Divemaster Responsibilities

[mrlipis]

This thread has gone full circle enough times to make you dizzy but it appears to have filtered a few things out. I think everyone agrees there were terrible decisions made by all parties involved. The lingering topic seems to be, "what is the expectation of a Divemaster". If a new diver is relying on a DM to be a safety net, than we have a problem with our agency training. While it may not necessarily be training but a lack of experience. Confidence is a huge factor to any successful achievement. How many newly certified divers are confident in their skills upon completion of the OW certification? This may have been a case of over confidence and in my opinion this is something that should be recognized by a dive professional and wasn't.

With that said, I went through my DM training last year and upon completion and observation of what I believe is a lick and stick approach to certification, I made the decision to Not continue through AI. I guess it would be prudent to look at accident statistics in regards to experience and unfortunately many of the accidents I read about are in fact newbies. The agencies have covered their butts with an army of attorneys while condensing the training.

I think most good DMs do in fact recognize the limitations of a new diver and are apt to give them more attention. At the end of the day, we are either turning out certified divers that are 100% capable of self reliance or we are not, unfortunately I think it is the latter.

 

[Riger]

Surely we all recognize that no matter what happens to the training standards of DM's or Diver's, you are always gonna get good & bad novice divers and good & bad DM's.

No standards can be effectively applied without the authorities and agencies applying them through regular audits. Unfortunately, that is not cost effective, so until a popular dive location or agency looses 100's of divers in a season, there is not gonna be much change. I bet there are people arriving in the Cayman's right now to do Scuba Courses and go on vacation dives, that is all that counts for those who could make the the biggest difference.

Best Regards
Richard

 

[pilot fish]

Again, the questions lingers without an answer in this thread, what are the duties, what level of reasonable care, should a DM have to a brand new diver on a dive boat and WHY do Dive Ops put a person called a Dive Master ON a dive boat?

If Dive Ops put a person on a dive boat that is called a Dive Master but is in fact NOT trained as such, is THAT fraud and why do they do that?

It would help if the dive pros in this thread not dance around these questions. Thanks in advance. It would help the thread and clear up a lot of misconceptions.

 

[captain]

Frankly I think a "dive master" should remain on the boat as is common practice in many locations. They brief the divers on entry and boarding procedure, recall signal, dive site description and conditions and assists with doning and removal of equipment and entry and boarding. I also think fewer new divers would have the confidence to jump in on thier own and would rethink their training and abilities.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Frankly I think a "dive master" should remain on the boat as is common practice in many locations. They brief the divers on entry and boarding procedure, recall signal, dive site description and conditions and assists with doning and removal of equipment and entry and boarding. I also think fewer new divers would have the confidence to jump in on thier own and would rethink their training and abilities.

If this was made perfectly clear up front to every single diver, I am 100% in agreement. That would hopefully force the less confident or qualified to hire a personal DM for the dive at which point they are only really responsible for their buddy's (the DM and themselves only) safety.

Sadly, if it is not explained, then the confusion would still exist and these threads would still pop up.

 

[pilot fish]

Frankly I think a "dive master" should remain on the boat as is common practice in many locations. They brief the divers on entry and boarding procedure, recall signal, dive site description and conditions and assists with doning and removal of equipment and entry and boarding. I also think fewer new divers would have the confidence to jump in on thier own and would rethink their training and abilities.

You don't need a Dive Master rating to do that? That could be done by freaked out Wille who last week was flipping burgers at Slims.

 

[ScubaSteve]

You don't need a Dive Master rating to do that? That could be done by freaked out Wille who last week was flipping burgers at Slims.

Well now that is a stretch. If you maintain a person on the boat, they do not necessarily need to be a DM, but they need to know how to operate a bopat safely, how to perform a surface rescue as well as many other things such as perform CPR, administer O2 etc.).

Freaked out Willie may or may not fit that bill.

 

[pilot fish]

Let's see, looking back at my logbook and my first dives post certification. Hmmm, those were in a quarry so no DM there. Well, maybe I got lucky, the first dives I did with a divemaster were long enough after my certification that I was already reasonably comfortable in the water.

Did you dive on your own or have a buddy that had dove that quarry before? The deceased did not have a buddy so had arranged to dive with DM as his bud, as per OP

Not a dive "pro" but I'll answer anyway.

Then all that is is newbie specualtion.

Well do you want an opinion as to whether it's fraud legally, or whether it's deceptive. Because while it might be deceptive to call somebody a Divemaster who isn't trained as such, in many places it probably isn't illegal. I'm not saying that would justify it at all.

As far as the level of care, I think that depends on what's been worked out between the divers and the dive op before hand. If the diver wants somebody whose going to check their gauges and herd the group throughout the dive then that needs to be made explicitly clear beforehand.

I've noticed that the divemaster, after it was realized the diver was missing, asked the OP "Where's your buddy?". If I'm interpreting that correctly it seems to me that the DM was not acting as a buddy towards this diver (again, not saying he shouldn't have picked a better site), but rather guiding him as part of the group. That to me puts more responsibility on the diver than the DM (again, the site chosen may indeed be a contributing factor).

All you've done is pose another set of questions and qualifications, not answers. Try again?

 

[pilot fish]

OK, sorry that you feel my posts lack the proper gravity. I assure that is not my intention. Apologies. Please, help me out here, what is the function and obligation of a Dive Master to a brand new diver while both are UW, especially if the DM and newbie are buddies, as stated by OP?

Are you under the impression the dramatics are helping your posts get taken seriously? FWIW, I agree with you on most (if not all points) but some posts I can't even take you seriously on. You are so hell bent on blaming this DM rather than stating what would or would not help, that you are losing focus.

Someone stated that a DM on the boat was a better idea that one in the water (for the reasons they stated). You claimed it was not because freaked out Willie could do it. I commented that only if this Willie character had certain qualifications and you come back to assaulting the DM in this real life scenario. It does not help.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

What is going on here is that alot of people's beliefs and ideas of diving have been shaken to the core. They are having to face that they are not as safe as they thought they were and it is scaring the crap out of them. What info they generally get in training as OW divers is turning out to be seriously lacking and that also is giving them cause to doubt. Which it should. I'll address this later as I'm at work now but as to the question as to what should you EXPECT from a DM? Short answer- NOTHING! What should you confirm is their role? That depends. And that's what I'll address later because it varies by region, agency, resort, or operation.