iyakonboats
Sound reasoning and science trumps your feelings
Ok, so my first post ever here, but figured this was good enough to post here.
On a dive in Florida I scheduled, I confirmed a dive with a operator and I was trying to get him to allow my buddy, an instructor with 20+ years experience, to join, especially since his website allowed him to sign up and pay for a dive (another weird issue). Nevertheless, he explained to me he was trying to shuffle people around because there was a few people he knew he would have to "hold their hand", especially one kid who got certified 6 months ago and had only ever been on a dive once after, on his boat, and required hand holding.
Now, I went diving when I was younger, early 20s with friends, but was too poor to get certified, but nothing logged, and I also was a lifeguard for a few years. Fast forward 12 years and I get my open water, but by no means am I "experienced", nope!
On the boat the dive master is getting everyone buddied up and I get buddied with a younger guy, seemed cool and levelheaded, but I want you to look at my username first, carefully, and realize where my head was for most of the time while going to the dive site, lol. We get into the water and I asked as we were swimming to the drop line "So, how long you been diving?", he responds "I got certified 5 months ago and this is my second dive, with this same boat". Do you think this is where it ends? Nope! His first dive goes well, he stayed close, good buoyancy control, and seemed to check his guages often.
Second dive is where this gets interesting. Its like a small little shelf, or was it a wall, but it was basically an easy dive where it should not have gone wrong. However, I noticed he wasn't checking his guages and me being on Nitrox I knew he would be the limiting factor, so once I get his attention I hand signal for air, for which he doesn't remember how to signal back to me, so he shows me his SPG which reads under 100psi and we're 50ft down! I signal to him that he is out of air, given I still like to have a 3 minute deco stop and an emergency ascent seemed drastic when I still had 1800psi left, he didn't understand, so I switched to my backup, an SS1, and I presented my 2nd stage to him and he finally took it.
We get back on the boat and he was apologizing, which I wasn't mad, but he didn't seem to understand that as he gets colder he will use more air (he didn't have a wetsuit on). The dive master, an instructor with students, and the captain overheard this conversation and said nothing the whole ride back.
On a dive in Florida I scheduled, I confirmed a dive with a operator and I was trying to get him to allow my buddy, an instructor with 20+ years experience, to join, especially since his website allowed him to sign up and pay for a dive (another weird issue). Nevertheless, he explained to me he was trying to shuffle people around because there was a few people he knew he would have to "hold their hand", especially one kid who got certified 6 months ago and had only ever been on a dive once after, on his boat, and required hand holding.
Now, I went diving when I was younger, early 20s with friends, but was too poor to get certified, but nothing logged, and I also was a lifeguard for a few years. Fast forward 12 years and I get my open water, but by no means am I "experienced", nope!
On the boat the dive master is getting everyone buddied up and I get buddied with a younger guy, seemed cool and levelheaded, but I want you to look at my username first, carefully, and realize where my head was for most of the time while going to the dive site, lol. We get into the water and I asked as we were swimming to the drop line "So, how long you been diving?", he responds "I got certified 5 months ago and this is my second dive, with this same boat". Do you think this is where it ends? Nope! His first dive goes well, he stayed close, good buoyancy control, and seemed to check his guages often.
Second dive is where this gets interesting. Its like a small little shelf, or was it a wall, but it was basically an easy dive where it should not have gone wrong. However, I noticed he wasn't checking his guages and me being on Nitrox I knew he would be the limiting factor, so once I get his attention I hand signal for air, for which he doesn't remember how to signal back to me, so he shows me his SPG which reads under 100psi and we're 50ft down! I signal to him that he is out of air, given I still like to have a 3 minute deco stop and an emergency ascent seemed drastic when I still had 1800psi left, he didn't understand, so I switched to my backup, an SS1, and I presented my 2nd stage to him and he finally took it.
We get back on the boat and he was apologizing, which I wasn't mad, but he didn't seem to understand that as he gets colder he will use more air (he didn't have a wetsuit on). The dive master, an instructor with students, and the captain overheard this conversation and said nothing the whole ride back.