Hey, DMs...share your eye-opening experiences

[stretchthepenn]

A resurrected thread in the New Divers forum had a really interesting bit from @Divrtim:

One of the many diving hats that I have worn is to have served as a DM on a dive boat in So Cal. You would not believe the cluster F***** I've witnessed about jump into the pacific ocean. I've pulled divers out of line, pointed out exactly what was broken or not right that they could see( not having inflator LP hose connected to inflator. saw this a lot). But equally importantly, the things they didn't see or know; like. air not turned on( why do you think DM check this all the time?), tank straps too loose, tank slipping down( didn't soak or wet them before strapping on BC to tank), fin strap coming of or ripped.

In the spirit of learning from other people's experience/misadventures, then, I'll pose the question that everyone wants to ask: Divemasters, what strange, odd, potentially problematic, or downright dangerous things have you seen your clients do?

 

[Divrtim]

A know it all, been there, dove there, "tec" diver wearing doubles and carrying a staged deco tank jump into the ocean with his dry suit relief zipper open.

 

[jborg]

A know it all, been there, dove there, "tec" diver wearing doubles and carrying a staged deco tank jump into the ocean with his dry suit relief zipper open.

Hey! That was me. Well, apart from the know it all tec bits I hope. It resulted in a very quick pelvic thrust to get the zipper in question above the surface to close the zip, and then a rather wet and cold dive in 6 C seas… luckily it was the last dive for the excursion.

 

[VikingDives]

Overweight students dropping to the bottom like rocks. Uncontrolled ascents. Grabbing snorkels because they feel like a lpi hose. Dead stop panics while the instructor swims away. Instructors taking 12 divers into water with 4 feet of vis and going on a big group swim around where an OW student gets lost, panics and spends 5-10 minutes holding onto a buoy until it is discovered they're missing. 5 divers holding hands like the US Army parachute team as their instructor drags them down to 70ish feet, no hands free to valsalva. DMs holding students' tank valves to keep them from sinking on a swim around.

I didn't know it at the time, but DM candidates can learn a lot from bad instructors... My dm candidates have no idea how good they have it LOL.

 

[TMHeimer]

Not as a boat DM, but doing 4 years assisting on OW courses---
I found the odd student taking OW blew my mind regarding their comfortability in water. Ie.- If you haven't been in a plane before and may have a fear of heights, don't jump out of one.
Learn to swim, put your head underwater before signing up!

 

[Wibble]

It’s amazing what can happen when you’ve little or no recent experience. Training to a price doesn’t help. Probably the worst risk is people who’s only experience is diving in warm, clear, benign water — cold, low vis dark water diving comes as a shock.

 

[gqllc007]

Saturday there was 3 students with the main instructor. One of the students was having equipment issues at the surface so he informed all three students to fully inflate their BC's until he fixed the issue. He fixed the issue quickly and immediately noticed one student was missing. He told the other two to stay there and he found the third student in 35 feet of water swimming south away from the dive site...The third student just decided to take off on their own

 

[Wibble]

Saturday there was 3 students with the main instructor. One of the students was having equipment issues at the surface so he informed all three students to fully inflate their BC's until he fixed the issue. He fixed the issue quickly and immediately noticed one student was missing. He told the other two to stay there and he found the third student in 35 feet of water swimming south away from the dive site...The third student just decided to take off on their own

A simple fail would teach that student a lesson!

 

[CanadaDan]

So far nothing too crazy...

I DMc'd my stepkid's OW cert... the line between church and state became a bit blurry. I lost sight of my stepdaughter in bad vis and it was made a bit worse because I was dealing with family. I knew the instructor had her (6 students in their final dive of the cert, 1 instructor, 1 assistant instructor and me the DMC) but I felt I would have been more focused if it hadn't have been family. I remember getting a little panicky for a moment. In the debrief the instructor team revealed they did have concerns with me DMc'ing my own family but decided to give me the chance based on my performance to that point.

Best brownie point earned... working an AOW course and the instructor I was helping had to dive a drysuit out of the rental inventory (his was stolen the day before). It had been so many years since he used a back zip suit he had forgotten to do up the main zipper and didn't notice between the thermals and the bagginess of the rental suit. He was striding into the water, BCD and tank on, when I stopped him. He was very grateful lol.

Then there's the usual. You're on a trip without a dive buddy, you become friends with the pros, they find out you're a DM/DMC and boom... you're diving sweep with perceived problematic/new divers. I've gotten better at keeping my mouth shut

 

[kmarks]

A simple fail would teach that student a lesson!

Unfortunately, dead students don't learn lessons.

So far nothing too crazy...

I DMc'd my stepkid's OW cert...

Nope nope nope. I plan to start issuing OW certs at the end of this summer (just finished ITC last weekend, doing IE in August) and both of my kids want to get certified when they are old enough. I have a long way to go (my oldest is 4), but there is no way I'm doing their class. I'll send them out with my favorite instructor whom I know I can trust to take care of them, but I'll wait nervously on the shore.

As a DM and as an AI, I can't say I've had any "eye-opening" experiences, but I've had plenty of "learning" experiences. I've seen many students, recently certified divers, and even experienced divers who could really benefit from a scuba skills update. I don't think that they missed anything in their classes because they had bad instructors, but just because they were over loaded by so much to learn at once. After a few dives post certification, maybe within 6 months or a year later, I think everyone should do an update with an instructor just to make sure they don't continue down a path of doing things incorrectly and thinking they are doing everything right.

One specific example, several years ago I was in Cozumel and diving with a couple on the boat who had been certified for a few years. The woman and I surfaced together after the man had been sent to the surface with a different buddy because they were both low on air and she wasn't (LOA buddy group restructuring is pretty common in Cozumel). After she and I did our safety stop together, she took off at light speed to the surface. I grabbed her fin and slowed her down and then pulled her aside back on the boat to apologize for grabbing her, but also to counsel her on the safety issue of such a fast ascent. She told me that she thought that after the safety stop, you could go full speed to the surface because all the risk was over at that point, when in reality, that last 15 feet is the most dangerous time to ascend too quickly. She was otherwise a really solid diver, but that little bit of information just got crossed up at some point.