citycountryguy
Contributor
I wish this family all comfort and solace at this time. As someone who has a background as a mental health professional, I know that what is referred to as "ambiguous loss" where you can't really say goodbye to someone in a manner that is normal because there is no way to have a normal funeral with someone who is missing is especially difficult. Closure is hard. I'm not sure that some of this discussion is making it any easier, although I do appreciate hearing from the family, and I recognize that the point of this is for all of us to learn and manage risk with better awareness.
My wife and I are almost diving "twins" of this couple. We are both new. We certified in Cozumel on a trip, and for now, it is the only diving we know. And we are going back to do some more in about three weeks for AOW and then more diving after that. The similarities have made us sit back and wonder what we might do in similar circumstances.
At the same time, because Cozumel is all we know, and we always had pretty strong currents when we were in training (and afterward when diving the remainder of our time there), I have assumed that managing currents and buoyancy is a normal part of diving. Admittedly, we didn't have to claw sand or hang onto a reef to keep from being pulled to significant depth. And we were certified our dive op, even though they had on their schedule a trip to Santa Rosa, said they would not take us there, because it was not a place for beginners. They were adamant about that. So I don't know what that wall is like.
What I do know is that we spent a lot of time in training on managing buoyancy and depth in the open water dives, and seemed to do that specifically in relation to the currents. There is a lot we don't know yet. There was a lot we didn't know, and we realized it as we were training and after we got home. (Since then, we have taken EFR and O2 training, purchased gear--esp. including our own signalling devices and computers so that we can know more about our own dive profiles and position, etc., taken nitrox so we could understand more about gas management, and signed up for rescue already (which will be done with a LDS here). We've read the rescue book, although haven't done the course yet.
I believe that learning in Cozumel introduced us to both the wonders as well as the risks of diving. I realized that even though I had implicit trust in our dive op and DM/teacher during our OW training (and they did earn it by their concern for safety), that we were not equipped the way we should be as certified divers, and that there were some "trust me" aspects to our diving as new divers there. Not carrying our own signalling/safety devices or having our own computers was part of that (even though we did have SPGs and I learned a lot about using the tables during that time.) We were still estimating rates of ascent, etc. that a computer will tell you...and we decided even from that experience that 1) we were going to keep diving, because we fell in love with it, and 2) we were going to be absolutely responsible for our own diving decisions and safety as a buddy team, regardless of who we were with, etc. We own the responsibility for our decisions, and managing our risk, not any third party.
It seems to me that one issue that has not been explored a lot (although mentioned) is the decision to put those divers on Santa Rosa to begin with. There is no way that someone who has never dived there could know enough to make an informed decision as to whether to do that dive or not. There aren't the same kinds of warnings for walls or currents that are given about going into covered environments in OW training. You know when you get an OW card that you are NOT qualified for covered environments. I'm not sure you are taught that limitation about currents or walls...and simply "diving within your limits" is taken, many times I think, to refer to depth/temperature/darkness, etc., as the primary concerns. Something to think about...even for well meaning people, how can you know what you don't know? And in a classic "knot," if you don't know you don't know, then you think you know--enough at least. Which is probably as much what happened here as anything.
One question that seems relevant to me, personally, is to re-think the whole notion of whether my wife and I, both as new divers, should be buddying with one another. Some of the posts here, seem to indicate that it is a bad idea for new divers to buddy with one another at Cozumel. At the same time, buddying with someone you know and trust, and whose equipment and mannerisms you know (as well as general experience with their air management/use, etc.), seems much more preferable than doing an "instant buddy" with a more experienced person when you are on a diving trip and the only person you know is someone who is at your same experience (or inexperience) level. So, are those with a lot of experience diving Cozumel recommending that my wife and I should not be buddying with each other? How would we, as examples, even get enough information to make an informed decision in circumstances like those in this tragedy?
My wife and I are almost diving "twins" of this couple. We are both new. We certified in Cozumel on a trip, and for now, it is the only diving we know. And we are going back to do some more in about three weeks for AOW and then more diving after that. The similarities have made us sit back and wonder what we might do in similar circumstances.
At the same time, because Cozumel is all we know, and we always had pretty strong currents when we were in training (and afterward when diving the remainder of our time there), I have assumed that managing currents and buoyancy is a normal part of diving. Admittedly, we didn't have to claw sand or hang onto a reef to keep from being pulled to significant depth. And we were certified our dive op, even though they had on their schedule a trip to Santa Rosa, said they would not take us there, because it was not a place for beginners. They were adamant about that. So I don't know what that wall is like.
What I do know is that we spent a lot of time in training on managing buoyancy and depth in the open water dives, and seemed to do that specifically in relation to the currents. There is a lot we don't know yet. There was a lot we didn't know, and we realized it as we were training and after we got home. (Since then, we have taken EFR and O2 training, purchased gear--esp. including our own signalling devices and computers so that we can know more about our own dive profiles and position, etc., taken nitrox so we could understand more about gas management, and signed up for rescue already (which will be done with a LDS here). We've read the rescue book, although haven't done the course yet.
I believe that learning in Cozumel introduced us to both the wonders as well as the risks of diving. I realized that even though I had implicit trust in our dive op and DM/teacher during our OW training (and they did earn it by their concern for safety), that we were not equipped the way we should be as certified divers, and that there were some "trust me" aspects to our diving as new divers there. Not carrying our own signalling/safety devices or having our own computers was part of that (even though we did have SPGs and I learned a lot about using the tables during that time.) We were still estimating rates of ascent, etc. that a computer will tell you...and we decided even from that experience that 1) we were going to keep diving, because we fell in love with it, and 2) we were going to be absolutely responsible for our own diving decisions and safety as a buddy team, regardless of who we were with, etc. We own the responsibility for our decisions, and managing our risk, not any third party.
It seems to me that one issue that has not been explored a lot (although mentioned) is the decision to put those divers on Santa Rosa to begin with. There is no way that someone who has never dived there could know enough to make an informed decision as to whether to do that dive or not. There aren't the same kinds of warnings for walls or currents that are given about going into covered environments in OW training. You know when you get an OW card that you are NOT qualified for covered environments. I'm not sure you are taught that limitation about currents or walls...and simply "diving within your limits" is taken, many times I think, to refer to depth/temperature/darkness, etc., as the primary concerns. Something to think about...even for well meaning people, how can you know what you don't know? And in a classic "knot," if you don't know you don't know, then you think you know--enough at least. Which is probably as much what happened here as anything.
One question that seems relevant to me, personally, is to re-think the whole notion of whether my wife and I, both as new divers, should be buddying with one another. Some of the posts here, seem to indicate that it is a bad idea for new divers to buddy with one another at Cozumel. At the same time, buddying with someone you know and trust, and whose equipment and mannerisms you know (as well as general experience with their air management/use, etc.), seems much more preferable than doing an "instant buddy" with a more experienced person when you are on a diving trip and the only person you know is someone who is at your same experience (or inexperience) level. So, are those with a lot of experience diving Cozumel recommending that my wife and I should not be buddying with each other? How would we, as examples, even get enough information to make an informed decision in circumstances like those in this tragedy?
