend the next week or two enjoying the trip of a lifetime, only to find all bets are off because they left their C-cards on the kitchen counter at home!

The situation is probably the worst for newly minted SDI open water divers. They are strangers to the whole world of diving and have little to no experience dealing with charters and dive operators. All they know is your shop, your staff and now they find themselves miles from both ready to enter the dive community at large only to discover they are missing the key to open their new adventure. Of course, the situation is little better for ANY level of diver who finds they’ve forgotten to pack that all-important new card, whether it’s an SDI Computer Nitrox Specialty or the other end of the recreational spectrum and something like Advanced Mixed Gas on a Sentinel CCR! The prospects either way are bleak. And most likely the first person they will try to contact is their instructor… or the facility they trained through. Time zones and business hours notwithstanding, you may be able to help by talking to the operator they are diving with over there in paradise. If you have in-store card and certificate printing, you might even be able to overnight a replacement card. (My guess is that if that is the case, your customer will be eternally grateful.)

But there is also a simpler way that’s likely to be more effective with a skeptical divemaster on Sunshine Island; and it is available 24/7! The fact is that verification of certification for SDI, TDI and even ERDI divers is readily available through our website (https://www.tdisdi.com). All your student has to do is get to a computer connected to the internet, navigate to https://www.tdisdi.com and click on the button labeled “Certification Cards”:

Then simply enter the diver’s name and date of birth, and click “submit”:

And then select the course you would like to verify, and choose to either print a verification letter on the spot or order a replacement card:

It’s really that simple. The result screen will confirm their certification to any dive operator or dive facility anywhere in the world!