Accepting Responsibility for Your Own Safety

[MaxBottomtime]

Any student fresh out of OW, although nervous, should be able to safely conduct a dive within their training. A DM may be hired as a dive guide, but to rely on one for safety sounds as if someone didn't pay attention in class. After several more classes to still think this way tells me that the diver should consider another pastime.

 

[TSandM]

I agree that I should take responsibility for my own safety, but in the end, as a new diver, I'm going to darn well have a DM with me who will watch out for my safety. I know that I'm not qualified to do so. There are situations that could arise that I wouldn't be able to handle. And I know that my risk of getting decompression illness is less if someone with more experience is with me.​

"I know I'm not qualified to do so." I find this statement terribly, terribly sad. PADI Standards say that, at the end of your OW class, you should be prepared to dive in conditions similar to the ones in which you were certified. You should be able to do a simple, shallow dive in similar conditions without requiring anyone with you to "keep you safe". If you can't do that, then your OW instructor didn't get the job done.

If you are somewhere new and don't feel you can execute the proposed dive safely without a minder, then perhaps you are considering a dive that is beyond your capacity, and that you shouldn't do.

And the only way your risk of DCS is going to decrease by having a DM in attendance on you, is if that DM has to remind you to watch your no-deco limits, or has to intervene to manage your buoyancy control on ascent. In the first case, you are not taking care of yourself as a diver, and in the second case, you have undertaken a dive that is beyond your skill set.

I really have no problem with someone wanting to dive with a person who is familiar with the site and the local conditions. I work very hard to do that myself -- that's just smart. But if I have any suspicion that I don't have the ability to conduct, or abort the dive safely, I won't do that dive, because if I'm dependent on someone else to keep me safe and I lose that person, I'm hosed. The only exception is when under instruction, because I may not be able to foresee all the things that I might need to do in an instructional setting, when being challenged with new environments or new skills. But it is not unreasonable to expect that an instructor might have to play a larger role in safety than the usual buddy or guide.

 

[EastEndDiver]

This thread has firmly convinced me that there are "Divers" and there are "Card Collectors". Divers are in it to DIVE .

With the watering down of standards ,by some agencies,and the ease with which some new divers get certified with minimal instruction all I can say is I am glad I was taught in the Era when you had to earn a certification and not just pay your money and get it.

 

[Blackwood]

DCS is far down in my worry list while diving, even when doing deepish longish stage deco dives.

But Matt's post seems more of a "here's a general flow of conversation" type of deal than specifically suggesting being supervised to mitigate DCS risk.

My .02? If you aren't comfortable diving without a DM, don't. But also, don't avoid self-analysis into to why you aren't comfortable diving without a DM, and don't take offense from those who'd encourage that analysis.

 

[mathauck0814]

Matt should come to California for a few weeks and dive off our charters. He'll go home feeling like a real diver for the first time in his life.

 

[gcarter]

47 dives logged as of this writing and I am very aware of my skill level. I will not dive most new sites without a guide, or at a minimum a briefing by someone familiar with the site. Once I am familiar with a site, I am OK diving it without a guide.

At no time beyond my original OW course have I expected anyone else to accept responsibility for my safety. Even while doing my AOW and Deep, I believe it was up to me to be responsible for my own safety and in fact turned one training dive early when I was not comfortable.

If you cannot hold yourself responsible above all others (which is not to say you can't expect / ask for help, just be clear where primary responsibility lies) then IMHO you should find another passtime. Even paying a DM to watch over you does not absolve you of beng primarily responsible for yourself.

If OW teaches you one thing, it should be this. Additional training should underline this in triplicate.

 

[FPDocMatt]

"I know I'm not qualified to do so." I find this statement terribly, terribly sad.

You guys are completely missing the point of my OP.

A new diver who wants a DM to go on his dives with him to watch out for his safety is smart.

That's all I'm saying.

But every time a newby posts something like that, you guys instantly pounce. "You're not accepting responsibility for your own safety." No. It's just the smart thing to do.

When I returned from Cozumel yesterday and told my wife about the swim-throughs and diving the walls, she asked, "Did you have a DM with you?" I replied, "Yes." She said, "Good."

Do you think she asked that because she thinks I'm incompetent? No. She asked it because she loves her husband.

I don't care how well qualified you are as a newby with 22 dives to take care of yourself. With only 22 dives you're not as safe in the water as someone with 300 dives, and you're not as safe in the water without a DM than you would be if you were in the water with a DM watching out for your safety.

Now, having said that, if you say that the newby who doesn't feel completely safe in the water without the DM didn't get adequate training, then what would you have him do? Stop diving? Go back and retake OW and AOW? No. He needs more experience diving, that's all. And how should he get that experience? Without a DM or with a DM? With a DM, of course!

It's weird, it's as if none of you read my OP.

Or maybe we're speaking different languages.

The way you're all responding to my OP just proves what I've always suspected, and that's that you don't really have a point to make so much as love criticizing people for their incompetence.

Get a life.

 

[chrpai]

A new diver who wants a DM to go on his dives with him to watch out for his safety is smart.

It depends on his motivations. Is the DM there as a baby sitter or a mentor / coach? If the former, that's an enabling behavior. If the latter, that's better, but I'd argue that an experienced diver can fill that role without needing a PRO card.

Of course you had a DM in Cozumel, it's the law. But it's a silly question to me. Is your wife a diver? My wife knows I don't dive with DM's and she doesn't expect me to.

Someone with 300 dives could still be a horrible diver. Someone with 30 dives can actually be pretty squared away. The generalization doesn't always apply.

I do skills / training dives all the time. Sometimes I go back to an instructor but usually I just go diving with a buddy. I don't need a DM to practice being a better diver. That's a crazy assertion.

I've read what you have to say and I don't agree with you.

Anyways, back to living my wonderful life...

 

[EastEndDiver]

A lot of us have a Life and it entails diving and taking responsibility of ourselves.

Considering that some Divemasters have only 50-60 dives ,mostly supervised by an instructor,a Divemaster can be a liability.

I would recomend you dive and after a few hundred dives look at your posts and then tell us what you think.

 

[Shark Bait!]

Diving is not the best sport for incompetent divers who feel they can pay for someone to keep them safe in the water.

With that being said, I believe if you are new or old to diving, and feel that you need or want to hire aDM to accompany you on your dive so you feel comfortable, so be it. Its your dive and your piece of mind... But don't expect that hired help to prevent you from being an incompetent diver. Safety and responsibility begins & end with you! A DM will only fill the role of a dive buddy and are limited because they don't know you or your diving style/expectations. Its a false sense of security IMO. But at the end of the day, do what you want and be happy with the decisions that you make. Our opinions are just that "opinions" and there based off of our experiences.