diving accident in Anilao

[annie1021]

Lesson to be learn this incident, Is that even if you know the site you really have to have a LOCAL divemaster as PADI says always use a local guide because they are more oriented with the local currents. You are spending money for diving why not also spend money for a DIVEMASTER than spending money to hospital because of an accident, spending your life saying "IF I SHOULD HAVE..." or worsed lost your life for not hiring a divemaster because you want to save money.

If you want to do diving be ready to spend money for this sports. Diving is not a cheap sports!

 

[DevonDiver]

PADI say nothing of the sort.

What they do say is that the Open Water course 'qualifies divers to dive independantly, without professional supervision, to a maximum recommended depth of 18m/60ft'.

They also recommend that divers should recieve a 'local orientation' when diving in new and unfamiliar conditions. An orientation can vary between an informal verbal briefing, a guided dive or a formal 'Discover Local Diving' course.


There are two ways to assess the requirement for divemasters...

1) That divers should accept significant limitations in their capability and always ensure their safety by hiring an underwater babysitter.

2) That divers should ensure they recieve high quality training, that actually provides them with the skills, experience, knowledge and mindset to dive safely without reliance upon a professional (which is what PADI intend).

Babysitter or Good Training?

It's actually quite normal in many parts of the world to not have a divemaster. In most parts of the USA, Canada and Europe, divers will rarely have a divemaster guiding dives for them. Whilst the water conditions are typically much more demanding than tropical waters, newly qualified divers are expected to look out for themselves. Typically, divers just book spaces on charter boats, which are not much more than diver-orientated water taxis to the dive sites. No DM, no supervision - although the boat captain will typically provide the information that you need so that you can safely plan and prepare for your dive.

What causes problems? The lack of a divemaster.... or the unnecessary reliance on divemasters in the first place, that allows divers to become negligent in properly developing and maintaining their skills or adopting a more self-reliant, responsible attitude towards their diving?

 

[Osric]

Here is a disappointing article filled with potential misinformation and political hype to push the paper's perspective on this unfortunate accident and what should be done about it.

Scuba

Osric

 

[searider]

lesson for this, dont dive with out the assistance of local dive master/instructor. dont dive with out boat support shore entry of what ever.DONT FORGET the basic law of scuba diving, PLAN YOUR DIVE AND DIVE YOUR PLAN. always apply "WHAT IF" therefore if accident arise its not your fault, its fault by the people who have lack of of knowledge and due to negligence
of other people.
One more thing, every diving places has different local diving rules and regulations. every diving places has different diving hazard and danger no matter what is your training level and certifying agency.

 

[Osric]

Speculation/Theory

I am most inclined to think that the male diver was attempting to rescue the female by holding on to her as she lost control of her buoyancy. At some point they hit a threshold where the expansion of the air in their equipment was causing too fast ascent and at this time I'd imagine he turned his attention to his own BCD, barely succeeding in emptying it, by which time their ascent was going too fast. I am speculating that he was occupied with his own equipment in an attempt to explain why he couldn't dump the air from her BCD fast enough.

It's an unsatisfying theory. It seems to me we'll never know what really happened in this incident

Osric

 

[Matthew]

Lesson to be learn this incident, Is that even if you know the site you really have to have a LOCAL divemaster as PADI says always use a local guide because they are more oriented with the local currents. You are spending money for diving why not also spend money for a DIVEMASTER than spending money to hospital because of an accident, spending your life saying "IF I SHOULD HAVE..." or worsed lost your life for not hiring a divemaster because you want to save money.

If you want to do diving be ready to spend money for this sports. Diving is not a cheap sports!

If you believe you will panic, shoot up and die because of the current at twin rocks, you better spend the money first on proper training. Then get an experienced DM/guide to help maximize your diving experience and enjoyment.

Twin rocks is not the canyons.

 

[Matthew]

lesson for this, dont dive with out the assistance of local dive master/instructor. dont dive with out boat support shore entry of what ever.DONT FORGET the basic law of scuba diving, PLAN YOUR DIVE AND DIVE YOUR PLAN. always apply "WHAT IF" therefore if accident arise its not your fault, its fault by the people who have lack of of knowledge and due to negligence
of other people.
One more thing, every diving places has different local diving rules and regulations. every diving places has different diving hazard and danger no matter what is your training level and certifying agency.

True, I regularly lead dives in Anilao but I would never dare dive many PG sites without a local expert. but I dont see how this relates to this tragedy. If the victims got lost or blown away from the site, yours would have been perfect advice. But they died when I believe they should not have, for reasons we have yet to establish. Simply saying "dive with a dm" in this case is IMO very irresponsible.

 

[Matthew]

Here is a disappointing article filled with potential misinformation and political hype to push the paper's perspective on this unfortunate accident and what should be done about it.

Scuba

Osric

Thanks for the link. I am just curious as to which part/s of the article you find dissapointing? The information generally jives with previous reports, and personally I think it is relatively better written than previous articles. The author seems to have consulted resource persons who are knowledgeable about scuba and familiar with Anilao/Planet Dive.

 

[Tortuga68]

A lot of people saying dive with a DM... to me that implies two things:

1. The presence of a DM would have prevented this accident
2. The absence of a DM meant the divers were unable to prevent this accident

At best those are unknowns, at worst they are untrue

Some people reading this advice might also get the impression that, so long as they hire a DM, they'll be okay - this is definitely not true

In short, I don't think "they should have hired a DM & everything would have been okay" is the right solution to this incident

 

[DevonDiver]

Some people reading this advice might also get the impression that, so long as they hire a DM, they'll be okay - this is definitely not true

I agree 100%.

In fact, it is precisely this attitude that leads some divers into becoming so DM reliant in the first place.

A badly taught OW course, followed by the entire post-qualification experience gained whilst being baby-sat by an underwater 'ya-ya' leads to a mindset that entirely abdicates personal responsibility to an unknown third-party.

The presense or absense of a DM in this incident is complete irrelevant. The individual skills of two supposedly trained and competant divers is the issue.

Thanks for the link. I am just curious as to which part/s of the article you find dissapointing? The information generally jives with previous reports, and personally I think it is relatively better written than previous articles. The author seems to have consulted resource persons who are knowledgeable about scuba and familiar with Anilao/Planet Dive.

It does show more research than other articles. The only glaring errors were;

1) The confusion over the differences between DCI and DCS/Embolism.

2) Some random nonsense about exceeding her 'no-decompression' limit of 10m!?!

3) The rather ill-researched rant about the Advanced Open Water qualification, which shows a very typical misunderstanding about whatg that certification represents (too much focus on the word advanced whilst ignoring the words 'open water'...and a failure to research/comprehend PADI's definition of the cert level).

Bad journalism, but nothing worse than usual when reporters fail to do any real research about scuba.