Does this make sense to any of you?

[matts1w]

Pulling from the hip, I believe depth restrictions like that hit at 10 & 11, once you're 12 you're good to go (so to speak).

With PADI the depth restrictions are 40 feet with 10-11 year olds no matter what the class. With 12-14 year olds depth limits are 40 feet in JR OW class and 70 feet in AOW class during the "deep" adventure dive.

This thread should be moved.

 

[Rick Murchison]

This entire thread is based on the premise that a newspaper article is accurate.
Fat chance.
FWIW, SSI recommends 40 FSW max for 10-11 year olds, and 60 FSW max for 12-14 yr olds.
Rick

 

[scubaaaronh]

What's the issue with online academics?

The academic material covered in most OW courses is not very complicated, and you still have to pass a test. Most universities offer classes that are a hell of a lot harder than OW diving online.

It's called the never change theory of scuba or you'll die. A lot of people can't seem to grasp change.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'd have serious reservations about taking a brand new diver to 96 feet ... no matter how old they were ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[seaducer]

Providing the story is acurate, online acedemics? Ok sure. I think you are cheating yourself and missing out on some great instruction, but I see no problem with that.

1/2 day in the pool? That is about time to go over all the skills once? Are you saying these kids are prodigies? I think a bit more time learning the gear and bouyancy and mask clearing and etc etc is needed.

96 ft straight away? I am thinking that is just a little bit irresponsible of the instructors.

But then again, dive ops in Belize take newly certified divers to 150 in Blue Hole all the time. Maybe it is just me?

 

[sweatfrog]

from a pure risk management and pure saftey perspective, why in the world would any sensible instructor take a 13 year old child to 96'

That's a great question.

However, I just looked at the article and saw that there were no comments or questions to the person who wrote the article. It seems to me, that if you're upset about it, that would be your first step.

Since the Instructor's name is posted in the article, you could also go down there and take the course yourself. Then turn him in to PADI for violating standards. Hearsay and rumors don't cut it.

 

[MHK]

Where does it say the wall drops thousands of feet? Not that it makes it much better, but the article gives me the impression that the wall bottoms out there.

You may want to allow for the possibility that Babylon is quite a popular dive site for those of us dive Cayman frequently so I didn't need an article in the NY Daily News to say that the wall drops off quite significantly. It's quite a remote site, and while it does start out at about 50', it's unprotected and currents can pick up rather quickly so getting over the wall is rather easy.

Bottom line is that it is very irresponsible of this instructor to put these children in this situation. My larger point wasn't necessarily targeting this one instructor inasmuch as it was a comment on the overall state of the industry, and it's lack of appreciation for proper education prior these kinds of dives.

Fact of the matter is, as someone else pointed out in this thread, had this dive taken place under the guise of an AOW class, this dive would have been within standards, and sadly such a progression directly from OW to AOW is commonplace. That's the bigger problem. To the new diver, they don't know what they don't know, often times until it's too late.

Regards

 

[Garrobo]

What scrbaaaronh said.

 

[drbill]

Michael,

Personally I dislike the idea of on-line academics. Students pay little enough attention in many classes, but at least there you can see they aren't.

As for a 96 ft dive that early for divers that young, if it doesn't violate standards it still sounds pretty stupid. I've actually watched a certified instructor plummet down a 5,000 ft wall in Belize. I saved the $7,000 camera and housing but let someone else deal with the instructor.

I just can't imagine that with on-line instruction and just a few in-person dives with the instructor that the instructor has much of a clue about the young divers' responses to malfunctions and other emergency issues.

Of course Rick makes a good point about the accuracy of the print media. I remember what the L A Times used to say about me and our efforts to remove feral animals from Catalina Island in the 90's. Heck I just read in Underseas Journal that Farnsworth Bank was now a no anchor zone. Not even close to true... yet.

I'm not sure since my dive logs from the 60's through the 90's aren't available to me, but I think I'd been diving almost 40 years before I went below 100 ft. I used to keep that as my basement depth in my early days.

 

[Gombessa]

You may want to allow for the possibility that Babylon is quite a popular dive site for those of us dive Cayman frequently so I didn't need an article in the NY Daily News to say that the wall drops off quite significantly

I agree with everything you've said about (ir)responsibility. I still think it's unwarranted to simply declare that these kids *did dive* a wall with virtually *no floor* without having any idea of exactly where they were, but in the grand scheme of the story, it's just a nit. And yes, even in an AOW context, it's still irresponsible.