2nd Important Rule after the Golden Rule: Calm, Don't Panic when you're in the water

[Ocean One]

Congrats on you OW cert. and not panicking.
Sounds kinda strange how it was conducted, but you weren't my student.
We learn everytime we dive, that's how we get better.
Hope you have many more dives!!!

 

[Colliam7]

Interesting experience. As you describe it, I must agree with Arizona’s observations. If this was an OW check out dive, AND your instructor was your buddy, she had NO BUSINESS leaving you to clean up the reef. SHE should have been the one to suggest side by side travel, rather than single file. The comments from several others about diving single file safely (looking under your fins rather than turning around) are great suggestions. I imagine the instructor was both scared and embarrassed. At least I hope so. Tank banging is not necessarily effective communication underwater, although we must use it in the absence of anything else, like visual contact. If the instructor truly ‘scolded’ you, that really could be interpreted as a cheap attempt to avoid blame for letting you get out of sight to begin with. YES, you didn’t follow protocol, and that was incorrect, but was probably a valuable learning experience as to why we have the protocol in the first place. You were clearly the less experienced diver, and at the time not even certified. You had good fortune to reconnect with the group, you kept your head, you came back safely. Kudos to you. As for the instructor, based on your description (only one side, obviously), I am a little disappointed.

 

[superkingkong]

This happened during my OW certification. Before i "overtook" her when she was at the bottom, i "saw" her moving up towards me. so, i was thinking that she should noticed me because her head is tilted upward and facing me, and thinking that "oh, she knows i'm in front of her", but somehow, after a while, when i looked back, i couldn't find her. I don't think she is that "irresponsible" to let me go ahead and she went down herself. Maybe she had signalled me, thinking that i heard the tank banging sound, but in actual fact, i didn't. I think she should have waited for my hand signaling "ok", rather than thinking that i should have heard her tank banging

Interesting experience. As you describe it, I must agree with Arizona’s observations. If this was an OW check out dive, AND your instructor was your buddy, she had NO BUSINESS leaving you to clean up the reef. SHE should have been the one to suggest side by side travel, rather than single file. The comments from several others about diving single file safely (looking under your fins rather than turning around) are great suggestions. I imagine the instructor was both scared and embarrassed. At least I hope so. Tank banging is not necessarily effective communication underwater, although we must use it in the absence of anything else, like visual contact. If the instructor truly ‘scolded’ you, that really could be interpreted as a cheap attempt to avoid blame for letting you get out of sight to begin with. YES, you didn’t follow protocol, and that was incorrect, but was probably a valuable learning experience as to why we have the protocol in the first place. You were clearly the less experienced diver, and at the time not even certified. You had good fortune to reconnect with the group, you kept your head, you came back safely. Kudos to you. As for the instructor, based on your description (only one side, obviously), I am a little disappointed.

 

[sccaleb]

Maybe its just the way I was taught (not only by a great instructor but by a very close friend of mine) or its the people I dive with (which includes him and another very close friend of mine from work) is that I want to stay close. Even if I have to ascend a little bit to do something (ex: equalize ears), somehow you and your buddy need to maintain contact. I have not been diving long enough to run into a scary situation where I needed this yet, but it is what experienced divers have taught me and I personally don't want to be responsible for my friends' deaths if something happened that I could have helped. From what I've read, I would put this on the instructor somewhat for not doing a better job going over signals and a dive plan with you. Plus, I know my instructor was intent on dealing with me when we were doing my OW dives, so going down and cleaning and tooling around (while admireable) is irresponsible.

While we were at Crystal River this weekend, the visability was low because the silt was stirred up and two buddies got seperated (a group that was there from another dive shop) and one decided to keep swimming around rather than surface. The owner of the shop and a couple instructors started to really get concerned and actually went down looking around for the individual... just to find out this person had been tooling around. What if something happened to the buddy? What if something happened to a diver while they were looking for this person? The thing about diving is that you need to be considerate of others as well as yourself, because underneath the water, all you have is your equipment and your buddy.

One of my favorite sayings was given to me when I started in law enforcement but is applicable in diving:

If you feel yourself panicking, you are probably about to die... just remember, if you make it through whatever you are facing and live, you have plenty of time to s*** yourself later.

Glad you made it out and had a good dive any ways and hope you enjoy diving as much as I am!

Caleb

 

[diver 85]

Yea, of all people she should have realized you only get one chance to remove string, netting etc off coral...lol....She goofed, that was not in the dive plan I bet.....IF she wanted to do that, she should have(remember she's venturing off the dive plan) gotten your full attention, maybe given you a hand stop sign-I'm going to the bottom(it was 10 feet or so down there), etc etc.........Also, if she was going to allow single file touring, why did she not give you the 'You lead, I'll follow sign'..... In general, she is not qualified, in practical terms, to be an instructor, maybe in theory but not in practice........Glad things turned out OK in the end....you(& she also) probably learned an important dive lesson......The School of Hard Knocks is sometimes a hard school to get a diploma from, but once you have it, it's a good one to receive.....

 

[josh]

At the final day, i was diving together with some ppl and my buddy was my instructor. So, off we went. Slowly, We were separated with other groups. They are taking photos on some fishes and stuff, since they are there to enjoy, where as I'm still "in-the-course".

At first, i was following my instructor. But few times she will dive down to the bottom, to get rid of some nets or strings that got stuck on the corals. and i'll have to wait for her at about 12m. Total depth was about 15m.

I do not quite get this and must have missed something. If it was your "final day" of your open water certification, you would have been doing either OW dive 3 or OW dive 4. The maximum allowed depth for these dives is 18 meters - not 12. So why did you have to wait at 12 meters while the Instructor went down to 15 meters?
-j-

 

[superkingkong]

I do not quite get this and must have missed something. If it was your "final day" of your open water certification, you would have been doing either OW dive 3 or OW dive 4. The maximum allowed depth for these dives is 18 meters - not 12. So why did you have to wait at 12 meters while the Instructor went down to 15 meters?
-j-

it is just an estimate. it was after some of the dive techniques that i needed to learn (i've forgotten what was it). She didn't go OW1, 2 3, sequencially, but jumping one after another. so, i didn't really remember which is which. but at the end, all i know is, i've completed everything

after completing it, and while we still have time/air, she guided me, swimming along the reefs, slowly ascending, before we surfaced. so, it happened when we were at about 12m.

btw, this center brought students straight to the sea, well, it's the shore. i was trained all along at the shore. I questioned them why, because during that time, water was rough, it was the raining season, visibility was poor. although i was about 3-4ft away from my instructor to observw what was she performing, i could hardly see her. Her answer to me was we try to expose our students to the sea as much as possible, so that they will feel easy when they really go to the sea.

 

[josh]

it is just an estimate. it was after some of the dive techniques that i needed to learn (i've forgotten what was it). She didn't go OW1, 2 3, sequencially, but jumping one after another. so, i didn't really remember which is which. but at the end, all i know is, i've completed everything

after completing it, and while we still have time/air, she guided me, swimming along the reefs, slowly ascending, before we surfaced. so, it happened when we were at about 12m.

btw, this center brought students straight to the sea, well, it's the shore. i was trained all along at the shore. I questioned them why, because during that time, water was rough, it was the raining season, visibility was poor. although i was about 3-4ft away from my instructor to observw what was she performing, i could hardly see her. Her answer to me was we try to expose our students to the sea as much as possible, so that they will feel easy when they really go to the sea.

Hmm. You were pretty precise with those depth in the first post. It also caught my eye as you were giving the depths in meters rather than feet as most American posters seem to do. Be that as it may, your comment that "She didn't go OW1, 2 3, sequencially, but jumping one after another" is also a bit weird. While you do not say what organization you are certified with, I am pretty sure that most (if not all) have fairly stringent rules as to what can be done on what day and what dive.

My personal take is that if what you say actually happened, and if such an Instructor actually exists, I would write to the certifying organization detailing your experiences. Such an Instructor is a hazard to themselves and others. However, I am reaching for the salt.
-j-

 

[superkingkong]

In my country, we use metric in most of our calculations a simple example would be that, in our cars, we use km/h instead of miles/h

what about in thailand?

well, maybe she felt that by teaching me 3 2 1 or 2 1 3 is easier for me to learn or rather more convenient than 1 2 3, as long as at the end of the course, the student manages to learn everything, that would be fine and if you ask me why, then i'm not sure about it

about that incident, well, i did happen, but it could be an accident, and maybe a careless one. but as long as i'm still alive, i won't be making h**l out of it coz i think it's not a big deal after all.