Boat Crew Setting Up Gear?

[TheRedHead]

I did do something stupid and in a way I'm glad it happened because I have learned a valuable lesson in questioning the instructions of a DM. We were on a dive boat at Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan, docked at the pier. I was in the middle of setting up my gear and the DM announced that we would have to do weight checks before leaving the pier. I didn't need to do one as I had dived the day before, but she insisted. I reach for my fins and she told me that I didn't need fins. She said the water was 5 feet deep and I was just to step off the pier with my BC deflated. I really had a bad feeling about this, but my dive buddy was already making his way to the end of the pier. He was smart enough to at least not deflate his BC.

I giant stride off the pier (about a 3 foot drop) into water about 7 feet or maybe deeper. My mask pops off (I catch it); I sink like a stone, my feet hit the bottom and I feel a pain in my ankle, I have no fins on - and worst of all, I can't find my BC inflator hose. I had not completed my gear set up routine and had not secured it to my BC. It was wedged under the tank valve behind me. I couldn't see squat as the even when I got my mask on as the viz was zero.

Meanwhile, my buddy was freaking out as I had not surfaced. He dives down and frantically points to his BC inflator hose telling me to inflate mine. I could only shrug and give him the something is wrong signal. He finally figures it out and finds the hose for me so I can surface.

I was so upset and worried about my ankle possibly being sprained that I just sat out the first dive. It just didn't feel right. I did dive the second dive. But I will never, EVER, jump into water without my fins again and I will always trust my instincts and not do something that doesn't seem right to me just because a DM asks me to do it.

I'm sort of ashamed to admit this happened to me and it just goes to show how easy it is to become pressured in a group situation to do something you know is the wrong thing.

 

[Charlie99]

It made me feel a bit uncomfortable as I have always assembled my own gear. Couldn't do the normal buddy check had to spend several minutes going over my gear before I could descend.

If you don't want the boat crew to setup your gear, just tell them.

Even if you do indeed need to spend several minutes to both check your gear and to do your buddy check, DO IT!

OTOH, as you get more experience, you will no longer require "several minutes" going over your gear to ensure that it is setup correctly.

 

[chepar]

I giant stride off the pier (about a 3 foot drop) into water about 7 feet or maybe deeper. My mask pops off (I catch it); I sink like a stone, my feet hit the bottom and I feel a pain in my ankle, I have no fins on - and worst of all, I can't find my BC inflator hose. I had not completed my gear set up routine and had not secured it to my BC. It was wedged under the tank valve behind me. I couldn't see squat as the even when I got my mask on as the viz was zero.

I'm not sure that if you were wearing fins it would have made much of a difference. Perhaps you would not have shot to the bottom as quickly - but I think you would have still hit the bottom. Although, granted, had you been wearing fins and started kicking up as soon as you hit the water it might have averted the injury to your ankle.

7 feet is not very deep at all (if your estimation of the depth is accurate), especially striding off from the pier 3 feet above. Sounds like a dangerous practice to me.

Only do things within your comfort zone - even if it means calling the dive. If you're a new diver, it may be just a matter of raising your experience to a point where you do feel comfortable. Or, as with the situation you mentioned, it's just a bad plan from the get go and it shouldn't be done by anyone.

Don't let anyone rush you. If you know it takes you a few more minutes to check everything, start getting ready a little bit earlier. As you gain more experience, the time it takes to do your checks will become less.

As to the DMs setting up your gear - it is a common practice in warm water tourist destinations. Most operators are more than happy to let you set up your own gear if you request it.

 

[TheRedHead]

OTOH, as you get more experience, you will no longer require "several minutes" going over your gear to ensure that it is setup correctly.

Well I have almost a ritual I go through in an exact order. I even check the tank for a hydrostatic inspection as well as looking at the o-ring, sniff the air. I have to breathe twice through my octopus and then make sure it is secured correctly. Check my weight releases, etc. My console has to be slipped under the elastic waist strap on top of my cumberbund in just the right place. Then I like to meditate a minute and compose myself and visualize the dive. It's probably overkill, and perhaps neurotic, but I feel confident and secure about my gear in the water. And when you're about to make the deepest dive of your diving career, I wanted to be sure everything was ok.

The way the boat was set up, it would have been hard to make that request. All the tanks were set up forward. There were two stations on the side of the boat where the divers sat to be dressed and dropped into the water. We weren't even allowed into the area until we were called to be dressed and dropped. It was sort of a cattle boat with about 20 divers in 2 groups.

 

[RonFrank]

This trip was a real eye-opener for me. The majority of the folks diving from the cruise were sheep - they did what they were told without question. No one seemed to follow safe diving procedures and I didn't notice any buddy checks except by married couples. There was one woman who hadn't dived since she was cerified on another cruise in St. Thomas a year ago. She was scared to death and had no buddy and we dived a wall to 80 feet. She latched on to me and my buddy and pushed and battered us trying to control her buoyancy on the first dive.

Almost everything I read on this board about unsafe divers happened on one of the six dives of this cruise.

The instructors and DM's I've dove with (I'm a newbie) were all very good. They ALL insisted that EVERY diver setup their own stuff.

IMO what they teach in OW is the RIGHT way to go about it. Assemble you OWN gear, discuss the diveplan with your buddy, do a gear check, identify weight releases and alternate air with your buddy, plan the dive, dive the plan... it ALL IMO maybe cliche, but IMPORTANT.

I have yet to do any boat diving, but one of my fears as a *single* diver (married, but buddyless) ity_part is that I will end up paired with a SHEEP!!!

I'm considering doing AOW or Nitrox in FL JUST to have a DM nearby, but I'm really not sure that is necessary. I want to do both in any event, but would like to have some more experience diving before doing AOW.

Maybe once we firm up trip plans, I'll try and find someone here on the board that wants to dive with me if possible.

Ron

 

[RonFrank]

The BC should be inflated before a GStride, yes? PreDive check should have been done, no? It's certainly easy enough to release the air to check weight once safely floating at the surface. You DM was rather lax.

Once you found yourself at the bottom, you should have orally inflated your BC.

The DM ignored the rules, rushed you into a situation you were not comfortable with, and IMO put her priorities above the safety of the diver. That is NOT good service, or wise.

I have NOT been in your situation, but I hope that I would tell the DM that I'm not comfortable without my fins, and that I will deflate the BC AFTER I am in the water. You would have immediatly noticed your LP hose was not connected had you tried to inflate the BC prior to getting in the water.

Sorry that you missed the dive, but you learned something valuable. Many put in your situation would do as you did. It's hard to stand your ground in an unfamiliar situation with an authority figure giving you instructions.

Good thing you had air.

Ron

I did do something stupid and in a way I'm glad it happened because I have learned a valuable lesson in questioning the instructions of a DM. We were on a dive boat at Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan, docked at the pier. I was in the middle of setting up my gear and the DM announced that we would have to do weight checks before leaving the pier. I didn't need to do one as I had dived the day before, but she insisted. I reach for my fins and she told me that I didn't need fins. She said the water was 5 feet deep and I was just to step off the pier with my BC deflated. I really had a bad feeling about this, but my dive buddy was already making his way to the end of the pier. He was smart enough to at least not deflate his BC.

I giant stride off the pier (about a 3 foot drop) into water about 7 feet or maybe deeper. My mask pops off (I catch it); I sink like a stone, my feet hit the bottom and I feel a pain in my ankle, I have no fins on - and worst of all, I can't find my BC inflator hose. I had not completed my gear set up routine and had not secured it to my BC. It was wedged under the tank valve behind me. I couldn't see squat as the even when I got my mask on as the viz was zero.

Meanwhile, my buddy was freaking out as I had not surfaced. He dives down and frantically points to his BC inflator hose telling me to inflate mine. I could only shrug and give him the something is wrong signal. He finally figures it out and finds the hose for me so I can surface.

I was so upset and worried about my ankle possibly being sprained that I just sat out the first dive. It just didn't feel right. I did dive the second dive. But I will never, EVER, jump into water without my fins again and I will always trust my instincts and not do something that doesn't seem right to me just because a DM asks me to do it.

I'm sort of ashamed to admit this happened to me and it just goes to show how easy it is to become pressured in a group situation to do something you know is the wrong thing.

 

[TheRedHead]

I'm not sure that if you were wearing fins it would have made much of a difference. Perhaps you would not have shot to the bottom as quickly - but I think you would have still hit the bottom. Although, granted, had you been wearing fins and started kicking up as soon as you hit the water it might have averted the injury to your ankle.

7 feet is not very deep at all (if your estimation of the depth is accurate), especially striding off from the pier 3 feet above. Sounds like a dangerous practice to me.

I think it was dangerous as I could have broken my ankle. That would have been a real drag in a place like Coxen Hole, Roatan. They were in a rush to get us out and back. They didn't want to get in the water with anyone underweighted and have to go back for more weight (something that happened in Cozumel with a different shop).

I'm a new diver and that's why I posted to this forum. I have 24 dives now and most of them have been in the same fresh water quarry.

Diving with a cruise ship is a bad idea for a couple of reasons. It fosters the herd mentality because you do everything the same way together as a group when you go on an excursion. You wait together, disembark together, get on the same bus together, etc. Secondly, the people you are diving with are for the most part occasional divers. Some of them are in bad shape, hung over, and a few were so obese they couldn't get up the ladder with their gear on. The dive shops obviously realize this and treat you like a herd of cattle as well.

It was a relatively cheap way to dive 3 dream dive spots. $650 from Houston with all your meals included. Diving was extra, of course. The downside is you are crammed in a small space with 1700 strange people in full party mode, eating and drinking 16 hours a day.

I caught the worst cold I've ever had on that cruise so now I have the time to post all these messages instead of being busy at work. hillekke

 

[TheRedHead]

The BC should be inflated before a GStride, yes? PreDive check should have been done, no? It's certainly easy enough to release the air to check weight once safely floating at the surface. You DM was rather lax.

Once you found yourself at the bottom, you should have orally inflated your BC.

Ron

Ron, my BC low pressure hose was connected. It was the inflator hose itself (the corrugated hose with the buttons) that was stuck behind my head. I usually secure it through a velcro strap on my shoulder. You are right, everything you say should have been done. I got caught up in the excitement of it all and ignored my training.

You wake up in the morning and you're in Roatan after being in Cozumel when you went to bed, and you think, yippee! You grab something to eat and rush down to the lounge where we are waiting for our excursions to be called. You wait and wait and you're finally called: down the stairs you go with your group, swipe your card at security and out on the pier you're greeted by native dancers whooping it up. We're all excited and in a very strange place. We're loaded onto a school bus and driven through Coxen Hole in a mass of third world vehicles and strange surroundings. We've never seen anything like it. We get to the dive shop and on the boat. We've don't know each other or the dive shop; most of us have never been in such an exotic place as Roatan (you would have to go there to know what I mean). It's a huge rush and you're about the make the dive of your short diving career.

I'm an extremely careful person, a very conservative diver. I got caught up in it and didn't listen to my common sense. I did exactly what the DM told me to do, instead of relying on my training. That's why I posted this - so other new divers can hopefully learn from my mistake.

Frankly, I'm surprised that no one was seriously injured or died on this trip.

 

[ShakaZulu]

This trip was a real eye-opener for me. The majority of the folks diving from the cruise were sheep - they did what they were told without question. No one seemed to follow safe diving procedures and I didn't notice any buddy checks except by married couples. There was one woman who hadn't dived since she was cerified on another cruise in St. Thomas a year ago. She was scared to death and had no buddy and we dived a wall to 80 feet. She latched on to me and my buddy and pushed and battered us trying to control her buoyancy on the first dive.

Almost everything I read on this board about unsafe divers happened on one of the six dives of this cruise.

This is exactly why they do it..........we are not like those divers.

 

[TheRedHead]

The instructors and DM's I've dove with (I'm a newbie) were all very good. They ALL insisted that EVERY diver setup their own stuff.

IMO what they teach in OW is the RIGHT way to go about it. Assemble you OWN gear, discuss the diveplan with your buddy, do a gear check, identify weight releases and alternate air with your buddy, plan the dive, dive the plan... it ALL IMO maybe cliche, but IMPORTANT.

I have yet to do any boat diving, but one of my fears as a *single* diver (married, but buddyless) ity_part is that I will end up paired with a SHEEP!!!

I'm considering doing AOW or Nitrox in FL JUST to have a DM nearby, but I'm really not sure that is necessary. I want to do both in any event, but would like to have some more experience diving before doing AOW.

Maybe once we firm up trip plans, I'll try and find someone here on the board that wants to dive with me if possible.

Ron

Ron, I've got news for you. You get to an exotic dive spot you aren't going to be planning your dive and diving your plan like you were taught. These dives are are lead and you will be briefed on the profile you will be diving and you will dive the DM's plan, particularly in a place like Cozumel where you will quickly learn to drift dive, even if you haven't taken that PADI specialty diver course.

I didn't plan to dive a wall with an 80 foot profile; I had never been deeper than 60 feet. By the time I helped another diver who was sinking out of control, I was down to 95 feet and getting narced. The bottom was 175 feet, I later learned.

Florida Keys diving is pretty easy if there is not surge; the DMs down there are nice folk and they won't let you off the boat without a buddy. Whether or not your buddy is going to be a "same ocean buddy" is another question. You can even hire a DM for the dives for about $30 if you feel you need one.