Aqua Safari
Registered
- Messages
- 54
- Reaction score
- 25
An incident investigation is not like a ball game to try score and win; It's more a riddle - a mystery to untangle. Personalities are involved - testosterone may be causing dammage. Anger has to abate. Guilt feelings resolved.
I felt desperate because people on the Scubaboard were saying that if Aqua Safari does not respond and entertain us right away, I'm obviously guilty by default.
From never having visited an internet forum before, I now feel a sense of community. The Forum is addictive; I'm going to have to wean myself in order to keep my eye on the ball; my clients / my staff.
I thank everybody that showed "Aqua Safari" the least patience, support, the emails to us, and fundamentally the benefit of the doubt prior to breaking fast on Monday with Tek and Morgan.. I was touched and am very grateful.
Grateful too that scubaboard informed me and invited a response.
I was horrified by Tek's damning post; I busted a gut Saturday, and climbing out of this hole is a depressing, very time consuming process.
To be accused of intentional homicide on the internet was wrong.
Posting in anger. Strike one.
While a lot of Forum posters fired from the hip, Jonathan fired in fury.
Anyone can make a mistake or overlook or not see something. Accidents do in fact happen.
Jonathan originally claimed that "a professional dive operator intentionally endangered my life and the life of all the divers in my group," and I have a problem with that.
That would bring ruin upon the Captain and the company. No captain of mine is out to kill a diver. I have a homicidal Captain? If Jonathan were to state that my captain is blind, did not see him, I would have his eyes checked; but to claim my Captain is homicidal, I simply and flatly have to deny - as I've known Ernesto for 28 years.
Jonathan, you were hot, angered, furious and exagerating; and your post is neither fair nor legal in Mexico. We don't have a first ammendment. Defamation is penal.
Strike one.
I was Horrified when Tek described the boat backing down. - that is so horrible that I keep looking for it in Tek's later descriptions of the incident and thank God it did not remain an issue.
Tek states: Swam out and back in on the bottom. This happened right where the bottom rises up steeply to the shallow water around the entrance. I think the nav channel is a little farther out than that. He wasn't transitioning the area anyway, he was coming in to drop divers.
Tek says: How could a Mexican National have done anything at all to make this situation safer? Dig a subway tunnel out to the reef? We were on the bottom with a 4' tall flag on the surface.
Tek also says: However, I still implore you to tell me how a local guide would have mitigated/minimized this occurrence? I'm just not understanding that."
Let me answer this, sweet Christi:
A good divemaster, of whatever nationality, would have heard the boat go from the reef to the shore and would not have been startled by it. A good master would have been listening to the boat all along, would have understood what was happening, keeping the buoy right above him, the line taut, in a vertical position and not pulling it along way behind him. He would have taken up the slack as he got to shallower water. A good divemaster would not have come up on the inland side of the Ocean 2, in 10 feet of water, and less likely to have done so with his buoy still on the starboard of the boat as was described at breakfast when I exclaimed I'm surprised we did not tangle or dammage the line, even.
A good divemaster, the one required by the park, would have stopped, let the boat drift away from where you needed to go, and then continued to shore without getting excited. A good master might have also decided to surface, since it was getting shallow, made sure Chivo was aware of the divers, and continued the last 20 yards or so on the surface. I do believe the boat got there first; thereby getting in your way, because you did not see Nemecio enter with his student in the shallows.
A good divemaster, regardles of nationality might well have been able to avoid all three incidents. A local divemaster would probably have gone or taken you further south away from Caleta.
I do believe a dangerous back down would have stayed in the subsequent descriptions.
A propeller backing down towards you is a nightmare image right up there with seeing jaws chomp down on you; be it a turtle, a morray or a shark. That would have stayed in the subsequent posts. Im relieved it did not ever get mentioned again.
We are calming down now.
In Post 54 Tek states: "1- Could be, except for the anchor part. Boat dives here are live-boat drifts, he killed the engine, dropped off the divers, then backed off a bit and followed their bubbles downstream.
3- He had no divers in the water yet."
Jonathan, we DID have divers in the water. We'd dropped 7 clients with 2 divemasters, plus Gabriel the instructor with 2 clients where you had been diving on the sand, on the inland side of the main reef. By the time you surfaced, wed also dropped Nemecio right there in the shallows with a student, and Ricardo of the big mouth was getting his 3 bunny students ready to enter the shallows. An experienced master with you would have indicated its ok, hes seen us, hell drop his divers and we can continue to our exit spot when he gets out of our way.
I dont think you beat the boat from the reef to the shallows, I suspect the boat pulled up to the shallows ahead of you and was in your way to get to your exit point.
After breaking bread for almost 3 hours Monday morning Tek kindly posted:
"Our conversation also brought back to my mind another thing about our dive that day: His boat was the THIRD to come near our flag....
one ran straight past it,
another drifted past it,
then his boat pulled up near it and stopped.
So it's not just AquaSafari that was too close to the flag, he's just the only one that resulted in further interaction and conflict. But, it's all good now."
Even after reading Tek's original scorchingly hot initial post, it struck me that there was no specific mention of imminent bodily risk in either of Tek's message. I'll buy them a new buoy; but trash me like this and not even describe imminent physical risk?
What is "too close" to a dive flag? Personal space is an interesting concept. At what point in a crowd do you start to feel uncomfortable. A North American's personal space I've read is twice that of a Latin American's, and if we consider the folks in India or China, we almost lose the concept. I often walk across the street to the dock in conversation with someone, and often find myself talking alone, because I'm comfortable walking in front of cars, I'm from Mexico City, but not everyone is. I've also done some bullfighting, and that's unimaginable to some.
It would be interesting to analyse stress and comfort space for divers in the water. Chivo's been picking divers up for 18 years driving a boat. One diver, if the boat slips by you to present the swim platform may say thank you, another diver might scream: are you trying to kill me? Comfort zone varies.
So according to Tek we have a boat that wasn't transitioning the area anyway, he was coming in to drop divers, and it was not just our boat that was too close to the flag. Simply the third one is the clincher.
This may be why Jonathan and Morgan posted after breakfast that the matter was resolved satisfactorily, and "it's all good now".
In 42 years Aqua Safari has not injured or killed anyone with the boats.
Oldest dive shop in Mexico: 1966.
If the wind starts howling, Mahache, the squalls that sink a half a dozen boats, I'm not worried about it on Chivo's boat; he'll have all the clients puking while they're out playing rescue. I've had to call them in. Knock it off, think about our clients. Get into port.
Tek acused that our only concern is our paying clients.
Well, they are our priority, but certainly not at the expense of human life. Tek did not recognize and therefore appreciate the situation of an instructor with three bunnies cannot get distracted.
Tek did not appreciate that an instructor in the water is not responsible for the boat. Tek's fury at being ingnored by a busy instructor made him approach Ricardo in the water. Ricardo asked the Captain to call the park, let their boat handle this, he tried to get rid of Tek by saying you don't even have an entrance bracelet. Hmmm, but let me say I would have probably been even more furious than Jonathan at the age of 18.
I would have been worse than Jonathan at the age of eighteen. I would have probably hit somebody, as unfair as that would have been to Ricardo.
Chivo and Ricardo had reported Friday at 1700 they'd had a spitting match and nobody's hurt.
Chivo was so upset his speech impediment was impenetrable. Ricardo made the report.
see part 2
I felt desperate because people on the Scubaboard were saying that if Aqua Safari does not respond and entertain us right away, I'm obviously guilty by default.
From never having visited an internet forum before, I now feel a sense of community. The Forum is addictive; I'm going to have to wean myself in order to keep my eye on the ball; my clients / my staff.
I thank everybody that showed "Aqua Safari" the least patience, support, the emails to us, and fundamentally the benefit of the doubt prior to breaking fast on Monday with Tek and Morgan.. I was touched and am very grateful.
Grateful too that scubaboard informed me and invited a response.
I was horrified by Tek's damning post; I busted a gut Saturday, and climbing out of this hole is a depressing, very time consuming process.
To be accused of intentional homicide on the internet was wrong.
Posting in anger. Strike one.
While a lot of Forum posters fired from the hip, Jonathan fired in fury.
Anyone can make a mistake or overlook or not see something. Accidents do in fact happen.
Jonathan originally claimed that "a professional dive operator intentionally endangered my life and the life of all the divers in my group," and I have a problem with that.
That would bring ruin upon the Captain and the company. No captain of mine is out to kill a diver. I have a homicidal Captain? If Jonathan were to state that my captain is blind, did not see him, I would have his eyes checked; but to claim my Captain is homicidal, I simply and flatly have to deny - as I've known Ernesto for 28 years.
Jonathan, you were hot, angered, furious and exagerating; and your post is neither fair nor legal in Mexico. We don't have a first ammendment. Defamation is penal.
Strike one.
I was Horrified when Tek described the boat backing down. - that is so horrible that I keep looking for it in Tek's later descriptions of the incident and thank God it did not remain an issue.
Tek states: Swam out and back in on the bottom. This happened right where the bottom rises up steeply to the shallow water around the entrance. I think the nav channel is a little farther out than that. He wasn't transitioning the area anyway, he was coming in to drop divers.
Tek says: How could a Mexican National have done anything at all to make this situation safer? Dig a subway tunnel out to the reef? We were on the bottom with a 4' tall flag on the surface.
Tek also says: However, I still implore you to tell me how a local guide would have mitigated/minimized this occurrence? I'm just not understanding that."
Let me answer this, sweet Christi:
A good divemaster, of whatever nationality, would have heard the boat go from the reef to the shore and would not have been startled by it. A good master would have been listening to the boat all along, would have understood what was happening, keeping the buoy right above him, the line taut, in a vertical position and not pulling it along way behind him. He would have taken up the slack as he got to shallower water. A good divemaster would not have come up on the inland side of the Ocean 2, in 10 feet of water, and less likely to have done so with his buoy still on the starboard of the boat as was described at breakfast when I exclaimed I'm surprised we did not tangle or dammage the line, even.
A good divemaster, the one required by the park, would have stopped, let the boat drift away from where you needed to go, and then continued to shore without getting excited. A good master might have also decided to surface, since it was getting shallow, made sure Chivo was aware of the divers, and continued the last 20 yards or so on the surface. I do believe the boat got there first; thereby getting in your way, because you did not see Nemecio enter with his student in the shallows.
A good divemaster, regardles of nationality might well have been able to avoid all three incidents. A local divemaster would probably have gone or taken you further south away from Caleta.
I do believe a dangerous back down would have stayed in the subsequent descriptions.
A propeller backing down towards you is a nightmare image right up there with seeing jaws chomp down on you; be it a turtle, a morray or a shark. That would have stayed in the subsequent posts. Im relieved it did not ever get mentioned again.
We are calming down now.
In Post 54 Tek states: "1- Could be, except for the anchor part. Boat dives here are live-boat drifts, he killed the engine, dropped off the divers, then backed off a bit and followed their bubbles downstream.
3- He had no divers in the water yet."
Jonathan, we DID have divers in the water. We'd dropped 7 clients with 2 divemasters, plus Gabriel the instructor with 2 clients where you had been diving on the sand, on the inland side of the main reef. By the time you surfaced, wed also dropped Nemecio right there in the shallows with a student, and Ricardo of the big mouth was getting his 3 bunny students ready to enter the shallows. An experienced master with you would have indicated its ok, hes seen us, hell drop his divers and we can continue to our exit spot when he gets out of our way.
I dont think you beat the boat from the reef to the shallows, I suspect the boat pulled up to the shallows ahead of you and was in your way to get to your exit point.
After breaking bread for almost 3 hours Monday morning Tek kindly posted:
"Our conversation also brought back to my mind another thing about our dive that day: His boat was the THIRD to come near our flag....
one ran straight past it,
another drifted past it,
then his boat pulled up near it and stopped.
So it's not just AquaSafari that was too close to the flag, he's just the only one that resulted in further interaction and conflict. But, it's all good now."
Even after reading Tek's original scorchingly hot initial post, it struck me that there was no specific mention of imminent bodily risk in either of Tek's message. I'll buy them a new buoy; but trash me like this and not even describe imminent physical risk?
What is "too close" to a dive flag? Personal space is an interesting concept. At what point in a crowd do you start to feel uncomfortable. A North American's personal space I've read is twice that of a Latin American's, and if we consider the folks in India or China, we almost lose the concept. I often walk across the street to the dock in conversation with someone, and often find myself talking alone, because I'm comfortable walking in front of cars, I'm from Mexico City, but not everyone is. I've also done some bullfighting, and that's unimaginable to some.
It would be interesting to analyse stress and comfort space for divers in the water. Chivo's been picking divers up for 18 years driving a boat. One diver, if the boat slips by you to present the swim platform may say thank you, another diver might scream: are you trying to kill me? Comfort zone varies.
So according to Tek we have a boat that wasn't transitioning the area anyway, he was coming in to drop divers, and it was not just our boat that was too close to the flag. Simply the third one is the clincher.
This may be why Jonathan and Morgan posted after breakfast that the matter was resolved satisfactorily, and "it's all good now".
In 42 years Aqua Safari has not injured or killed anyone with the boats.
Oldest dive shop in Mexico: 1966.
If the wind starts howling, Mahache, the squalls that sink a half a dozen boats, I'm not worried about it on Chivo's boat; he'll have all the clients puking while they're out playing rescue. I've had to call them in. Knock it off, think about our clients. Get into port.
Tek acused that our only concern is our paying clients.
Well, they are our priority, but certainly not at the expense of human life. Tek did not recognize and therefore appreciate the situation of an instructor with three bunnies cannot get distracted.
Tek did not appreciate that an instructor in the water is not responsible for the boat. Tek's fury at being ingnored by a busy instructor made him approach Ricardo in the water. Ricardo asked the Captain to call the park, let their boat handle this, he tried to get rid of Tek by saying you don't even have an entrance bracelet. Hmmm, but let me say I would have probably been even more furious than Jonathan at the age of 18.
I would have been worse than Jonathan at the age of eighteen. I would have probably hit somebody, as unfair as that would have been to Ricardo.
Chivo and Ricardo had reported Friday at 1700 they'd had a spitting match and nobody's hurt.
Chivo was so upset his speech impediment was impenetrable. Ricardo made the report.
see part 2
