Dive Operator Best Practices

[Mike Boswell]

I know a bunch of divers who go to Coz and gladly pay extra for small boats, good guides, safe practices and a smart operator. It's a good fun group to dive with.

Divers pay big bucks for the privilege of a tropical dive vacation. Would I spend a few more dollars for a dive operator who offers the things I want? You betcha!

 

[ti325v]

Come dive the Carolinas once or twice.

If you have a full boat anchor line can be pretty crowded.

Hang bar helps and it is hard to do a "drift dive" on a wreck. Say you have a dozen divers, there is simply not enough real estate on the anchor line. And letting it go in a strong current while it might be an hour before boat can come pick you up is little insane.

I am not in the Carolinas, so your post is not applicable, I said I am a small operation....16 divers max....
Are they all going to hit the anchor line at the same time, not likely enough for me to put the only hang bar in the country, after all of the other things that I am the only op in the country doing....local conditions dictate proper equipment...

 

[ti325v]

oh. and a request for suggestions...
Recall signal ???? there has to be a better way then beating on the ladder !!!!!
Suggestions appreciated, remember I am in the third world....

 

[ti325v]

A hang bar (or even better a trapeze, that being a heavy pipe with "seat belts") is definitely overkill for a safety stop, but for those of us how need more than an optional three minutes prior to surfacing a trapeze, especially with oxygen available makes it much easier to pass the time while reading a paperback book prior to surfacing.
Yes, I do decompression diving, and yes, I like it to as comfortable and easy as possible, spending an hour or so, holding a stop, can get old.

Hi Thal...
No O2 on the island, so no 02 deco, I deco on air sitting on the rocks...as I said purely recreational environment. I am one of 8 people in the country I know with BPW, doubles, sidemounts. So my set up is quite appropriate for local conditions.

 

[String]

oh. and a request for suggestions...
Recall signal ???? there has to be a better way then beating on the ladder !!!!!
Suggestions appreciated, remember I am in the third world....

Short of thunderflashes none really. And even they wont work if the divers are a few hundred metres from the boat.

Only guaranteed way is to make each pair tow a permanent SMB and drop a fishing weight with a tag down their line in turn. That's a pain in the arse though.

 

[ItsBruce]

I would hope that most US boats will be reviewing the recent Dan Carlock verdict and making some changes. In particular, business owners and insurance companies should IMHO be reviewing whether to accept solo divers and divers without buddies, and how they handle head counts.

Interesting thought about changes relative to accepting solo divers and divers without buddies.

 

[Mike Boswell]

Interesting thought about changes relative to accepting solo divers and divers without buddies.

My sense is that an unusually high proportion of the diving accidents and incidents I hear about happen to divers who are alone, due either to solo diving, poor buddy practices, or inadvertent buddy separation. If this is true, then don't these divers pose a substantially higher risk both to themselves and to the dive operators they employ?

 

[sarahdee]

I don't care about luxury as long as its safe. I've had some terrible guides who have put my life and their own life in danger so I guess one thing I want the resorts to spend money on is training their staff or hiring experienced ones.

I had a guide in Cozumel who briefed for a no deco dive (didn't have a computer?!) then went fairly deep so after I got to my limits I signalled to him that I had no deco time and had to go up so he gave me the okay and then took a local DMT he was training off deeper and left us to dive unguided. Then he rejoined us and surfaced (no safety stops) in the middle of a boating channel (we did a safety stop and I put up my own SMB). I had a guide last week in Apo who gave virtually no briefing then made us do negative entry (my first dive with him so he had no idea what I was like and there was no need as very little current).

For me, as an instructor if a guide isn't great, I have my own SMB and me and my husband can just go up but I wonder what happens to less experienced divers.

So I would rather pay more for a good briefing, a safe dive plan and a guide who had a clue what they were doing?

 

[String]

My sense is that an unusually high proportion of the diving accidents and incidents I hear about happen to divers who are alone, due either to solo diving, poor buddy practices, or inadvertent buddy separation. If this is true, then don't these divers pose a substantially higher risk both to themselves and to the dive operators they employ?

People frequently misinterpret the statistics. Solo diving is PLANNED solo diving. Doing a dive, losing your buddy and carrying on is not planned solo diving.

Getting separated and getting into difficulty managing your ascent is not solo diving.

So the vast majority of incidents where divers were alone and had problems aren't solo diving failures, they were buddy diving failures.

 

[String]

I don't care about luxury as long as its safe. I've had some terrible guides who have put my life and their own life in danger so I guess one thing I want the resorts to spend money on is training their staff or hiring experienced ones.

How can a guide put your life in danger? You're a qualified diver therefore completely responsible for controlling the risk you allow yourself to be exposed to. A guide is only a danger to your life if you're relying on him for some reason. A qualified diver should never do that. If they want to endanger themselves then that's their call but short of physically attacking you underwater they should be unable to endanger you as well.

okay and then took a local DMT he was training off deeper and left us to dive unguided.

Where is the problem with that? Did you have a buddy? If so you should be perfectly capable of surfacing without a guide to look after you. If its a big group would you expect the entire group to have to surface just because one person needed to in a non-emergency situation?

a safe dive plan and a guide who had a clue what they were doing?

To me the ideal guide gives me a good thorough brief, points me to the sea and stays on the boat. Extra marks for cake and coffee being handed to be post-dive.