Dangerous Scuba Instructor

[TMHeimer]

Why oh why oh why do people with less than 40 dives think they want to be a Divemaster? I am scared to dive on my own but I am going to be responsible for other people's safety.

Oh dear.

Yeah, I didn't think of that--doing like 5 more solo dives to reach 40 to be able to start the course. Insane stuff.
Do you think he'd trust him that he did those 5 dives--rhetorical question. I finished my 5 specialties for MSD years ago and told the instructor I didn't yet have 50 logged dives. He said--basically--"forget it, I trust that you will". I did my 50th and then paid my then $41 for MSD. I'm just so damn honest....

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

FYI - I also got in touch with lawyers in the USVIs and I was met with laughter. They said “well, what do you want to achieve... we can only help out if you’re seriously injured or dead!”

What crazy logic is this? Why do we have to sit back and wait for something terrible to happen when I know this guy is committing serious diving offences on a regular basis.

I’m way too cynical to make many comments of this thread, but your story is entirely credible. It isn’t nearly as bad as the story I heard from a reliable source about a dive op in Europe where the owner beat a competitor close to death (and amazingly wasn’t prosecuted or even arrested), people were certified without doing any open water dives. The regional office ignored it. Hopefully this gets reported to global HQ and they respond.

There is some crazy stuff out there. One thing I’ve learned in life that even the craziest stuff you see come out of Hollywood has some semblance in the real world.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

Hello all!

I am writing to both inform and enquire about my recent PADI dive master experience in the Caribbean.

This Summer I had two months to complete my PADI divemaster, my instructor, who certified me earlier in the year as PADI Advance, said that this would be plenty of time to complete the certification.

However, after three weeks of waiting for new students, the instructor insisted I start to dive alone. I only had 35 dives under my belt at this point. When I told him that I felt nervous about diving alone, perhaps one of the girls could come with me, he told me he wanted me to learn ‘independence, self reliance’ then later in the conversation he told me that he hardly trusted me alone in the water. So why would he send me?!

This conversation took place after an incident that could have led to my death. The instructor indirectly peer pressured me to dive alone, and so I did.

He told me after four weeks of being under his instruction that I now had to dive alone in order to complete the course.

I have been in regular communication with PADI, who have failed to give me any detailed explanation after two and a half months, they have simply closed the case. I thought that insisting a relatively new diver to dive alone would be enough of a case to have the instructor reprimanded. I feel strongly that his teaching methods will be the cause of serious injury in the future.

While living onboard his boat, I also witnessed the following:

2) The PADI instructor has been known to have a few casual alcoholic drinks and will then lead beginner students into a dive even though they also have had a few drinks. This said student was still studying the PADI Open Water course at the time.

3) One of the students was taken to a 30 meter depth dive site for a period of 40 minutes, 4 hours before her flight schedule. The instructor said it would be fine because the navy SEALS state 2.5hours as a minimum time.

4) Another of the students mentioned she had narcosis side-effects. She was on her second dive ever without any certification and it was a deep-dive at The Rhône, BVIS. A witness saw her under the surface looking panicky and being dragged through a wreck by the instructor at 70f.

5) In a separate scenario, a potential student had questioned whether she should dive after a serious concussion and brain hemorrhage she had undertaken five months previous. She was still experiencing side effects from her head injury. The instructor didn’t know an immediate answer but after the student received a red flag from her doctor, the instructor still told her it was totally up to her. The instructor would have clearly ignored the doctor’s advice. The student felt pressurized to join.

I have evidence to back my claims about this instructor. I would like to understand how this instructor is allowed to continually operate under PADI’s licensing.

Hello, first off I am a newer diver myself with 30 dives in the last year so take what I know with a grain of salt. With that said I would totally believe any one thing you say this instructor did. However it gets a bit hard to believe you when you say the instructor did ALL the things you say. Drinking and diving, dragging scared newbies through wrecks, telling you to do a bunch of dives alone, diving to 90 ft deep with someone who is flying in FOUR hours, etc etc.

Any one thing is pretty frightening. That a certified instructor would do all of them is almost impossible to believe. Im not saying you are making up stories but if this person did ALL that then they shouldn't even be scuba diving let alone instructing. They will end up killing themself and probably others.

It sounds too fantastical to believe. Again this isn't an attack on you at all just a story too large to swallow. Again im very new and have had some bumps in the road with tropical water instructors so I can see some of it very easily but all of that is insane unless he is deliberately trying to get people killed a.k.a. is a pathological passive killer.

 

[northernone]

Hello, first off I am a newer diver myself with 30 dives in the last year so take what I know with a grain of salt. With that said I would totally believe any one thing you say this instructor did. However it gets a bit hard to believe you when you say the instructor did ALL the things you say. Drinking and diving, dragging scared newbies through wrecks, telling you to do a bunch of dives alone, diving to 90 ft deep with someone who is flying in FOUR hours, etc etc.

Any one thing is pretty frightening. That a certified instructor would do all of them is almost impossible to believe. Im not saying you are making up stories but if this person did ALL that then they shouldn't even be scuba diving let alone instructing. They will end up killing themself and probably others.

It sounds too fantastical to believe. Again this isn't an attack on you at all just a story too large to swallow. Again im very new and have had some bumps in the road with tropical water instructors so I can see some of it very easily but all of that is insane unless he is deliberately trying to get people killed a.k.a. is a pathological passive killer.

I take this as a wonderful example of how the vast majority of dive instructors do take their responsibility seriously and behave with honor.

I do have a true account of an instructor I have directly witnessed (within a two week period)
1. Dove leading students after two beers for breakfast after claiming to have been up all night drinking
2. Took a DSD to 80ft on their first dive experience.
3. Forged a signature on a Dr note to sign off a student who had heart issues.
4. Signed off on a rescue scenario a student never did.
5. Certified as open water a student in 32 hrs including theory, skipped pool and only did 3 dives
6. Drank up and slept with 2 students (one returned looking for her pants in the dive shop the next morning)
7. Hunted lobster while teaching leading a DSD class.
8. Put an OW student off the end of the dock to dive solo while he went to chat up a potential date on the other side of a building.
9. Dove two dive computers alternatively so the NDL didn't reduce on multiple repetitive dives.

That's a rarity, but that's my observation of one instructor's behaviour 4 years ago. Certainly there's some parts I missed. I had no personal issue with the guy, other than strongly disliking his treatment of students.

Cameron

 

[flyboy08]

What’s wrong with number 6?

 

[Lou PS]

Ha @cameron, sounds like the same guy!!!

@ScubadriverDale - I promise you that none of these details are exaggerations. These events took place over six weeks on a boat in February and during the Summer holidays.

I had to draw the line when the instructor asked me to dive alone, that I would have to do it in order to reach the minimum dives required for DM. I have this all on tape, because I knew what he was doing was wrong. I have him saying that he wanted to teach me independence and self reliance even though he didn’t trust me under water. He didn’t trust me to lead nor trust me alone. All said in those words by the instructor. So, why would he let me go?

When we then discussed how I felt uncomfortable, it gave him reason to dismiss the course and he asked me that instance to leave the boat. He was managing me off and out of his life, because 4 weeks in, he realized my DM course was now an inconvenience.

 

[Lou PS]

It’s funny that I’ve been labelled ‘a guy’ in this thread. Well I’m a 34 yr old woman, with a bit more sense than most and I have a bigger story to tell about this instructor. Sex, lies and videotape! Lock up your daughters!! no, but seriously, this is why I’m worried. This guy brings on young women, many in their early twenties who (the common thread) all like adventure. This guy is soon 40! He has almost an open door policy, will give you ‘the eye’, if you know what I mean. I never took him up on that, I was there only to dive, and he promised that he would deliver that. However, that’s exactly what I am talking about, this instructor knows how to bend the rules to make sure the problems are in your court and not his. I am more worried for these inexperienced young girls for the next time, who are lured in by this creep.

So, once he then asked me to leave... amazingly, the two other girls walked with me. In other words, half of his crew left. The instructor was gutted, you could tell, he wasn’t expecting that. Complete narcissist. The only person who stayed onboard was 1) the girl who was sleeping with the captain and had no money, and 2) the guy, who also meandered through life, happy to just be well fed and sailing on the water aka the chef.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

What’s wrong with number 6?

As unprofessional it may be for me to admit it, the part where one was looking for her pants the next day made me laugh.

I believe that stuff happens more often than many of us think and probably motivates a number of gap year students to become instructors.

 

[Lou PS]

Just to clarify, the captain is the instructor.

 

[northernone]

I am more worried for these inexperienced young girls for the next time, who are lured in by this creep.

Glad you have the life experience and courage to bring an investigation to this situation. Might you have any contact with the others who were on board or past students? In a different field I do know multiple reports from several sources can help an investigation.

Cameron