I really think we're missing far too much of this picture to do any root cause analysis at this stage. My questions are:
- what was the true diving situation? Buddy to the wife or just a dive guide to the couple? We don't have a clear indication yet as we're heard both cases from people close to the situation.
- what was the medical situation and was there anything disclosed?
- what did the DM do at depth to try and rescue and what did the DM observe from the diver?
- What was the dive plan/instructions to the diver? My experience so far in places such as Roatan where there are a number of wall dives is the guide/DM says follow him, stay near his depth or above, and at half a tank we'll turn around and head back to the boat at a shallower depth. He'll look back frequently but by no means is he watching the divers every second as part of the guide's role (I think) is to find interesting stuff for the divers to see.
An example: on one dive we were with a guide, parents who were both instructor certified and their two 18-20 year old kids. The kids were of course fairly new and at one point they ended up many feet below us (we were ~60 and I think they were in the 80s). The guide and both parents missed this initially but got their attention and had them come up and after the dive they got a talking to about following their dive plan and following the DM/guide. I bring this up because I think it's unfair to point all fingers at the DM right now without the complete story. As I've witnessed, it doesn't take long for someone to drift away - especially with novices and on wall dives with lots of interesting things to see.
It's been an interesting read through all of the comments and if these sorts of discussions help us become better, they are worth it. I'm curious to see the final story of this one is.
- what was the true diving situation? Buddy to the wife or just a dive guide to the couple? We don't have a clear indication yet as we're heard both cases from people close to the situation.
- what was the medical situation and was there anything disclosed?
- what did the DM do at depth to try and rescue and what did the DM observe from the diver?
- What was the dive plan/instructions to the diver? My experience so far in places such as Roatan where there are a number of wall dives is the guide/DM says follow him, stay near his depth or above, and at half a tank we'll turn around and head back to the boat at a shallower depth. He'll look back frequently but by no means is he watching the divers every second as part of the guide's role (I think) is to find interesting stuff for the divers to see.
An example: on one dive we were with a guide, parents who were both instructor certified and their two 18-20 year old kids. The kids were of course fairly new and at one point they ended up many feet below us (we were ~60 and I think they were in the 80s). The guide and both parents missed this initially but got their attention and had them come up and after the dive they got a talking to about following their dive plan and following the DM/guide. I bring this up because I think it's unfair to point all fingers at the DM right now without the complete story. As I've witnessed, it doesn't take long for someone to drift away - especially with novices and on wall dives with lots of interesting things to see.
It's been an interesting read through all of the comments and if these sorts of discussions help us become better, they are worth it. I'm curious to see the final story of this one is.