Divers Missing in Bali
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RyanDelMundo
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Wow I was just up in Tulamben Monday and Tuesday and saw several people wearing Dive Concepts t-shirts. You'd think they would try and be a bit low-key (or perhaps be embarrassed?). Surprised I didn't hear anything about the incident, although I was mostly underwater
I checked DC's Facebook page and not only did they lose these divers on Thursday, but on Friday they had the gall to post a photo of their "new OW divers," two of whom have the same name as those found adrift. I presume they are the same folks.
Dive Concepts | Facebook
How about that for your third dive? New OW divers, Divemaster doing their first drift dive ever (how is this possible? Must be a DMT, which would be even worse).
I talked with Dive Concepts last year when I was up in Tulamben. They were sort of just getting started and had all sorts of grand plans. It was obvious they were keen to make dollars. They asked me to do discover dives for them, and I said, I'm only a DM, I can't do them, and they said, why not, we already have another DM doing them now. All about the money. Safety, an afterthought.
All that said, I haven't been impressed with safety standards in Bali for diving. Including some sketchy stories (firsthand). Do your due diligence.
If they were asking you to do DSD dives then PADI would be interested in looking in to that as it is a violation of their standards.
Glad all these folks are OK and hope they learned some valuable life experiences that will make them safer divers in the future!
Glad all these folks are OK and hope they learned some valuable life experiences that will make them safer divers in the future!
This is a bit off-topic, but in the interest of clarity: DMs can conduct DSDs but they have to possess a special add-on rating called "DSD leader" showing they have received the proper training to do so. A DSD leader DM can conduct DSDs in confined water at a ratio of 4 students to one DM. If the DM doesn't have this rating s/he cannot conduct DSDs and it is indeed a violation of standards.
Whether this is a reflection of a laxity in approach amongst dive operators on Bali, I can't say. I do know that all over the world there are shops affiliated with each of the major certification agencies that cut corners and shave standards to the minimum for compliance. Recently we have had threads in A&I about US-based open water courses that appear at first glance to violating agency standards (though there are always at least two sides to every story...). I am very careful to send my divers to ops that I trust to work to high standards because I know that there are those out there that don't. So all I can say is that there are "good" and "not so good" operators all over the place, not just on Bali. SB is an excellent resource in find out about the especially good ones, IMO.
Whether this is a reflection of a laxity in approach amongst dive operators on Bali, I can't say. I do know that all over the world there are shops affiliated with each of the major certification agencies that cut corners and shave standards to the minimum for compliance. Recently we have had threads in A&I about US-based open water courses that appear at first glance to violating agency standards (though there are always at least two sides to every story...). I am very careful to send my divers to ops that I trust to work to high standards because I know that there are those out there that don't. So all I can say is that there are "good" and "not so good" operators all over the place, not just on Bali. SB is an excellent resource in find out about the especially good ones, IMO.
guy dscuba
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I have it on good authority that they were on Blue Corner - a notorious dive-site. I would like to point out that there are plenty of very (very) good and responsible dive-operators around Bali, some foreign owned, some locally. This kind of negligence (diving at 16:30 on a full moon with falling tide at a dive-spot like that with 1 1/2 dive professionals - Pardon my sarcasm) is not the norm, but there are enough companies like this around to be worrying, and makes it worth watching who you are diving with.
Some operators won't even dive at Blue Corner. At all.
What made me laugh (albeit metaphorically) was a comment in a blog that the DM has (see bloglink above) that her little torch saved all of their lives.
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Two of us visited Bali earlier this year. Everything arranged through Bali Scuba, a BSAC Resort. From my experience they provide a safe and good service.
So not all Bali operators are bad.
IMO, the inexperienced DM is not as responsible here as the DC she's working for.
Ultimately, it's the DC managers responsability to hire experienced DM, plan their dive trips with their brain instead of their wallet & keep safety in mind instead of just thinking about $$$ when diving the area. Obviously here safety is accessory, the main interest being cutting the corners to make $$$.
This kind of op should be banned without any further notice and instructors in charge should be expelled from professional associations with their name written in bold to make sure they can't work anymore in the industry and everybody understand it's not all about making $$$ but safety & enjoyment first.
Unfortunately I don't see this happen ... and no doubt we will see future incidents or accidents caused by such only $$$ focused operators.
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Internet_Pawn
Registered
Don't know about the other two, but the Sara and Caroline in the FB photo are definitely not the same two. Caroline (PADI AOWD) has 86 OW dives, including drift dives, Sara (PADI Rescue) has around 100. I appreciate that it doesn't make them advanced divers, but it doesn't mean they are completely green. I'm not a diver, but getting my daughter back safely from this dive has made me more aware of what people go through when diving trips go wrong. Even though they all ended up safe, with nothing worse then blisters and jellyfish stings, I'd like to see that the right lessons get learned from this. You people can help.
With hindsight, there may have been questions they should have asked before going with this dive company. They knew it was run by an experienced local diver and that the school was properly accredited PADI dive centre. Reviews of the centre were generally good, with any criticisms relating mainly to the quality of food and the friendliness of some staff. On this dive, things only went wrong when they surfaced after the dive, which is when deficiencies in staffing and equipment became apparent. Most of the reports in the press give an incorrect picture of what happened, which isn't at all helpful when it comes to learning lessons.
From the perspective of the divers, everything about the dive ran according to plan. There were no issues under the water with regard to the strength of the current or of keeping the group together. The eight surfaced on schedule, in the right place and at the right time. Four of them, including the manager/owner? of the centre, had conserved their air better than some of the others and had decided to continue the dive. As it turned out, these four were the lucky ones.
On surfacing, it became apparent that the dive boat hadn't followed the divers, but instead had remained at anchor at the start of the dive. It wasn't there to pick up the eight, which left them drifting in a surface current that was running faster than they could kick. When the dive boat eventually appeared, the four who had continued, because they had remained submerged for longer, were closer to the pick up point and were found by the dive boat after about an hour. The dive boat was then unable to find the other eight divers, who would have drifted further.
I don't know what constitutes a normal risk assessment for a dive like this, but it strikes me that there was no concept of 'what if' about the plan for this dive:
- The dive boat left it to chance that the divers would surface at the correct position (and that the boat would be at the same position).
- Even though it didn't happen here, any diver surfacing early would have been left drifting.
- The boat didn't appear to have a functioning radio or telephone, so it was unable to summon help. The boat had to leave the area to get help.
- The dive flag/float was too small to be seen easily, given the size of the swell.
- For a dive that was scheduled to finish late afternoon, the need for lights in the event of any mishap should have been foreseen. It was only by chance that one diver had a torch.
- Only one diver had a whistle as part of their equipment.
- You have to question the navigation skills of a skipper, if they can't find a position and calculate the current running there.
- I'm surprised the party split up, particularly when they were understaffed for the number of divers (based on what I've read here). The most experienced DM stayed with the smaller group. As it was, this turned out for the best as the group of eight all worked well together.
As I say, I have no idea of what constitutes 'normal' for this. It does seem to me that there is very little margin for error and that you put your life in the hands of someone on a boat who you are unlikely to know particularly well and who may not have the commitment and skill they should have. They may not even be a diver. Your safety relies more on the dive boat skipper than it does on the DM. We understand the skipper of this boat is likely to be charged, but that won't stop the same thing happening again. What might stop it happening again is people getting the right information about this.
From what I've read and heard, the divers may have underestimated the difficulty of the dive, but that wasn't the cause of the problem. The dive went perfectly to plan until they surfaced. They were let down by a dive boat. The local police appear to agree.
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Thank you very much for your post, Internet_Pawn. Those are really excellent questions you're asking and points you're making.
It's not how an operation deals with things when all goes well that matters--it's easy to have happy divers and good reviews when there aren't any problems to cope with. What's more important is how prepared an operation is to handle a crisis: are the dive professionals truly professional with training in emergency management and solid local experience? Or are they perhaps tourists with a DM cert who work illegally in exchange for free dives and maybe a place to sleep and who are unfamiliar with local dive sites and conditions? Or even local-hires with inadequate training? What safety equipment does the boat carry--radio? GPS? emergency oxygen? What is the protocol for recall to the boat in case of emergency (i.e., how will divers in the water from one group know that a diver from another group has had an issue and the boat needs to leave the area, so everybody has to re-board ASAP); and conversely, how does the boat ensure that the divers are not in any need of assistance from the crew?
As well, part of the issue revolves around what corners need to get cut when a dive operator offers tours at a price below market value. How does the operator economize? Do they serve only snacks and no proper meal on board the boat? Do they hire inexperienced guides (who may earn less than what the experienced ones can demand)? Do they put more divers with each guide so that they need fewer guides? Do they lease a boat that lacks maintenance or is skippered by a captain who naps while the divers are submerged? Is rental equipment adequate for the conditions? Clearly, some of these cost cutting measures, such as the guide's experience, are linked to the safe conduct of the excursion and some, such as the quality of the mid-day meal, are not.
The sad fact is that you don't get what you don't pay for. So if the op is underpricing tours in order to get a larger volume of business, costs need to be cut somewhere. The questions are: what's getting cut, and does that effort at economizing also jeopardize people's well-being.
It's not how an operation deals with things when all goes well that matters--it's easy to have happy divers and good reviews when there aren't any problems to cope with. What's more important is how prepared an operation is to handle a crisis: are the dive professionals truly professional with training in emergency management and solid local experience? Or are they perhaps tourists with a DM cert who work illegally in exchange for free dives and maybe a place to sleep and who are unfamiliar with local dive sites and conditions? Or even local-hires with inadequate training? What safety equipment does the boat carry--radio? GPS? emergency oxygen? What is the protocol for recall to the boat in case of emergency (i.e., how will divers in the water from one group know that a diver from another group has had an issue and the boat needs to leave the area, so everybody has to re-board ASAP); and conversely, how does the boat ensure that the divers are not in any need of assistance from the crew?
As well, part of the issue revolves around what corners need to get cut when a dive operator offers tours at a price below market value. How does the operator economize? Do they serve only snacks and no proper meal on board the boat? Do they hire inexperienced guides (who may earn less than what the experienced ones can demand)? Do they put more divers with each guide so that they need fewer guides? Do they lease a boat that lacks maintenance or is skippered by a captain who naps while the divers are submerged? Is rental equipment adequate for the conditions? Clearly, some of these cost cutting measures, such as the guide's experience, are linked to the safe conduct of the excursion and some, such as the quality of the mid-day meal, are not.
The sad fact is that you don't get what you don't pay for. So if the op is underpricing tours in order to get a larger volume of business, costs need to be cut somewhere. The questions are: what's getting cut, and does that effort at economizing also jeopardize people's well-being.
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