Error A Story of Poor Judgment

[The Chairman]

With at least one glaring error:
"the Gulf Stream as it blasts along Florida’s east coast on its way to the British Isles and Northern Europe"
Be advised the Gulf Stream does NOT flow to the British Isles and Northern Europe.
Makes me wonder about other errors in the story and the conclusions.

Citation needed. A quick look at Google seems to contradict this. In fact, I always thought the GS made it to Britain and North England. That said, let's not derail this discussion: just a link would suffice.

 

[Sidemount_Syndicate]

as a profleshional sidemount diver I have been to the bottom of the ocean and know a basic diver when i hear one. it is overly apparent whom ever this daft imbecile is knows noting about safety or professionalism and should heavy consider retiring. This kind of failure and disregard for safety would never come from a PADI instructor.

 

[NothingClever]

"The required reports were filed and during the resulting investigation, it was discovered the student had a history of DCS and other medical challenges including a suspected PFO. However, these episodes were never mentioned in medical waivers, or pre-course conversations, or dive briefings. Nor had incident reports about them ever been reported to the agency."

The above is what jumped out at me. The student is a technical dive instructor inside the agency in which he sought more advanced technical training. I'm making a reasonable assumption that the student was thoroughly familiar with the course medical questionnaire that he himself was responsible for administering to his own students and enforcing the concomitant duty to disclose. Knowingly and willfully failing to disclose the truth that led to the very type of incident the medical questionnaire is intended to prevent seems to me to be a pretty clear cut violation of ethics and basic standards. He increased the risk when it's his duty as an instructor to identify and mitigate risks. That he failed to disclose the truth to his own agency is an egregious violation of trust, IMO.

I don't think we should drift off into a discussion of the psychological analysis of why somebody would think this is OK. Although it warrants attention*, it's a separate topic and shouldn't be conflated with the first. The bottom line to me is the instructor essentially lied while in a position of trust and responsibility and that should be addressed in a very direct and clear manner. What other indiscretions is he up to that could expose the licensing organization and divers (!) to inordinate or unnecessary risk?

*Psychological analysis would be helpful for a preventative purpose, e.g, identifying personality attributes (while assessing and selecting instructor candidates) that may precipitate a lack of truthfulness. If there's a problem of systems that support and reward this type of risk-taking behavior despite knowing the potential consequences, that's a larger corporate problem (leaders, roles, processes, QA/QC programs, etc) to be solved. I thought I might be cut out for that in a second career but I got enough of a glimpse inside the dive industry to know that the overwhelming majority of "it" doesn't really want to change.

 

[boulderjohn]

Let's just say that the facts in the case are in dispute.

I am on FaceBook with the student who got DCS. He has posted a personal rebuttal, and he has posted a statement from the boat captain that contradict some of what is said in the article. If you dive that area regularly (and I do), you will question some of it on your own. It would only take me a minute or two to paste all of that in here, but I would not do that without permission.

 

[tursiops]

Citation needed. A quick look at Google seems to contradict this. In fact, I always thought the GS made it to Britain and North England. That said, let's not derail this discussion: just a link would suffice.

The best article I know of is this:

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-source-of-europes-mild-climate

It makes clear that it is not the water from the Gulf Stream that warms Europe, bur rather the Gulf Stream and its downslream components (see below) that warms the air masses above, and it is those air masses that get to Europe and keep Europe warm.

The Wikipedia article is not bad.

Gulf Stream - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

See the section on "Properties."

The confusion often comes from the fact that the Gulf Stream is really just one part of the circulation in the North Atlantic; when it gets to south of Newfoundland it breaks up and feeds the North Atlantic Current (going northeast) and the Canary Current (going southeast). It is the North Atlantic Current that warms the UK and Europe, not the Gulf Stream.

As the Encyclopedia Brittanica puts it, "The main portion of the Gulf Stream continues north, veering more to the east and passing close to the Grand Banks, south of Newfoundland, where it breaks up into swirling currents. Some of these eddies flow toward the British Isles and the Norwegian seas and form the North Atlantic Current (or Drift). A larger number flow south and east, either becoming part of westward-flowing countercurrents or joining the Canary Current."

The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current are driven by very different forcing dynamics; the GS is a west-ward intensification of the Atlantic waters driven by windstress, primarily to the west in mid-latitudes. The North Atlantic Current is driven by thermohaline processes (rising and sinking of warm and cool and fresh and salty) water.

 

[boulderjohn]

About the current....

According to the captain, it was decided that the original dive plan (anchored dive to a wreck) was not the best, so they decided to do a drift dive instead. He described the current as "moderate." A South Florida drift dive has nothing to do with fighting current. It has nothing to do with struggling with work of breathing. It is hovering as you drift over a reef. Because of the change in plan, the maximum depth of the dive was 115 feet. This would have been hard bottom over the reef.

 

[tursiops]

must be true...

Unfortunately, the picture is poorly labeled and widely discredited, not to mention wrong.

 

[The Chairman]

The bottom line to me is the instructor essentially lied while in a position of trust and responsibility and that should be addressed in a very direct and clear manner.

It's my understanding that he was purged from the ranks of RAID. He's still an instructor for another agency.

a statement from the boat captain that contradict some of what is said in the article.

Bottom line, he had been bent twice before and thought he might have a PFO. None of that was indicated on his forms. The issues are did he lie on his medical form to get to take the class and is that OK to do? It's a matter of trust, or lack thereof.

 

[NothingClever]

I see this a fair amount and sometimes I am the "offending" diver host. The visiting instructor went on a trust me dive condition-wise. Oftentimes you do that with a trusted local (class or not) and sometimes the trusted local's advice is wrong or maybe I just screw up and mis-plan the dive. Guests have no basis to question it or even cross-check my plan until its all going pear shaped.

Based on the analytical quality and reasoned conviction of your posts on SB and that you’re aware of the “trust me” factor in the local + visitor dive situation, I suspect your assessment of the risks would be far more transparent and forthcoming such that the visiting diver can make an informed decision.

 

[cerich]

With at least one glaring error:
"the Gulf Stream as it blasts along Florida’s east coast on its way to the British Isles and Northern Europe"
Be advised the Gulf Stream does NOT flow to the British Isles and Northern Europe.
Makes me wonder about other errors in the story and the conclusions.

Yes it does

If it didn't the british isles would be near arctic conditions. Most seem to not understand how far north they are.