When you were first certified as a diver, you were constantly reminded to carry your SCUBA diver certification card with you whenever you intended to buy SCUBA gear, go on a dive trip, or get your air-filled. While certification verification can sometimes not live up to the rigorous expectations set forth during your Open Water certification course, it is still a smart idea to bring along your certification card.
To help make this easier, PADI recently announced its intention to integrate a new eCard option into its existing smartphone app later this year. The app, currently available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, will allow divers and dive professionals to carry their cards safely on their phones. Since people more regularly carry their smartphones everywhere they go, they will now also be carrying their certification cards.
Along with the basic information such as name, picture, and certification level, the new eCard will include an additional unique feature. A Quick Response (QR) code will be included as well. This two-dimensional bar code has been growing in popularity in recent years, especially among smartphone users. The dive professional or resort will be able to scan the code on the new PADI eCard and will be presented with the diver’s name, certification level, and pictures directly from PADI to help verify that the diver is certified.
When we asked on our Facebook page about a preference between a physical card and the new eCard, most responses were for both. PADI will be making this option available, but like many innovations, we expect eCards to increase in popularity as more people utilize smartphones and become comfortable with the option. Some people were concerned about keeping their phones dry, but there are plenty of options to help keep your phone safe around the water.
With this in mind
The new eCard complementing the existing Electronic Recreational Dive Planner (eRDP) and Electronic Recreational Dive Planner Multilevel (eRDP-ML), we may someday see even more aspects of our SCUBA training transferred to a device we carry in our pocket.
