Interfering Diver

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You are mellowing out, years ago you would have broke her in half...or at least cut her air off. :)
I think I would have at least told her I was a DM too and the child was with me so there was no farther need for her help.
 
On one of my OW dives, I was having trouble clearing my ears so I was sitting at about 10'. The DM thought I was just having weighting problems and pulled me down to 20ish, which landed me in the doctor's office. A few times when diving with very new divers (<10 dives) I have pulled their dumps when it became clear that they were having trouble dumping on their own (wrong dump for orientation, etc), but that feels pretty different.
 
It's probably because of my occupation, but I always think about the liability with things like this. By asserting her authority as a DM in this action (even though she was not employed as such) could open her up for liability if something went wrong due to her actions.

That is exactly what I was thinking.

Many diver masters and instructors, when diving for pleasure of on vacation, will not mention their professional status because of concerns about liability.

More importantly, a DM who is not actually working as a DM and has only 120 dives but asserts her professional status leaves me wondering about her judgement.

Sounds like someone is a zero to hero and hasn't gotten over their new status.

Or maybe she is just an idiot.

Jeff
 
...she explained to him that SHE was a DIVE MASTER so she could put weights in his pocket like she did...
I have this vision of Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber rushing down the jetway, pauses to flash his license, "It's OK, I'm a chauffer", and then procedes to fall out the jetway. Her attitude is what frosts me. Because she is a Dive Master she feels she can insinuate herself into someones dive and mess with their configuration? :shocked2:
 
She stated she always carried extra weight. But why when she is a recreational diver? I found She is not employed any where as a DM but is a college student. (I enjoy talking with people about where they are from and where they dive, so I learn a lot by being a good listener).
She has no professional status. She took the DM course and passed, same as I did and many other people I have dived with. Apparently she is a young woman with the need to have attention drawn on herself and the need to be recognized.
 
Part of the problem is as divers pursue more advanced certification they are encouraged by instructors to "act the part". I understand why but that does not make it right.

The sad truth is most "rescue divers" are in no position to rescue anyone and most "Dive Masters" are not fit to lead anyone anyplace other than the head or coffee machine.

It takes experience to develop the proper skills necessary to utilize those titles.


That said, I cannot imagine the circumstance I would mention my credentials or lend assistance to any un-stressed diver without first being requested to do so. And I have been doing this a very long time. It's just not worth it.
 
Story is missing something. She added lead to the kid and "sent him to the sand", yet neither you, nor the dad nor the kid were able to see that she had done this? How much lead did she add? 2 lbs is not a big deal, 6 lbs is..

I myself might donate some lead to a kid who i felt was having trouble and was not being closely monitored by parent or "offical" DM. If the kid floated up a dozen feet above the group and the father was on top of the situation, he should have been able to notice that the volunteer DM was "doing something"???


If I did something like this, I would try very hard to let the father or DM know that I did it, immediately after doing so.
 
Perhaps she felt the young diver wasn't sufficiently overweighted and felt an overwhelming urge to add the weight. ;-)

I agree, her actions were uncalled for. Why would anyone think it's ok to interfere with another diver?
 
Sounds like we all think the same about this situation. No, we did not see her put weight in. While he was doing fine making is way back down, it appeared she was guiding him along for a while. As I stated, it wasn't until we were on the boat and she said she added weight did I realize what she had done. The dad was fairly new himself. Enough said. Thanks all for your input.
 
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