Search results

I think that part of the issue lay with instructors who have bought into the notion that we should sell students on how safe diving is. I actually make it a point to tell my students that this activity is safe "until you start doing things you don't know how to do." And I use entering a cave...

It depends on the dive, the depth, my dive partner, and so forth. Rock Bottom pressure is not a set number, it needs to be calculated

General poor dive practices: bounce dives, going into over head environments without any training, and so forth.

PADI, at least, represents to Open Water students in their official course material that they should always have their log book with them because dive operators associated with PADI will verify recent dive experience in order to ensure that the diver is not being taken on a dive beyond their...

Presuming the diver is not overly cautious to the point of being afraid (in which case, perhaps they should evaluate their own suitability to diving in general) people are a pretty good judge of where they are at. If the new diver hasn't been past 30' and the DM is taking him to 60' on the...

The thing I think we're all trying to say is that it is really hard for new divers to speak up and voice their concerns during the dive briefing. We've all been there and we all get that. New divers can save themselves a lot of problems by being vocal about their concerns and demands prior...

Something I emphasize to my students over and over again in class and pool is that they have a responsibility to themselves to say "I am not comfortable with this dive" and call any dive, for any reason, if they are not 100% certain that it is within their training and experience. I stress that...

Personally, any operator that lets someone into the water without doing some level of checkout dive is frankly setting themselves up for an eventual lawsuit that they will lose. More importantly, we have a duty to our customers to reasonably ensure their safety. I'm glad to hear this is...

Every diver I ever met who I felt was unsafe really shared one specific criteria: They were completely oblivious to what they didn't know. The safest divers I've ever met, by counterexample, were extremely humble about their own skill set and knowledge base. They prepared for and executed...

Calling idiocy "idiocy" is not flaming. There are actions which are so egregiously stupid and irresponsible that to not call them out as such is itself to share in that irresponsibility. But what's really funny is that the people you are calling out for flaming your egregiously irresponsible...

There are lots and lots of people who's goal in life seems to be to earn a Darwin award. My only hope is that threads like this stop other people from joining them in their poor choices.

Unless he's your kid, your spouse is dead, and there are no other members of your immediate family capable of suing you, liability is always a concern. Moreover, that's only civil liability. I will reiterate that I firmly believe you would have reason to fear criminal liability. In my state...

Every new diver goes through a stage where they think they know way more than they do. I did, and every seasoned diver I've ever met did as well. Eventually something will happen that brings us back to reality. But there is a qualitative difference for ignoring the risks as they apply to...

For my instructor training we spent hours in the pool having other IDC students "simulate" problems, ranging from full blown panic to minor irritations. I worked as a certified assistant with other instructors for a year before I taught my first class "solo." During that time I learned that any...

Short answer: no. Long answer: equipment should not be used to solve a skill problem. If you don't know how to handle a down current anyway other than ditching gear, or you don't know how to build a balanced rig, you probably should not be diving in a location with down currents in a bp/w.

I'm not trying to suggest that Groupon is necessarily problem for a well run business in particular sectors. Indeed, it can be a great tool for the right business. However, I need to stress that to use Groupon successfully a business has to fully understand their own costs, the impact of...

The answer to the first question is that a Groupon discount costs the shop more than the value of the discount. Much more! If you read the associated links in my post you'll see how. I agree that the problem is with the shop in question being run poorly. And that's sort of my point. If a shop...

Groupon's business model encourages, and even requires, that shops who provide classes through them are going to have to cut their standards to the bone in order to come close to making a profit -- and even then, they're probably going to be dependent upon additional off-coupon sales in order to...

Well, I'm still not back in the pool swimming. But that will change next week, or so I've been promised. I am still having difficulty with some movements, particularly laterally across the body. While I can get my arm vertical, there's no way I can do a valve drill still. Seriously considering...

It has, but there have also been those moments where a fair comment has been responded to with something along the lines of "it's your fault if you're offended." I see the KFC "joke," for example, as suggesting that DIR is merely an advertising gimmick and taking offense at people getting in...