cmgmg:
BaitedStorm, great thread but I can't imagine any germane point can be raised except for the operator's statement and, perhaps, a coroner's or some other official report. Had enough?
That is an understatement without a doubt. I seriously didn't expect to see a group of adults continuously point fingers, and argue with each other. My thoughts behind the thread were pure, I assure you. I actually believed that as divers we might in deed learn something useful from this story.
I absolutely hate that the Captain is taking so much heat on this and I can't help but to feel partly responsible for this because of my original post (now deleted). I think it needs to be said (probably has been already somewhere) everyone has the right to their opinion, but until you've actually been out there working, you have no clue what it's like. Divers do some really silly things, some are accidental, others are just plain stupidly planned. Most of the time I am required to make a judgment call when it comes to safety. Sometimes I have people who disagree and that's ok, but I'm still going to call it. Here's a great example.
I had a group of divers going down to a max depth of 70 feet. I have two groups on the boat, going to two different places. I'm DM'ing for group one (group two has their Instructor and 2 of their own DM's and are being dropped much more shallow). I know that everyone in my group is at least AOW. During my dive briefing I go over the basic stuff with the group and ask who is diving tables and who is diving computers, everyone tells me they are on computers (I ask them individually). I give the divers their maximum bottom time (just in case they have forgotten how to work tables), one for air divers (I had 3 of them) and the other for my nitrox guys. I explain the way the reef runs and where to locate the most bugs for those seeking them.
All is well and we here Dive! Dive! Dive! some of the divers hang close to me, some of them venture out searching for their lobster dinner. The reef runs true North and South and had a North current kicking so the divers will continue to meet up throughout the dive. Everyone is buddied up people they know. When the time gets close for the air divers to go up, I give the two that chose to stay with me, the signal to start ascending and up they went. I continue the dive with the nitrox divers. When our time is almost up, I start rounding up everyone with me when I notice two divers hanging down by a ledge trying to get a lobster. I sent my group up, and went over to get the other two divers attention. You can only imagine my surprise when the one divers turns (tank to me) and low and behold, he's on air. I signal for him to go up, he looks at his spg and shakes his head NO! Of course this made me a little less then thrilled and again I signal for him to a go up. Trying not to get totally pissed, I thought, well maybe this guy is narced at um.....50-60 feet.... not likely, but just maybe. I tapped his shoulder and told him we were going up as I pointed to my watch (I use a computer, but like having my watch as not only a back up, but also a visual for divers to know that I'm referring to the time). Can you believe this guy gave me a nasty look, and pointed to one, very large lobster hiding. The very second he did that, I was annoyed. I dumped his air out of his BCD grabbed his chest strap, got him mask to mask, and started ascending with him. He got the point that time and stopped resisting.
We get to the safety stop and I sat there with him for as long as air would allow. We hit the surface and I didn't say to much right away (I was still more than a little peeved). After sitting down and speaking with the diver he did apologize to me and said he just didn't realize how long he had been down. That statement completely baffled me because even the "bend-o-matic" computers would have been screaming. I asked if his computer failed. I kid you not, he turned over to his buddy and said "hey ******, is your computer working ok?" mouth gaping open, I asked him where his computer was and was informed that he not only didn't have a computer, he also didn't have a watch. His buddy was on Nitrox and they were sharing a computer.
Had this diver died, take a real quick guess at who "they" would be pointing those blaming fingers at...
So.... while some will continue to blame regardless to what anyone says (most likely for lack of something better to do) realize no mater how badly some may wish it to be so, you can NOT be responsible for every diver. You do your very best to keep them same and happy without looking like your keeping them safe and happy (not always an easy task) and trust your judgment. There are good divers and there are bad divers. This guy was willing to risk his life over a lobster.
I can also tell you this much, even knowing what happened (should that diver have died) wouldn't have been my fault, I would have taking it pretty terrible. I certainly wouldn't want my integrity being slammed all over the place by everyone who knew absolutely nothing about what really happened that day.
I still believe there will be thing we can all learn from this tragic event. We were are told we would get a statement when the investigation was over, I think perhaps a few of us need to muster up a tad bit of patience. Making accusations will not force anyone into making that statement prematurely.
