Dive operation safety.

[Heffey]

There seems to be a reoccurring theme that is quite prevalent here on ScubaBoard. It would appear to be the consensus that rental regulators can’t be trusted.

Hearing this statement over and over always leaves me a bit puzzled.

If we can’t trust that a dive op will rent us quality equipment which is properly serviced and checked out then how can we trust any other part of the organization?
How can we trust that their boats are safe or that their staff is properly trained?
Why should we trust the air in their tanks or trust that boat will be there when we surface?

It just seems odd to me.

What if I recommended a restaurant by saying “I know this great place to eat called the Dive Op Fish Shack. The food is wonderful and the chefs are very skilled, but, don’t eat the shrimp, because I got food poisoning the last three times I ate them.” Would you want to eat there? Does it sound better as a dive op? “Great operation, nice people, but don’t use their regs unless you have a death wish”. I don’t know, still sounds odd to me.

I would like to believe that there are dive ops out there whose regulator failure rate is not substantially worse than privately owned regs. A dive op with sleek fast boats, gleaming tanks, sparkling new equipment, and a captain named Salty and Shelia the beautiful and experienced dive master…… :11: Ok, so I’ve lost it!! But, you get my point.

We are all ultimately responsible for our own safety!

With the above statement being the overriding rule, how far do you trust the dive ops you use?

Jeffrey

 

[BrianS]

That reminds me, I need to run to Sports Chalet and rent regs for tomorrow.

 

[Damselfish]

I've had that same thought myself. But I've been at some ops that had beat up looking rental gear, yet I still felt trusted their air and boats and them in general. Maybe it's because they're breathing the air too, and they're on the same boats, sny they really are good folks - but they're not personally using the equipment. I think not too many places rental regs are actually so terrible and dangerous, but those are the ones you hear about. I bet there's many more that just aren't great - I figure shops buy less expensive and workhorse stuff rather than expensive slick breathers, they get used hard and if they start to slide between service people may not always notice or tell them (or even know better, since they don't have their own reg to compare against.)

So it kinda depends on the place. I tend to cut places more slack on "appearance" the more remote they are. But if they are completely neglecting their regs (or have BCs that are actually dangerous not just well worn and faded) I think there's usually other signs of problems.

 

[Heffey]

I've had that same thought myself. But I've been at some ops that had beat up looking rental gear, yet I still felt trusted their air and boats and them in general. Maybe it's because they're breathing the air too, and they're on the same boats, sny they really are good folks - but they're not personally using the equipment. I think not too many places rental regs are actually so terrible and dangerous, but those are the ones you hear about. I bet there's many more that just aren't great - I figure shops buy less expensive and workhorse stuff rather than expensive slick breathers, they get used hard and if they start to slide between service people may not always notice or tell them (or even know better, since they don't have their own reg to compare against.)

So it kinda depends on the place. I tend to cut places more slack on "appearance" the more remote they are. But if they are completely neglecting their regs (or have BCs that are actually dangerous not just well worn and faded) I think there's usually other signs of problems.

Interesting, you may have stumbled on the solution. Make it mandatory for the dive staff to use the rental gear.

I have used rental regs on 8 occasions (including my pool sessions) and had minor problems with 3 of them. Not anything serious enough to swear off rental gear in general.

Actually, I think it was all the ScubaBoard talk about vomiting :l: through regs that really made me decide that renting wasn’t for me.

No amount of disinfectant makes a rental reg ok in my book.

Jeffrey

 

[Iruka]

Rental gear tends to get abused, especially by intro/discover scuba people....
There's one dive site here which is about a 70m walk in shallow water before you get to where you actually can dive. We have a lot of (relatively) small Asian divers here on vacation, and it's a bit difficult for them with the heavy gear. When it's high tide, I suggest that they remove their BCD, inflate it, and "float" it out to make the walk easier. I once saw a group returning from the dive (not MY group!) dragging their BCDs...unfortunately, it was low tide, so they were PULLING their BCD/Tank assembly via the 2nd stage regulator over the last 20 meters or so of DRY ground. THAT can't be good, ha ha.

 

[msedivingdoc]

I've had a bad experience with rental gear that caused a failure for my girlfriend.... the failure resulted in out of air at 40ft. Not a hard thing to happen as a newby to diving. l already owned my gear.
If you rent from a high use place check the gear well for bubbles, leaks and excessive flow. Think of how you would dive with your new regs after 10 years and what you'll be checking and already should be. Other than that get your own gear and keep it in good condition.