All of Blue Grotto’s adult, minor and instructor scuba diving waivers are available for download from our website. Each waiver is an Adobe Acrobat PDF. Being able to download and complete these waivers before arriving saves time at check-in and gets you in the water faster.
While students can download, print and fill out these waivers by hand, we prefer that they open these PDFs in Adobe Acrobat and complete them in Acrobat before printing them. Why is that?
Handwriting in the digital age
If you attended grade school during much of the last century, your report card may have contained a line item entitled penmanship. This was a vital skill in an era before computers and digital media. If you could not write legibly, you could not communicate effectively.
This changed with the advent of personal computers and continued with the introduction of smartphones and tablets. People no longer had to write things down by hand. It became easier — and more legible — to just type them. These days, you don’t even have to type. You can talk to your phone or tablet and it will transcribe your words for you.
Use it or lose it
Handwriting is a perishable skill. Unless you use it regularly, the quality of your penmanship will degrade over time. You may not even realize how badly your handwriting skills have diminished because you seldom have to use them.
We see this regularly at Blue Grotto. Visitors frequently turn in waivers they have filled out by hand that are barely legible. Many are totally illegible. This causes problems.
Acrobat to the rescue
Poor penmanship is not an issue when students and divers open and complete our waivers in Adobe Acrobat. Everything is clear and legible. This makes our lives substantially easier.
If you’ve not worked with Acrobat before, we have a video on our website that will walk you through the process. The video even explains how you can sign the waiver digitally in Acrobat.
Coming with students?
As a reminder, students must email or bring their completed waivers to you. You will then turn in the student waivers as a group. This eliminates a lot of confusion.
Remember that, as an instructor, you cannot enter the water with students until:
- All of the waivers are turned in.
- Every student has a wristband.
This helps a lot, and the easier you make our lives, the easier we can make yours