What We Keep and For How Long
Good records exist to protect divers, mentors, and the integrity of this institution long after a specific training day has ended. This page sets out exactly what FlowState Divers retains, in what form, and for how long - and why each retention period is what it is, rather than an arbitrary number.
Every Diver Holds a Copy of Their Own Record
Before detailing individual categories, one principle applies across all of them: any document FlowState Divers keeps concerning a diver is also issued to that diver. Nothing about a diver's own training, evaluation, or documented history exists as a record we hold alone. Evaluation records, registration and medical documentation, liability forms, complaint records concerning them, and every other document listed below are provided to the diver at the point of collection or resolution, so that two copies exist at all times - one with FlowState Divers, one with the diver themselves.
This is not a courtesy. It is consistent with everything else this document says about what a diver's evaluation record is for - a working reference the diver uses to know what to practise, not an internal file we hold and interpret on their behalf. A diver should never be in a position of depending entirely on us to produce evidence of their own training history. They already have it.
Evaluation Records
What it is: The scored, criteria-based record described in our assessment philosophy - the historical account of what a diver actually demonstrated, skill by skill, session by session.
Retention: Indefinitely, for the duration of a diver's active training relationship with FlowState Divers, and for a minimum of ten years following a diver's last recorded training.
Why: This record is the entire substance of what FlowState Divers provides in place of a certification card. It has no value if it disappears the moment a diver stops training, since a diver may return to us, work with a new mentor, or need to demonstrate their documented progress years later. A shorter retention period would quietly recreate the very problem this document exists to avoid - progress that can't be verified once enough time has passed.
Registration and Medical Documentation
Retention: A minimum of seven years from the date of collection, or longer where local law requires it.
Why: These documents establish that a diver was properly screened and cleared to train at the time training occurred. Medical circumstances change, and a record of what was known and declared at the time protects everyone if a question about fitness to dive is ever raised after the fact.
Liability Release and Assumption of Risk Forms
What it includes: Signed liability release and assumption of risk documentation, collected before any training begins.
Retention: A minimum of seven years from the date of signing.
Why: These forms establish the terms both the diver and FlowState Divers operated under at the time of training. Seven years reflects a conservative window against the kind of delayed claim or dispute this documentation exists to address.
Complaint and Investigation Records
What it includes: The original complaint, all correspondence exchanged during investigation, the determination reached, and any appeal and its outcome.
Retention: A minimum of ten years from the date of final determination (including appeal, where one occurred).
Why: Complaint history is directly relevant to our quality processes - a pattern that only becomes visible across multiple, separated incidents cannot be identified if earlier complaints have already been discarded. This retention period also protects a mentor or diver's own record: an old, resolved complaint should remain available as context if a similar concern is ever raised again, rather than reappearing without the history that explains how it was handled the first time. Where a complaint concerns a diver directly, the diver receives a copy of the determination in line with the principle above.
Mentor Records
What it includes: Mentor agreements, standards agreements, mentor development and progression documentation, re-qualification history, insurance proof, and quality control feedback submitted by divers.
Retention: For the full duration of a mentor's active standing with FlowState Divers, and a minimum of ten years following the end of that standing.
Why: A mentor's history - training conducted, quality feedback received, requalification cycles completed - is the foundation for every quality decision made about them, including any future request for reinstatement. Discarding this history too early would leave FlowState Divers evaluating a returning mentor with no memory of their prior record.
Mentor Renewal and Re-qualification Documentation
What it includes: Annual renewal submissions, requalification workshop records, and any documented conditions attached to a mentor's continued standing.
Retention: A minimum of ten years, aligned with mentor records above.
Why: These records establish continuity of a mentor's fitness to teach over time. A gap in this record, or its premature deletion, would undermine our ability to confirm that a mentor genuinely met the ongoing standard this document requires at every point in their career with us.
Training and Session Scheduling Records
What it includes: Basic records of what training occurred, when, where, and with which mentor and diver(s).
Retention: A minimum of seven years.
Why: This is the connective record that ties an evaluation, a complaint, or a mentor's history back to an actual, verifiable event - confirming that a specific training genuinely took place under the conditions everyone involved describes.
Electronic Signature and Digital Submission Records
Where documentation is collected through an electronic signature system rather than in physical, signed form, the responsibility for verifying and storing the resulting electronic files rests with the mentor who collected them, held to the same retention periods as their physical equivalents above. Electronic records are not treated as inherently less permanent or less binding than paper ones - they carry identical retention obligations, and the same requirement to issue a copy to the diver applies regardless of format.
What We Do Not Keep Indefinitely
A Note on Local Law
Every retention period above is a FlowState Divers minimum, not a ceiling, and not a substitute for whatever local law separately requires. Where local regulation mandates a longer retention period, or additional categories of record entirely, that requirement governs in addition to what's set out here - consistent with the principle set out in our local law and regulatory compliance page. Where local law would require retention shorter than what we specify here - for instance, certain data protection regimes limiting how long personal data may be held - the mentor or region responsible for that data is expected to resolve the conflict in line with local legal obligation, and to flag the conflict through our official channels so this document can be clarified for that jurisdiction going forward.