Diving Disaster in Italy

[cloudswinger]

It's helpful to me to see the mistakes you made. Although it makes no sense to me why you made some of them, especially at the equipment rental phase. Why would you accept a shredded wetsuit? Why don't you know about how much weight you'd need? You just look at the belt, see how much it has and ask for more or take some off. Yea, if it's equipment you haven't used, the weight would be a guess, so bring extras. And while your friend was overweighted, I would have just ditched some of the weight on the boat(or handed it to you, since you were obviously underweighted) and then tried again. I don't really see that that's a cause for completely calling a dive.

And regarding going past a certain depth, nobody can make me follow them. If they are going deeper that I want to go, I'm perfectly willing to let them keep on going especially if it's the DM. As far as I'm concerned, he's a guide. If he's doing a good job, and staying in an appropriate area for me, then I'll follow closely. If not, well, I may follow a little higher in the water column. The times we've gone on boats with DMs, they've had computers while we were diving tables, so we let them follow their profile and follow our own. Generally I'd prefer to follow the DM, because hopefully they have some insight into the area and can point out cool things, but I'm not going to kill myself over following him around. Same with safety stops. His profile will be different than mine or yours. I'm the customer, and as far as I'm concerned, they can all wait the extra few minutes it takes.

I do hope that once you gain the DM certification, that you remember these experiences and strive to not repeat them for your own customers. Be aware of the ones with the least experience and cater to them first, because they are the ones that most need your services. Remember that they don't have as much experience and training and don't expect them to be able to do certain skills like gear swaps. If they come with an regulator issue that can't be fixed, just point to the surface and wave goodbye, it's pretty obvious that should be the end of that dive.

 

[The Chairman]

"Trust Me" dives are a terrible way to dive. I agree with Zen that YOU and YOU alone are responsible for:

• Depth
• Time
• Safety Stop
• Gas (type and quantity)
• Equipment
• Assessing the Diving Environment

Abdicating your role for any of these puts you in a "Trust Me" scenario and quite often that puts you at unnecessary risk. I have but three rules of diving:

1. Don't stop breathing.
2. You can call a dive at anytime for any reason with no questions asked.
3. Never dive beyond your training, experience, equipment or buddy (Don't do "Trust Me" Dives).

You violated #2 and #3. Fortunately, you escaped with nothing but mental scarring and it seems you have learned from this.

HOWEVER, I agree with the OP that this operation should be avoided. Look at the other couple with far less experience. They were rightly mad at the circumstances they were thrust into as was the OP. Yes, you were given a lot of clues, and it seems that Denial is not just another river in Egypt. That's the big take away here. We often let circumstances whisk us along the tracks towards oblivion when in fact, we need to stop the train and take control of these circumstances or simply not dive.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Mitch,

I'm not long out of my DM course, and frankly, you really need to strongly think about why you want to be a DM and if you can handle the responsibility that comes with that role.

Every recreational class I've ever taken has included strong words about who is responsible for what on any given dive, and it always comes down to this: you are responsible for you. But as a DMC you know that you are responsible to be a ROLE MODEL for other divers. That is your number one job as a DM.

To be a role model you must be aware of your conduct as a diver -- and that includes when you are just diving for fun. That doesn't mean that minor mistakes or moments of forgetfulness should never be forgiven, but to completely ignore your training when you're 3/4 of the way through the course suggests that either you've had inadequate instruction or that you're not taking that instruction seriously enough.

I do thank you for your honesty in posting here, and you should be commended for that fact.

But you are entering the professional ranks (though I'd argue a DM is a para-professional, but that's a different discussion) and as such there is no excuse for your behavior here. If you can't take care of yourself and make the correct choices when you are presented with "red flags" that apply solely to yourself, how are you to respond when you have OW divers around you looking to you for leadership and direction, or to help solve underwater problems?

Perhaps you're going to be far better suited to those tasks for this experience. But frankly, I'd seriously recommend that you take a nice long time to reflect on what this says about your ability to function in the DM role when you so easily ignored your training and the voice in your head saying "*** ARE YOU DOING?!"

 

[raviepoo]

I can let the gear issues slide, even the fact that you didn't check your bouyancy at the surface. I don't understand this:

1 - Why didn't you call the dive when you realized you were WAY under weighted?
2 - If your computer indicated that you were on the verge of deco, why didn't you ascend?
3 - Why didn't you do a safety stop?

No diver is attached to a dive guide at the hip. You are responsible for your own safety. You should never follow a guide if it makes you uncomfrotable or pushed (or exceeds!) the limits of safe diving.

I regularly break away from guided dives and ascend with my buddy. I regularly extend my safety stops when I feel it is warranted. Even if the DM doesn't understand English it's easy to give him the signal for "Up" and wave goodbye, or communicate that you are doing a safety stop. So why didn't you?

He was at fault for guiding the dive badly. You were also at fault for following when you know better. No one can take a chamber ride for you. No one but you is responsible for your safety. Never forget that again.

 

[stefo2]

Pretty much everything has been said already. I'm just wondering about one thing - your secondary regulator was working fine, right? So why on earth did you agree to do a gear swap? I cannot possibly imagine how he could have made you do it without you actively going along with it - why when you were breathing comfortably from your octo?

 

[alcadhrim]

How many new divers have had a bad experience with this DM? Probably a lot.

Yes probably! And the worse is that a real newbie can't even realize how dangerous his experience was...

Alerting PADI is here a public health duty!

 

[AfterDark]

Zen maybe harsh, but not as harsh as the envrioment we play in. At any level of cert you have to be responsible for yourself. A new trainee is different they need to be handled. If you know how to dive you should know when you shouldn't dive.

 

[annlaur]

I did three trust-me dives on my second dive trip, right after OW certification, and ended up so scared I almost quit diving forever. Granted, I was a lot less experienced than the OP, but, like the saying goes, I believe there are things you only learn the hard way.
How many times do we hear people say in everyday situations : "I knew these things happened, but I never thought they could actually happen to ME !" ?

If the OP has only dealt with great ops and DMs in his diving experience, no matter what he's read or been told, he's not likely to acknowledge and obey the red flags at the moment. Afterwards, of course, it's always easy to see where we ********d up.

Mitchdives, your eagerness to dive that day, as well as your confidence in both your diving skills and previous experience, is probably what made you do those mistakes.
No big deal, you're alive and have learned all the great lessons the others have posted.

I remember my first post here, complaining about that unsafe dive op in Egypt. I too got flamed and blamed for the mistakes I made. Rightfully so.

But some board members also told me I'd be a better diver after that experience, and although I've only done 30 dives since then, I realize how right they were.
Now, whenever I plan a trip, I do research about the dive ops I might use, the sites I might dive, check the rental equipment thoroughly, hire a private DM if I haven't been in the water for some time, thumb dives if anything seems wrong and refuse to do anything that doesn't feel right. Hell, if someone -anyone- told me to jump off a bridge, I wouldn't. So why would I risk my life underwater because a DM wants me to ?

Thanks for posting your experience.

 

[pdelannoy]

Hey mitchdives,

I would be sure to post a trip report in the appropriate thread. Regardless of the above analysis, it would be useful to other divers to know about this dive service before traveling to Italy.

PD

 

[SteveC]

Welcome to the world of Scuba Board Mitchdives. As you can see it's a pretty tuff crowd