Are these activities safe?

[fisherdvm]

I mean - helmet dive, snooba, and recreational use of spare air device?

I've read about snooba's running out of air, etc..

Of the folks who have experienced these underwater devices, how was their preparation prior to the experience?? And of the folks who taught people to use these devices, how much preparation do you provide??

Do they teach you about barotrauma, pulmonary embolism, ear squeezes, anxiety management, and emergency ascent with compressed air in your lung?? As I understand, even a 5 ft rapid ascent can cause serious lung barotrauma.

 

[stangd1909]

I took my wife on a snuba trip when we went to Cozumel. I hated it....They had 4 people to a group and 5 groups total. Everybodys lines kept getting tangled and everybodys tubes also were getting tangled. My wife hated and now I can't get here to try scuba. She had such a bad time that it really screwed her up. I tell her all the time that scuba is 100% different than snuba....but she doen't want to here it LOL As with running out of air I could see it...they had 2 people per air tank????

 

[H2Andy]

unless you've been trained so that you know what to do ON YOUR OWN, without having to depend on someone else to keep you safe

...

then you are doing "trust me" dives

and those are as safe as the person you are trusting on

just be aware you are putting your safety in someone else's hands

 

[Scram Bulleggs]

Went on a snuba course in Cozumel some years back. Was just my girlfriend myself and a DM. Got me to look into getting certified. Was a great experience. We were givin a very short course on it but I think most of it went over our heads. We went 20 feet.

 

[lazyturtle]

Personally I don't think of them as that safe....
heres a story of a place I worked in the Bahamas: The divemasters (english speaking) took Japanese tourists on the helmet dive. The helmet consisted of a full facemask with a long hose, the tank being stored on the boat and no gauge being underwater. The tourists were give HEAVY weightbelts and allowed to walk on the sandy bottom (oooh exciting!). In a way of briefing they were handed a page, written in Japanese with no explination (unless they happened to speak English). After seeing this trip ONCE, I refused to have anything to do with it. I'd say that situation was slightly more unsafe than the average snooba/helmet, but not by a whole lot. I see an operation in Hawaii that has these little snooba scooter things do the CRAZIEST things.
Sheer luck and coincidence keep most people alive and unharmed.

 

[Gary D.]

I mean - helmet dive, snooba, and recreational use of spare air device?

I've read about snooba's running out of air, etc..

Of the folks who have experienced these underwater devices, how was their preparation prior to the experience?? And of the folks who taught people to use these devices, how much preparation do you provide??

Do they teach you about barotrauma, pulmonary embolism, ear squeezes, anxiety management, and emergency ascent with compressed air in your lung?? As I understand, even a 5 ft rapid ascent can cause serious lung barotrauma.

Only as safe as who ever is doing it makes it.

What are you refering to for a helmet dive?

Gary D.

 

[Tortuga James]

When my wife and I got certified a few years back, my sister in law said; what's the big deal with all the classes and poolwork, we learned how to dive in Mexico in 30 minutes and then went scuba diving.

It made me realize how much those programs minimze what you need to know, and gloss over the inherent risk associated with diving. She was dead serious, she thought it was "no big deal".

 

[RonFrank]

I mean - helmet dive, snooba, and recreational use of spare air device?

Do they teach you about barotrauma, pulmonary embolism, ear squeezes, anxiety management, and emergency ascent with compressed air in your lung?? As I understand, even a 5 ft rapid ascent can cause serious lung barotrauma.

How much teaching exactly can they do in the 20~30 minute time frame they allot for training! One woman at work did the whole Snooba thing, and she said she had breathed the tank down to nothing before she surfaced. The Captain got all upset and in the face of the DM (if that is what he was) because apparently they owned the tanks, and he felt that the tank would now need cleaning to prevent (I assume) Alum Oxidation.

I asked her what they taught prior to doing the dive, and she said she really did not remember. That was from last summer, so obviously it did not leave much of an impression on her. She did say she had fun.

 

[Teamcasa]

My lovely bride did the snooba thing in Hawaii - She LOVED it and now she's fully OW certified.
Safe? The diver she had working with her was top notch and really made the whole experience great.

Dave

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Once I was doing a shore dive on my own while on a cruise. My buddy and I ran into some divers who seemed to be quite friendly, waving at us alot and all. I thought they were teaching a scuba class, and we were swimming by and they wanted to point us out to all the class or something. After a minute or two, I ralized the "class" was a bunch of pepole with huge helmets on walking around underwater, and the friendly divers were the DM's or whatnot trying to tell us to stay away. Kind of annoying actually, they were a bit rude. Did they think we were going to use our dive knives to cut the air hoses or something??