Disturbing trend in diving?

[Divin'Papaw]

The most negligent company I ever dived with was in Florida. They saw our BSAC cards and let us get on with it. It was a terrifying dive for my wife and even I thought the conditions were a bit too sporting. Anyway, we survived and didn't sue.

Out of curiosity, what part of Florida?

 

[The Chairman]

nobody’s truly elite until he trains to be a Mixed Gas Bloviater.

Not silent, but deadly!

 

[Diver-Drex]

The most negligent company I ever dived with was in Florida. They saw our BSAC cards and let us get on with it. It was a terrifying dive for my wife and even I thought the conditions were a bit too sporting. Anyway, we survived and didn't sue.

Negligent is a big word. What did they do, or not do, that didn’t meet your expectations?

 

[kastuk]

So, lately I've seen some things posted that have me raising my eyebrows a bit.
There have been a few stories posted about people relying completely on the divemasters or guides for their bottom times, NDL status, basic dive profiles. This seems to be in Mexico from what I gather but it might include some other locations.
The trend seems to be that these divers in question don't have computers or depth gauges/any kind of timing device and rely 100% on the divemasters to take care of them and keep them safe.
Is this a thing?

I'm just shocked at the amount of "advanced" divers with 50-90+ dives I've seen lately who do not even know how to set up their gear or do a safety check at all. I've recently lead a dive on nitrox where someone with 100 ish dives decided to dip and speed well below and ahead of me without checking computer once when we were at 25m already, had to react quickly to stop her going further. I think a lot of people turn off their brains on vacation and this extends to diving. I didn't expect it (still fresh in the professional side)

 

[MB NZ]

Negligent is a big word. What did they do, or not do, that didn’t meet your expectations?

Put us in to a maelstrom of white water and insanely high currents. No guide, no briefing and basically said good luck, if you miss the shot line, you'll be picked up in Cuba. You'll have to trust me when I say I'm no stranger to this kind of thing, but not what I expected on a warm water holiday dive. We could of course have made the decision to can the dive ourselves, but didn't.

 

[MB NZ]

Out of curiosity, what part of Florida?

Key Largo.

 

[Diver-Drex]

I'm just shocked at the amount of "advanced" divers with 50-90+ dives I've seen lately who do not even know how to set up their gear or do a safety check at all. I've recently lead a dive on nitrox where someone with 100 ish dives decided to dip and speed well below and ahead of me without checking computer once when we were at 25m already, had to react quickly to stop her going further. I think a lot of people turn off their brains on vacation and this extends to diving. I didn't expect it (still fresh in the professional side)

This isn’t just diving, it is society. How many people jump in their cars and speed off not knowing where they are going, relying on the gps or phone to tell them what to do?

I don’t get off my couch and just wander through my house. I have a purpose and a plan. Although I will admit that after 50, I sometimes forget that plan…

 

[Diver-Drex]

Put us in to a maelstrom of white water and insanely high currents. No guide, no briefing and basically said good luck, if you miss the shot line, you'll be picked up in Cuba. You'll have to trust me when I say I'm no stranger to this kind of thing, but not what I expected on a warm water holiday dive. We could of course have made the decision to can the dive ourselves, but didn't.

I’m a Jersey diver and I’m guessing with your BSAC cert, we’ve both dove those conditions before. But totally agree it’s not what you would expect in Florida or the Caribbean. Up here, that’s a lot of our diving, except the part about Cuba.

 

[Wants2divemore]

Put us in to a maelstrom of white water and insanely high currents. No guide, no briefing and basically said good luck, if you miss the shot line, you'll be picked up in Cuba. You'll have to trust me when I say I'm no stranger to this kind of thing, but not what I expected on a warm water holiday dive. We could of course have made the decision to can the dive ourselves, but didn't.

No briefing is definitely not okay, but there are many ops in Florida that don't provide a guide in the water and basically serve as a taxi to the dive site.

 

[johndiver999]

Put us in to a maelstrom of white water and insanely high currents. No guide, no briefing and basically said good luck, if you miss the shot line, you'll be picked up in Cuba. You'll have to trust me when I say I'm no stranger to this kind of thing, but not what I expected on a warm water holiday dive. We could of course have made the decision to can the dive ourselves, but didn't.

I charted a very small boat for myself and a few members of the family in the lower keys a long time ago. Conditions were marginal with visibility, and the only crew was the captain.

The water looked really milky and I was not comfortable putting everyone in, so I suggested that he drop me solo and I would bounce down and check out conditions. He agreed and said he would put me over a reef in like 90 feet or something. So he set me up and I dropped in, swam like hell straight down with no reference or guideline or marker etc. I could see the vis was bad and I could barely see the end of my pole spear, but I just kept powering down (kicking hard in a vertical position, and I kept expecting the bottom to come into view. It is really hard to judge your descent rate or depth like that, especially in dirty water. Finally I knew I HAD to be pretty deep, so I stopped kicking and looked at my computer for the first time, I was at like 140 ft or something with no bottom in sight!. It was a long time ago, it could have actually been 160 or something, but I hate to exaggerate when my recollection is fuzzy.

We could have definitely got somebody killed that day if we had all jumped in and got separated and some less experienced divers just went to the bottom- where ever the hell that was.

I was super pissed when I got up. I am like, WTF don't you have a depth recorder? How do you screw up that bad and dump me in deep water and way off the reef. I didn't know the area at all and never even considered the water could be that deep in the area where he took us. THAT was a pretty big error for a dive operator in the keys. I think I demanded and got all our money back on that one.

That was one of my worst (at least from a safety perspective) situation with a dive operator in the keys.