A Diving certification is a document (usually a wallet sized plastic card) recognizing that an individual authorized to do so, "certifies" that the bearer has completed a course of study as required by agency issuing the card. This is assumed to represent a defined level of ability and knowledge in scuba diving. Divers carry a qualification record or certification card ("C-card") which is required to prove their qualifications when booking a dive trip, hiring scuba equipment or filling diving cylinders. Although recreational certifications are issued by numerous different diver training agencies, the entry-level grade is not always comparable. Different agencies will have different entry-level requirements as well as different higher-level grades, but all are claimed to allow a diver to develop their skills and knowledge in achievable steps.[1][2]
The Diving Certification model originated at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in 1952 after two divers died whilst using university-owned equipment[3]. The then President of the University of California Robert Gordon Sproul restricted diving to those who had been trained through the program at SIO and thus "certification" was born. A year later Los Angeles county sent Bev Morgan, Al Tillman, and Ramsey Parks to SIO for diver training[4]. Upon their return, these three then developed the Los Angeles Underwater Instructors Program, the oldest such instructor training program in the U.S., and they used the SIO Diver Certification concept[5].