Ken, thank you for explaining how the insurance works and the various options, I appreciate it.
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A nice idea and good of y'all, but I wonder if it'd be better for the newbies to get them to hire private DMs for those first ocean dives.
If it's correct that the victim was wearing 32 lbs with a steel 80, that sounds extremely overweighted.
Depends on whether or not the DM has yet learned how to dive ... I know several locally who barely have the required 60 dives before they get the certification ... so even going that route will require some careful choices.
Besides, in many parts of the world, hiring a DM for a guided dive is just not common practice. In my area, mentors can and do play an important role in diver education. Most of our dive clubs have "big buddy" programs, where a new diver is "adopted" by an experienced diver for purposes of putting their newly developed skills to practical use.
Iztok, what insurance do you have? I'm not a DM yet, but am working towards it at the moment, and was under the impression that the agencies insurance would cover me when guiding dives or working within my certification.
If it's correct that the victim was wearing 32 lbs with a steel 80, that sounds extremely overweighted. I rented a steel 80 on Catalina Island and I wore 10 lbs with a 2 piece 7 mm wetsuit, hood, gloves, socks and boots. I'm not sure what the victim was wearing or what would be correct for her, but 32 lbs sounds like a lot.
If she was extremely overweighted, that would take a lot of work, air and kicking to try to maintain her position in the water column. The work to maintain position would be even more pronounced at depth and harder to control.
I work in the medical field, wouldn't you also be protected by the Good Samaritan Law?? My insurance doesnt cover outside of work either.. I would hate to think it would be different for divers being helpful..