Blue Hole: Not for beginners!

[robint]

Peter I totally agree with you, many DMs and Instructors do not have a variety of diving experiences. I always assume that a DM is confident in their own diving skills though.

I don't know if I agree with raising the requirements that much though - my husband went straight from OW-AOW-Rescue-DM in one year and was after that year one of the best divers I have ever seen in the water. He did, however, have some variety of diving experiences as we dive here locally in 62 degree water, wetsuit or drysuit, in summer and winter when it is snowing! Very little of our diving experience the first couple of years was in warm water (in fact, last year was the first year that we have had more ocean dives than fresh water dives!). That is true of most of our DMs and Instructors here. Diving in as low as 10' vis in lakes, quarries, and fresh water springs in heavy gear and working with students in those conditions on a regular basis is great training for ocean diving. Most DMs and Instructors in the USA don't have the luxury of doing all their dives in warm ocean water. We have to dive where we live.

So the point I was trying to make to the OP is that as a DM you should not have a problem with diving to +130' with no bottom - you should have had enough experience and confidence in your skills that this wouldn't be a dramatic jump, or to consider the dive unsafe. If not, then they really don't belong doing the Blue Hole dive.

Did that make any sense?

robin

 

[Doc]

that as a DM you should not have a problem with diving to +130' with no bottom - you should have had enough experience and confidence in your skills that this wouldn't be a dramatic jump, or to consider the dive unsafe. If not, then they really don't belong doing the Blue Hole dive. Did that make any sense?

Does to me. Unfortunate thing about learning that you shouldn't be doing the
Blue Hole is that the out of bounds area has no white stripe and the penalty box is exceptionally long term.

Hey- is that Bahamas dive called the Submarine Buoy still on the I gotta/haveta must do this list? Same deal there~ off of Deer island in mile deep water from what I recall.

 

[robint]

Hey- is that Bahamas dive called the Submarine Buoy still on the I gotta/haveta must do this list? Same deal there~ off of Deer island in mile deep water from what I recall.

never heard of it....... so I would say no.

 

[peterbj7]

Robin - what you say does make sense, though maybe I have a slightly different perspective. I just see down here many people who really shouldn't have been certified yet to the level they hold. I did my own DM in England as a 12 month internship with most of the diving being British cold water with a few warm water dives (Red Sea) interspersed. I had 700 dives before I started that internship. I went on to instructor quite soon afterwards, though there was still a gap of maybe 6 months. I think I had around 1100 dives before I became an instructor, and by that time I was also a technical diver. I felt that by that time I was ready.

It isn't necessarily warm water divers who have limited experience. I remember talking to one PADI instructor whose entire diving career had been in a flooded quarry in England called Stoney Cove. Not one dive outside it, no sea dives, no boat dives. IMO she should not have been certified as an instructor, no matter how good she may have been in that environment.

I met another instructor (also female, though I promise you I'm not getting at women!) working as deckhand/general dogsbody on a dive boat out of southern England, whose entire diving career had been in that area. Nothing like as bad as all dives having been in a lake, but still hardly what you'd call well-rounded experience.

I suppose there are two things I look for in an instructor - first that (s)he is experienced as a diver to at least a couple of levels above what (s)he is trying to teach (I'm thinking here of technical diving experience for a recreational instructor), and second that (s)he has comprehensive and well-rounded diving experience going well beyond the likely experience of most people (s)he comes across. The instructor should be able to impress with knowledge and experience, not with bull****.

When I was taking my CCR instructor course some years ago I was given a topic from SCR to present in a classroom setting, and I stumbled because I had minimal knowledge of SCR. My instructor refused to certify me as a CCR instructor until I was certified as an SCR diver and had 20 or 30 SCR dives. Not that he felt particularly strongly about SCR - he actually hated the things himself - but because he saw it as a glaring gap in my knowledge and experience. And he was right. Mind you, I didn't thank him when I had my first and to date only caustic cocktail from one of those SCRs.

Diverrex - yes, I do mean that the maximum increase in depth when learning deep diving should be about 30ft. That's not the minimum, and sometimes a smaller increment would be more appropriate. Clearly the increment as a proportion of a diver's maximum previous depth needs to be borne in mind. But taking someone directly from 100' to 150' is wrong and irresponsible.

As an aside, PADI and most dive agencies don't stipulate an actual depth for a particular training dive, but a range of depths. IMO at least one dive in a course should be to the maximum depth that certification is good for. It's possible to do an OW course with all four dives shallower than 30' - it's commonly done here in San Pedro whenever the seas are too rough to take a boat outside the reef - but IMO that really short-changes the student. Similarly the "deep dive" in an AOW course can be to 61' instead of the 100' permitted, and in a Deep speciality which ostensibly certifies the diver to 130' no dives need be deeper than 100'. That makes a mockery of the certification, as so much is happening at 130' that simply isn't at 100'.

 

[Rhone Man]

I think the experience thing cuts two ways. I know plenty of dive instructors who have dived their entire lives in the Caribbean, and there is nothing wrong with that if that is all you ever plan to do. But if they decide to go and teach in Scotland or New England, they have to recognise that they will be a fish out of water.

Last week I did my first cold water dive (in Seattle) after 700 odd dives in the Caribbean and I warned my DM to regard me as a newbie, because full wetsuits, cold water and low viz were all new to me.

 

[georoc01]

I guess when I look for a divemaster, I am looking for someone with local knowledge. Whether it was diving Lake Tahoe or the Town Pier in Bonaire, its their knowledge of the dive site and the conditions that I am expecting them to assist me with as an experienced diver.

Instructors I agree should be well rounded enough that they can speak from experience on the topics they are teaching.

Back to the original topic, I am expecting a DM in diving the Blue Hole to have good knowledge of the dive site, be able to do a briefing and spend enough time explain to bring the divers on the site to come up to speed on what to expect. Then its up to each individual diver to judge whether they have the ability to handle the dive or not.

 

[rowlettmom]

I just got back from Belize and went to the Blue Hole with Amigos Del Mar. Diving that deep was a little bit scary for me. Anyhow, the DMs were great and kept a close eye on us all the whole time. It was the first time I experienced a narcosis feeling, but I recognized it and handled it OK. What I felt was sort of an outside looking in feeling, was making sure I kept a close eye on my buddy (who is rescue certified). I'm not very experienced and can see your point about some divers not being ready for it. However, the DMs made sure we all took it very seriously. Again, Amigos Del Mar...they were great. We went with them several times during our trip. I'll go back.

Half Moon Caye Wall was my favorite dive EVER.

 

[peterbj7]

Half Moon Caye Wall was my favorite dive EVER.

Regarded by many as the best dive in Belize.

 

[rowlettmom]

How awesome is it to be a dive shop owner? My dream job.

 

[peterbj7]

How awesome is it to be a dive shop owner? My dream job.

ROTFLMAF!!!!!