Bad Lesson

[violamama]

I am that "inexperienced diver" and your lesson for me, that I remember to be self-reliant, is frustrating at best. Of course I will do my best to do that magically until I have more experience. That's why I am here on SB, among other things. However, a DRUNK and irresponsible person acting in a leadership position in a potentially dangerous sport seems... like a joke. Why on earth would you NOT post a name, a location, a CONTINENT at least? Could you not at least give the story to a moderator if you're worried you'll be set upon by mad villagers?

Anyway... uh... thanks? I'll imagine that despite my near-obsessive research heavily underwritten by review and forum postings everywhere, there is the possibility that a DM may be a drunk lunatic protected by a crappy shop in a scary village and keep my eyes peeled for that... in addition to all the other little things on my pre-dive checklist. I'm going to need a bigger binder.

And no, I'm not ignorant to the fact that there is less regulation and governance in other parts of the world (again, that's why it's helpful to have information from people with experience, like, hey! Like you!). But with such "helpful" experienced divers, I guess I'll just have to wait until I arrive to determine whether I've found a decent operation.

 

[Freewillow]

Under French diving standards, you have one drink, beer, wine or anything and you do not dive on that day. Period.

 

[jongles]

I'd take the Learning to thumb a dive card over the AOW card anyday.

 

[Rich Keller]

I would agree that self reliance is the key point to take away from this and the other is to speak up when you believe things are going wrong or just walk away from the dive altogether. Trust your instincts, if you are right it may save your life, if you are wrong you just miss one dive, either way you go home alive that day. The minute I step onto a dive boat I am sizing up the crew(including the captain), how the topside diving operations are set up and the overall condition of the vessel itself. I would disagree with not naming the shop in this instance though. You seem to have made every effort to resolve this privately and were ignored so this problem goes beyond the instructor to the shop itself. I have only mentioned one shop by name and that was only after exhausting all other channels to resolve the problem. I did not in that instance start a thread about the shop, I have never seen a thread like that look like anything other then sour grapes and a chance to get even for some minor problem or perceived slight. But I did comment on them to a few people looking for references about that shop and will continue to do so when ever I see that question raised.

 

[victorzamora]

I'd take the "Learning to thumb a dive" card over the AOW card anyday.

Learning to Thumb a Dive (or LeTAD, as it shall henceforth be known) might be the most useful specialty after well-taught PPB and Nitrox courses.

 

[comcomtech]

Hi Adventure-Ocean,

It's incredible how many years of experience I had without learning many of the lessons this trip taught me. Like many occasional divers who rent gear I've been coddled by DMs who rig everything up and send me on my way into the deep blue. I've always appreciate the 5-star service, but, my self-reliance and knowledge suffered.

Here are a few of my responses to this situation:

1. I've ordered gear for myself and all the diving members of my family, so we can be invested in our equipment, understand it thoroughly, feel comfortable with it underwater and be attuned to its performance and immediately sense any deficiencies.
2. I've reviewed the dive tables and prepared myself and my daughter for the EANx exam. With equipment on the way and new a new dive expedition slated, the course is not an obligation, it is an adventure. We're having fun.
3. We intend to plan our dives in detail, not just be there as observers.

I'm sure some of you are saying, who is this yahoo who's been diving half his life without doing this stuff? I'm also sure I'm not alone. There are many of us who need a wake up call and fortunately, that's what a drunk instructor gave me. So I'm grateful to her.

---------- Post added March 6th, 2014 at 03:52 PM ----------

There are several reasons why I did not name the dive shop, but the primary one is the chance of facing criminal defamation charges. A review of the literature shows other people have been jailed in this regime for making critical comments in private settings.

---------- Post added March 6th, 2014 at 04:03 PM ----------

Hi Violamama,

As I said before, the very real chance of facing criminal defamation charges is the main reason I have not posted the name or the location of the dive shop. The instructor's status will be or has been objectively reviewed by PADI. She has a long and solid dive career behind her and as I said above, we all have bad days. I am not worried about my personal safety in this village setting--a village I have known half my life. People are good there and the instructor was ranting. But I have no interest in undermining its scuba industry. Tens of thousands of people (or more) dive there each year, almost all in great safety and I do not want one bad experience steer them elsewhere. Bad experiences can happen anywhere and my story is about being prepared for that.

Having said that, I doubt I will be visiting or diving from that village again. Its days as a great or even good dive spot are past. I have dived most of the well-known sites within about 100 km of this village and the coral is dead, the visibility is poor and most of the astounding sea life that was there is gone or hard to find. I returned for sentimental reasons, but that doesn't always make for great diving.

On a different note, my best diving recently was in Aqaba (40 m or better visibility) and Dahab (30 m+). The coral is abundant, intact and in Dahab, easily accessible in 2 m of water just by plopping into the water from the restaurant boats lining the board walk. Dahab is a very cheap place to stay and dive as well, with equipment and diving running about half or less of what it does in the Caribbean and outstanding hotels/apartments very cheap. Much of Dahab is abandoned away from the beach and it is hard to find an ATM that works. But people are great!

We also did the dolphin dive in Eilat, which is expensive, the viz is poor and your allowed time is limited. You also can't bring a camera (cause you might "upset" the dolphins). But I'm glad we did it (and have the video to prove it!).

I think I'm off topic here, so I'll stop.

 

[violamama]

Bad experiences can happen anywhere and my story is about being prepared for that.

Prepared= good is something we definitely agree on. Thanks for the reply, and I'll keep looking for reviews before I go anywhere to see if I can tease out any endemic problems. I hope you're right that this was a bad day.
Happy diving.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Just an FYI if you want to know a bunch of the stuff that you should have gotten in your OW class there are several good books out there that don't pull punches and are not published by any of the agencies. If you want a list just shoot me a PM.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Thanks for sharing and I for one think there are a lot of lessons to be learned here without naming names. I think you handled the situation (and the responses in this thread) with class. There are some who are "old hat" at this stuff and won't learn from your story. I agree there are a lot of people who have dived for years without learning the lessons you did from that instructor. I am glad you now recognize the value of having your own gear and being self sufficient.

IMHO the most valuable lesson a diver needs to learn is "When to call a dive". At some point you learned that lesson well so you got your wakeup call and lived to learn and help others learn. Thanks!

 

[bada3003]

It seems to me the OP made the right decisions when the instructor seemed drunk/exhibited erratic behavior before the second dive.

I do agree that the post does not have much point. Then again, maybe the guy who posted the "Now I understand" incident can learn to take charge when instructors don't appear up to par. Although that would fall under common sense and is not specific to scuba diving.

Thanks for the story, I guess the lesson you want everyone to learn from this is not to dive with a drunk divemaster. Other than that I don't see any lessons to be learned or any point to your post. If you want divers to be protected from situations like this the way to do so is to let divers know the name of the dive operation. You don't want to do that, so basically this thread is a waste of time. But I learned not to dive with a drunk divemaster. Well, I guess I knew that already so I guess I learned nothing. I fail to understand the logic of posting such a long description of your event and leave everyone blind to information that would help them make choices. You take the time to report it to PADI and obviously you feel PADI will do nothing, but the rest of us slap ourselves on the forehead in disbelief because the most good that would come of any of this would be actually informing the scuba community of who to watch out for.