Diving Disaster in Italy

[newmexicodiver]

There are many red flags here that make this Not a " Near Disaster in Italy."
I just don't want people cuddling a rescue diver with 3/4 of His DM class done for being sheep. He has no excuse. A brand new diver gets a little more leeway.

I am just an OW with about 100 dives and I have told a DM AND shop no way no how will I accept that equipment and to get me something in decent condition. I have also thumbed a dive to the dive master because I felt it was more advanced than I thought I should go, and he was my instructor for my OW........

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

I am just an OW with about 100 dives and I have told a DM AND shop no way no how will I accept that equipment and to get me something in decent condition. I have also thumbed a dive to the dive master because I felt it was more advanced than I thought I should go, and he was my instructor for my OW........

Then you were what you were supposed to be. An independent diver. Exactly right!!

 

[Teamcasa]

I am just an OW with about 100 dives and I have told a DM AND shop no way no how will I accept that equipment and to get me something in decent condition. I have also thumbed a dive to the dive master because I felt it was more advanced than I thought I should go, and he was my instructor for my OW........

Well done. I'd dive with you anytime.

 

[Teamcasa]

You are absolutely right. This is the place where divers share experience to learn.

What should be taken away from this is simple. It is what I teach every Open Water Student..... YOU are responsible for your own safety. You do NOT listen to Anybody that contradicts your training, no matter who they are. On that note, do not blame others for bad decisions made by you. Their bad judgement should not be yours.

Now. What the OP should take away from this is: you are a rescue diver. You have no business writing this at all. It was not a near miss. You made poor decisions and were passive. Bad call. Learn from it and move on. Everyone should learn from this.

Ding! Exactly right! Just because you are on vacation and brought your C-card does not mean you left your training and decision making skills back at the hotel.

 

[openmindOW]

I just don't want people cuddling a rescue diver with 3/4 of His DM class done for being sheep. ... A brand new diver gets a little more leeway.

That's a fair point. A DM candidate gets a lot less leeway than a newbie.

But I stand by my basic point that new divers tend to follow the Instructions of the Baot Crew and the DMs. Heck, they're called Capains and DiveMASTERs. That sounds pretty authoritative to new divers.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

That's a fair point. A DM candidate gets a lot less leeway than a newbie.

But I stand by my basic point that new divers tend to follow the Instructions of the Baot Crew and the DMs. Heck, they're called Capains and DiveMASTERs. That sounds pretty authoritative to new divers.

Thanks.

I do agree with you that most new divers do blindly follow. Instructors like me, however, work really hard to produce independent thinking divers. I even try to trip mine up on their 4th dive, to see if they balk, like they should. I drive into their heads to obey their training and common sense more than others, that they rarely fall for anything I do. I really want my divers to think for themselves. I wish more did.

 

[jridg]

Unfortunately most have not had that kind of instruction.......

Bravo on your methods!

 

[diverrex]

I think a few of you might be a little harsh on the OP for following along, of course he should have more independent, but at least he admitted we was stupid for just following along. And give him credit for reporting his own mistakes so others might learn.

Now notwithstanding my slight defense of the OP the one thing that jumped out at me when I first read the OP was him following the divemaster to the surface without doing a saftey stop after having been deep for some time and his reporting of his computer in the "red". When I feel I should do a safety stop I do a safety stop, if the DM wants to go straight up he can go ahead, I'm still doing my stop. Same with my buddy, if they shoot through their stop as long as I think they did it consciously and they aren't in some kind of distress I'll stay down solo for my stop. Likewise if the DM does a 3 minute stop and I want to do 5 minutes they can wait for me on the boat, I'm doing my 5 minutes or whatever.

 

[Web Monkey]

Okay, sorry you had a bad time, but seriously. Working backwards here. You are in control of how deep you descend. He didn't "take" you anywhere. You also are supposed to be able to do an underwater gear removal at basic OW cert.

"Remove and "replace" is an OW skill. Gear Exchange isn't.

Everything could be attributed to language problems and poor quality rental gear, however once the reg started malfunctioning, the dive should have been over, regardless of what the DM wanted. The proper response to a request for an underwater gear exchange with an OW diver is a middle finger.

Without trying to sound like a broken record, this is yet another instance of a DM with poor judgement and no business leading a dive, and a diver that trusted a DM as his buddy. If the DM had been competent, he would have done as he was trained, ended the dive and shared air to the surface with the OP.

I now make it a point in OW class to explain to the students that if anything on a dive seems wrong, cancel the dive, and that the DM can not be trusted for anything except possibly finding pretty fish.

Terry

 

[drbill]

As the OP indicates, he ignored a series of red flags in this situation and a great deal of the responsibility (as he acknowledged) rests with him. Nonetheless, I am surprised at ZenDiver.3D's rather harsh replies... and the thanks given that member by people I respect.

I have seen operators like this in places I have dived. Of course under similar circumstances I have taken control of the situation and requested different gear or even thumbed the dive. However, this operator appears (from the post at least) to have been extremely improper in its approach and if the post is accurate (I wasn't there, nor was anyone else but the OP) deserves some harsh criticism as well.