Kevin is often a funny guy here on the board and in person, but takes diving seriously...
riguerin:
Kev, you have conducted yourself with utmost professionalism under extremely difficult circumstances. You should be commended. While it is undoubtedly a difficult time for the families of the deceased, I'm sure this event has left an indelible impression on you as well. I hope you're holding up OK. Thanks for sharing, bro. Take care.
Kev, don't know how often you sit in on a Rescue Classroom session, but just in case - there is a section in the Padi book about Critical Incidence Stress and how best to deal with it - before it takes an effect or while. Take good care of yourself, buddy.
Excerpting....
Stu S.:
This happend a day after may daughter Ellen and I saw two under-equipped people head into Blue Springs, FL. They had to ask my kid, age 17, how to set up the gear. Their equipment was a mixture of old stuff, and Wal-Mart's latest. No wetsuits. I said a prayer for that duo.
I think you mentioned later that you mentioned the pair to the ranger - a prudent action.
I was at Sata Rosa NM's Blue Hole on a Friday morning a few weeks ago, packing up from my first Deco training dive, my Inst had already left, and really - there was no one else around for a mile when a van showed up. It looked like maybe he was going to dive the pit alone, so I started chatting with him. Young fellow with his mom and his son - said he used to dive when they owned a LDS in Oklahoma but hadn't in years. He'd borrowed some gear and a full tank - mentioned how the new style reg had two second stages so he and his son could both go down together. I politely suggested that was not a good idea for him to dive alone with strange equipment and no recent dives, and that the alternate second stage was not for his son, who had no business going down. They put the gear away, swam for a little while; I lingered and watched - thankful that they quickly had enough and were ready to leave.
I tend to meddle in other people affairs a bit much at times, but - I felt I should at least suggest they abort their dive plan before they even geared up. Had I not done so, and either of them were injured - I'd have felt bad. Reporting it to a ranger like Stu did would have been nice, but no one else was around.
I'm not sure what I would have done next if the young fellow had geared up and gone down. I think I would have phone my Inst, who was in town for the weekend with more full tanks, to see if he'd come back to help me prepare for possible needs, maybe call the small town police to come down? I didn't feel like eating lunch wondering about the ill prepared fellow, nor sitting and waiting alone if he dived.
