Ritchard
Registered
I dove with Coastal Mid October with my 15 year old son.
Mid October is slow season in Myrtle Beach, so in order to make a charter practical, I guess they have to get creative. On the morning of the 20th, I went on my first diving/fishing charter. 4 divers, 8 or 9 fishermen, really cold weather.
I thought nothing of this arrangement until just before we splashed when we had our dive briefing. An instructor/DM from the dive operator told us the boat would drop us in the water at the big marker ball moored to the wreck THEN LEAVE FOR A HALF HOUR TO TAKE THE FISHERMEN AWAY. This seemed very hinky to me, but I didn't want to get in an argument at that moment, and I was also freezing cold and wanted to get in the water (note to self, always the drysuit). So we dove, and the boat was there to collect us at the end of the dive, and of course everything was okay, but what if someone had a problem and the boat just wasn't there?
We readied for the second dive, and repeated the drill. One of the divers was brand new, the 53 foot dive we had just completed was her second dive after certification - she had been buddied up on the boat. For this second dive she splashed first, swam to the ball, and the instructor waiting at the ball sent her down -- alone. I splashed second and swam to the ball. By the time I got there, the woman had descended. I asked the instructor where she went, he told me. I reminded him that she was brand new, and what the hell was he thinking? 53 feet is not much, but it is when you've got an hour of diving experience. I told him to pair up the two others, my son and the other woman, while I went and tried to buddy with this new diver. Amazingly, for the first time in my several hundred dives, I had a sinus squeeze, and simply couldn't descend at any speed. I saw my son descend the rope - alone - and watched him from above as he reached the bottom and was unable to find his dad who was hovering above. I was finally able to join him a few minutes later as I finished my very slow descent. And of course the boat left us in the middle of the ocean again.
This level of cluster**** should never be allowed to happen. I was pretty stunned by the whole arrangement, but did not wish to ruin anyone else's day having a fight about it. I guess I have been lucky all along to have dove with pretty good operators. Me, I'd avoid this shop at all cost from here on out, and I wonder with practices like this how they maintain a PADI 5 Star rating.
Mid October is slow season in Myrtle Beach, so in order to make a charter practical, I guess they have to get creative. On the morning of the 20th, I went on my first diving/fishing charter. 4 divers, 8 or 9 fishermen, really cold weather.
I thought nothing of this arrangement until just before we splashed when we had our dive briefing. An instructor/DM from the dive operator told us the boat would drop us in the water at the big marker ball moored to the wreck THEN LEAVE FOR A HALF HOUR TO TAKE THE FISHERMEN AWAY. This seemed very hinky to me, but I didn't want to get in an argument at that moment, and I was also freezing cold and wanted to get in the water (note to self, always the drysuit). So we dove, and the boat was there to collect us at the end of the dive, and of course everything was okay, but what if someone had a problem and the boat just wasn't there?
We readied for the second dive, and repeated the drill. One of the divers was brand new, the 53 foot dive we had just completed was her second dive after certification - she had been buddied up on the boat. For this second dive she splashed first, swam to the ball, and the instructor waiting at the ball sent her down -- alone. I splashed second and swam to the ball. By the time I got there, the woman had descended. I asked the instructor where she went, he told me. I reminded him that she was brand new, and what the hell was he thinking? 53 feet is not much, but it is when you've got an hour of diving experience. I told him to pair up the two others, my son and the other woman, while I went and tried to buddy with this new diver. Amazingly, for the first time in my several hundred dives, I had a sinus squeeze, and simply couldn't descend at any speed. I saw my son descend the rope - alone - and watched him from above as he reached the bottom and was unable to find his dad who was hovering above. I was finally able to join him a few minutes later as I finished my very slow descent. And of course the boat left us in the middle of the ocean again.
This level of cluster**** should never be allowed to happen. I was pretty stunned by the whole arrangement, but did not wish to ruin anyone else's day having a fight about it. I guess I have been lucky all along to have dove with pretty good operators. Me, I'd avoid this shop at all cost from here on out, and I wonder with practices like this how they maintain a PADI 5 Star rating.
