Divemaster Responsibilities

[redacted]

In Cozumel, you really need to recognize that you have a dive guide more than a dive master. They do a pretty good job of meeting everybody's need and keeping track of 6 or 8 divers, but the divers need to maintain situational awareness and some level of effort to stay with the guide. If you want or need more, consider hiring a private DM for your dive. That would facilitate your doing most anything you want to do in terms of photography.

I hope you thanked those other two divers who interrupted their dive to make sure you were not left.

 

[TMHeimer]

I don't DM charters, only OW courses, but have some basic thoughts. Of course, as pointed out, as a certified diver you are responsible for yourself. There is debate on what legal responsibilities any diver (pro or not) has toward the safety of a buddy. The waiver you sign absolving the dive op/crew of responsibilities can also come into question if it is deemed in court that the DM, etc. didn't act prudently--ei.: recommended you do this, and that was deemed bad advice. Of course, if no "incident" occurs, all of that is moot. So, I think it boils down to two areas: One is what is the DM
/crew legally responsible for? The other is what you and the dive op agreed to. I would think if there is no legal fault on the DMs part it may boil down to something you have in writing. Like, "I am paying extra for the DM to always be within 5 feet of me", or something like that. I suppose a verbal agreement could also be binding if provable, but I'm not a lawyer.

 

[Donnah]

You are always on your own. Doesn't depend if a DM is with you or not. If you are with a DM, you keep within eyesight of the DM. It wasn't his responsibility to tell you to come along or to hold everyone back while you were finished.

 

[CamG]

When taking photo's my practice is far different than when Im not.
Ive guided dives for others and DM'ed for classes.
What I would suggest is to adopt more of a self sufficient diver approach but understand this comes with far more risk and training.
If you make a mistake or a problem arises it's all on you!

A wise old photographer friends told me once that photography and dive groups don't mix!
Please do not misunderstand me if you are in a group taking pics is one thing but if you are wanting to call your own shots you have consider the self sufficient option.
This is the Advanced Forum after all.
Seek more training, stay with the group, or pay for private guide.
Fairly simple.

CamG

 

[boulderjohn]

Let me describe an experience I had with a photographer and an inexperienced DM.

We were on a liveaboard in Thailand. On most dives, you were free to go with a DM or not, but on some dives it was necessary to follow the DM because of the specific features of the site. On one such site, we were to break into two groups, with one group going ahead of the other by about 10 minutes. We were to follow a specific path known to the DM. It would lead us on a specific ocean journey, ending with us surfacing inside a cavern. (Not a cavern in the cave diving sense--it would have open air and a surface exit.) The cavern was said to be spectacular, with formations that would make that dive the highlight of the trip.

I was in the second group, and we had to keep waiting for a photographer to get done taking shots. Eventually he found a particularly exciting subject, and he stayed there and stayed there and stayed there and stayed there taking shot after shot after shot after shot after shot after shot while we all hung around looking at the same things we had seen 5 times already. The DM was perplexed. He clearly did not have the experience to know how to haul the guy away from the subject and get us going again, and he just hung there watching him. Eventually we all ran low on air and had to surface. We never got into the cavern. Later on the boat, he was raving about what a great dive it was because he got so many great shots. Some of us mentioned that we had wanted to see the cavern. "Not me!" he said. "I'd rather take pictures of living fish than dead rocks any day!"

Don't be that guy.

 

[RJP]

What did you discuss with the DM prior to the dive? Nothing else matters.

 

[Dan G]

Sorry for the long post...My wife and I have around 75 dives and recently got our advanced cert and nitrox cert. Recently I went on a dive trip without my wife/buddy. Her biggest concern was I would get wrapped up in filming something and not pay attention to our dive group, etc. She usually stays aware of where the divemaster is and stuff if I take a little too long filming some wildlife. I of course do the same for her if she is absorbed in something and we need to move on to keep up with the group. I assured her that we have been diving forever with the same divemaster and he will make sure I am OK. Sure enough, I was diving without a buddy and I started filming a huge turtle and when I looked up the divemaster, along with 3 of our group was long gone. Now I was very aware that two others in our group, who are very good divers, were with me taking pictures as well. So I was not overly concerned. It took a bit of time for the 3 of us to find the divemaster, but all was well. My question is, should the divemaster have either A. Told us to come along at some point, or B. stayed with us. Yes, I have my advanced cert and yes he knows that and also knew that two experienced divers were still "with me". Still it seems to me that I am still paying him exactly what I have always paid him to be our guide and divemaster. So, should I now expect that his watchfulness changes? Am I now expected to "be on my own"? A note: the divemaster that dive was not the same one I usually dive with, who is the owner of the operation, but I have dove with this other guy many times as well. Should I say something to the "boss" about his employees behaviour, or is it really not a big deal?

Don't want to beat this to death, but it does bare repeating that in Cozumel, unless you have hired a private DM, it is a diver's responsibility to keep pace with the group, because all divers in the park must be accompanied by a DM. If you force others to slow down too much, which often means fining against the current, it is not very respectful of the group.

I am compelled to wonder if rather then the DM changing his attitude towards you because you have AOW, you may have stayed with a subject longer than in the past and the group just had to move on this time. Ask the DM his expectations or talk to the group, but do not ask the DM to 'just leave you behind and you'll find the boat on your own.' That is asking him or her to choose between the expectations of his employer and your expectations.

 

[TMHeimer]

What did you discuss with the DM prior to the dive? Nothing else matters.[/QUOTE

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Yeah, that's what I said back there. What you expect and what the legalities are can vary a lot.

 

[Crowley]

I've written a lot about this and had many discussion with both customers and colleagues and it gets very involved.... however:

The short answer is that the DM is there to provide broad planning and logistical support (emergency equipment, spare weights, food and water etc.) within an environment appropriate to the dive team; act as a guide when necessary and a supervisor when not. All divers in the water are certified divers and therefore should be able to look after their own safety and follow the plan as laid out by the DM.

Technically speaking, that's about it. If a diver gets separated from the group, that's their problem, not the inattentiveness of the DM. If a diver runs out of air, that's their problem. Corks to the surface, nope, nothing to do with the DM.... BUT - after guiding several thousand dives, what I can tell you is that many divers expect to do absolutely everything. One diver complained about me because I did an air check at around 25 metres and he reported he had only 30 bar. 15 minutes into a dive. I stuck him on my octopus, swam him back to the reef with 7 other divers following, surfaced him, sent him back to the boat, then went back down and finished the rest of the 60 minute dive. I said he couldn't dive again without a private guide or a refresher course. He refused and complained about me because I should have looked behind me more often and checked air more regularly. It was all my fault.

That's just one example but it's something I became very wary of - if you read my blogs "what is a dive guide" - you'll see some of the techniques I used for checking the dive team without actually looking like I was checking the dive team - because one of the problems in this very litigious day and age is that it doesn't actually matter what the law is or your responsibilities are, if somebody sues, you're in the poopoo, even if you didn't do anything wrong.

For that reason, I basically told myself I was to assume I had total responsibility for all the divers under my supervision, even though in reality I didn't. It's a constant source of debate and ridicule on SB about how many poorly trained divers are out there - and it's true, there are, I've dived with a bunch of them. It gets to be a fine art after a while - solid control without being authoritarian and waving your stick at everybody underwater! On the other hand, there were many days when I would have a group of experienced divers behind me who listened to the plan, did everything that was asked of them, and if they disappeared from view every now and then, this was okay because I had dived with them many times and knew they would catch up. On days like that all I had to do was find cool stuff which - given I dived the same reefs on a daily basis I knew where most of that was - and make sure we got home on time.

It's complicated; more so than many would have you believe. Agencies give you the rules, many divers expect more. Balancing the roles and responsibilities of a divemaster between agency standards, legal requirements and customer experience is - really - a complex challenge. Especially if you can't find any cool stuff - then you're *really* in the doodoo!!

Cheers

C

 

[Bob DBF]

The short answer is that the DM is there to provide broad planning and logistical support (emergency equipment, spare weights, food and water etc.) within an environment appropriate to the dive team; act as a guide when necessary and a supervisor when not. All divers in the water are certified divers and therefore should be able to look after their own safety and follow the plan as laid out by the DM.

I believe the misunderstanding of a DM's role starts in OW class where the new diver sees one particular job a DM can do, where they demonstrate how to do things properly, insure the gear is set up properly, and basically hang around making the new divers are safe. In the eyes of a new diver, the DM and Instructor are there there teach them SCUBA diving and insure their safety, and they look at any DM anywhere in that same way.

This DM as superhero, I believe, is cultivated to insure a stream of students on their way to "go pro". Yeah, it's a bit cynical, but I saw it in action. He**, I was even recruited to go pro. I just said no, I like diving.

At this point I normally start in about the information you lose when a class is shortened, but that gets old for everyone.



Bob
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I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.