Bahamas: Missing Female Diver

[redgym]

Interesting--that's unexpected for me as a standard operating procedure for supervising a newly certified diver. I'm probably betraying my Northern California experience bias again, but I haven't seen that sort of direct control applied to new divers. How widespread is this practice and what is the experience level you would require of a diver before observing them from nearby instead of in direct contact?

Also, it hasn't been clear from the posts, but it's possible this DM was responsible for both the victim and her husband. Should you link hands with both?

I am a newbie with only one dive trip (Moorea and Bora Bora) behind me. The dive shop in Moorea took my wife and I on shallow refresher dive before the other dives. On the other dives, I was somewhat surprised at how little attention the DM paid to me knowing that I was newly certified. Many times I felt that my wife and I were on our own following along behind the the DM (my wife is AOW but hadn't dove for a couple years) That said, I've never had bouyancy issues. On one of my certification dives, my weights kept following out of my BCD and I was able to keep myself down. This was after the instructor checked my weights to make sure they were in properly, the BCD was defective.

 

[splzero]

I am a newbie with only one dive trip (Moorea and Bora Bora) behind me. The dive shop in Moorea took my wife and I on shallow refresher dive before the other dives. On the other dives, I was somewhat surprised at how little attention the DM paid to me knowing that I was newly certified. Many times I felt that my wife and I were on our own following along behind the the DM (my wife is AOW but hadn't dove for a couple years) That said, I've never had bouyancy issues. On one of my certification dives, my weights kept following out of my BCD and I was able to keep myself down. This was after the instructor checked my weights to make sure they were in properly, the BCD was defective.

I think people tend to put alot of responsibility on the dive master. If you just got certified you should pay for a private dive master if you dont feel comfortable in the water yet. You should'nt rely on anyone else but yourself in scuba diving. If there is a full boat of say 30 people how will the general dive master watch everyone?

 

[Thalassamania]

When I take a week to go skiing I always take a private lesson the afternoon of my first day on the slopes (and I ski fairly well). It puts me in proper perspective for the rest of the week. The same approach for diving might serve, the problem is finding an instructor that you know you could learn something useful from.

 

[redgym]

I think people tend to put alot of responsibility on the dive master. If you just got certified you should pay for a private dive master if you dont feel comfortable in the water yet. You should'nt rely on anyone else but yourself in scuba diving. If there is a full boat of say 30 people how will the general dive master watch everyone?

I didn't write that I put blame on the DM or felt uncomfortable in the water. I wrote that I was surprised how little attention was given to me as a newbie in response to the posts suggesting that DM's should hold hands with a newly certified diver.

 

[pilot fish]

I am so glad to learn that fact. Thanks. I had no idea, nor have I heard it ever discussed. Makes a lot of sense, now that I think of it. When I was at 138 ft and wanted to get up to 100 ft kind of quickly, I overshot my depth, I just started finning. Never used my bc for lift. Actually I think my bc was empty of air?

No.

Because the air in the bladder compresses at depth and reduces the volume of the BC, you need to add more air in while descending so that you don't have to add it all in when you get to your target depth. The more you have to add at depth, the longer it will take to achieve neutral/positive bouyancy again.

Failure to keep up with this decreasing volume is the reason why you see so many divers post here about ending up 10' + deeper than they intended.

The LP hoses deliver air at about 140 psi over ambient, so it's no problem to inflate at depth, the problem is it takes time to achieve the volume necessary to maintain neutral bouyancy.

 

[pilot fish]

Is she still leading divers on dives? Is she still a DM, working for that Dive Op?

I'm just not buying into the idea that the victim somehow prevented her own rescue.

Maybe I'm just expecting too much, but it's my opinion that anybody with a professional card should be able to get their buddy (especially an elderly woman) to the surface, even from 140'.

And even more important, anybody with a professional card should be able to keep their buddy from ever getting to 140' if it wasn't part of the dive plan.

A profession certification means by definition that there's a good chance that at some point you're going to need to save someone's butt. This means the DM should have been trained, equipped and ready to do this, especially if she accepted the task of being the buddy for a single diver.

Terry

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Maybe I'm just expecting too much, but it's my opinion that anybody with a professional card should be able to get their buddy (especially an elderly woman) to the surface, even from 140'.

Your expectations are right on the money in my opinion.

And even more important, anybody with a professional card should be able to keep their buddy from ever getting to 140' if it wasn't part of the dive plan.

Yep.

A profession certification means by definition that there's a good chance that at some point you're going to need to save someone's butt. This means the DM should have been trained, equipped and ready to do this, especially if she accepted the task of being the buddy for a single diver.

Terry

Another big YES to that.

Best wishes.

 

[Web Monkey]

You should'nt rely on anyone else but yourself in scuba diving. If there is a full boat of say 30 people how will the general dive master watch everyone?

Unfortunately, there are a number of recent fatalities on "Guided Dives" and this one with the diver having a DM for a buddy.

The short answer is:

• The DM can't watch everything.
• Even if he says he can he can't.
• Even if you hire the DM to be your personal buddy, you're can't be certain about his judgement or actions or what level of rescuing you'll be getting if Something Bad happens.

If a buddy is part of your safety plan, bring a trusted buddy with you.

If you don't have a trusted buddy, you need to be capable of handling the dive solo from start to finish, including navigating back to the boat and being found in case you can't find the boat.

You won't be diving solo, but need to be able to take care of yourself as if you were, because you can't rely on anybody you didn't bring with you.

Terry

 

[pilot fish]

Why hire a DM as a dive bud if they can't or won't assist you in times of trouble? What are they getting paid for, and what is it they THINK they are supposed to do? Is this just UW companionship?

 

[Thalassamania]

The bottom line is that a DM today ain't what he use to be ... he's a DG instead. Which creates a major problem, today's diver is less prepared to dive without leadership supervision and today's leaders are less equipped to provide the required leadership, that's what we are seeing in the recent rash of incidents. Mark my words ... they are going to continue.

What's a new diver to do, except make sure that when they rent-a-buddy that the buddy has been diving since, at least say, the mid-1980s?