Do not ever say you are a rescue diver

[Rob9876]

A perfect reason not to dive Cozumel.

While a DM is required to be in the water with divers in the Cozumel marine park (which encompasses most of the recreational dive sites), different dive ops handle that in different ways. If you go with a dive op who tends to attract more experienced divers, then often they will let everyone "dive their own dive" and one does not have to stay with the group and can surface on their own DSMB with no issues - they are experts at following bubbles, and usually the boat is there before the safety stop is over.

 

[uncfnp]

@Dody

You are on a dive boat. First dive of the day. Wall dive. You jump with your buddy.

You see a member of another buddy group, a man you met on the boat earlier in the trip. He’s in his 80’s. Now he is over the wall and still descending. He has his inflator hose up like he is trying to inflate but just keeps descending. Bottom is at about 1000 feet. The older diver’s buddy hasn’t reacted.

What do you do? He isn’t your buddy. You have ear issues. Your buddy wife is there with you. What do you do with that rescue card? Do you go to help?

 

[SlugLife]

@Dody

You are on a dive boat. First dive of the day. Wall dive. You jump with your buddy.

You see a member of another buddy group, a man you met on the boat earlier in the trip. He’s in his 80’s. Now he is over the wall and still descending. He has his inflator hose up like he is trying to inflate but just keeps descending. Bottom is at about 1000 feet. The older diver’s buddy hasn’t reacted.

What do you do? He isn’t your buddy. You have ear issues. Your buddy wife is there with you. What do you do with that rescue card? Do you go to help?

Dody obviously did try to help.

 

[BlueTrin]

If you aren’t very close it’s gonna be hard to catch someone falling, isn’t it?

As he falls he’ll fall faster and faster probably if he has gas in his BCD or drysuit?

 

[SlugLife]

How much of your bad experience during a dive where the DM gave superior service to someone else was really the responsibility of the operator who you liked just the day earlier, rather than the mix of people on the boat?

... Perhaps the poor diver has spent the time since raving about what a great day she had with better divers and a very attentive DM. Maybe that'd be some consolation to you.

In a customer & service-provider relationship, ABSOLUTELY it is the responsibility of the vendor, who accepted your money to provide the service you paid for. It is absolutely their responsibility to give you a reason to use their service, and to return for more.

Another customer ruined the experience? Again, that's on the service-provider to deal with that situation. It's not the another customer's job to make other customer's happy. There are numerous things the dive-operator could have done differently:

* Properly vetted any potential customer for skill and experience level.
* Offered a partial or whole refund.
* Had multiple dive-guides to manage multiple groups.
* Allowed advanced divers to go by themselves, if the dive was appropriate for that.
* Divide dive-charters into beginner/intermediate/advanced

...and more. I'm not a dive-boat operator, so I'm sure dive-boat operators who want to provide a good customer experience have far more or possibly better solutions. If another customer ruins my experience just by being there, it's not that customer's fault, they're just a customer. It's the operator's fault for not managing the situation.

I don't pay $100 for some stranger to have fun. However, if you're inclined that way, you're welcome to buy me a dive-charter.

 

[Soloist]

we aborted the dive

Sorry if this has already been addressed, but why did you entirely abort the dive? Especially when you (apparently) didn’t go deep due to an inability to equalize. Why pass up an opportunity to dive? Insist the captain reposition the boat and drop you again if necessary.

 

[uncfnp]

Dody obviously did try to help.

My question is about a true rescue scenario (and one that actually occurred). This thread was created based on a diver that might have needed assistance and devolved into bad buddies and using the rescue card to get placed on better dives. My question stands.

 

[tursiops]

My question stands.

You asked it to Dody. Did you want the rest of us to answer too?

 

[uncfnp]

Of course. It was meant to add to the discussion.

But I do hope Dody takes it seriously and thinks through his response before responding. I think the purpose of rescue diver has been lost in this monstrosity of a thread.

 

[tursiops]

@Dody

You are on a dive boat. First dive of the day. Wall dive. You jump with your buddy.

You see a member of another buddy group, a man you met on the boat earlier in the trip. He’s in his 80’s. Now he is over the wall and still descending. He has his inflator hose up like he is trying to inflate but just keeps descending. Bottom is at about 1000 feet. The older diver’s buddy hasn’t reacted.

What do you do? He isn’t your buddy. You have ear issues. Your buddy wife is there with you. What do you do with that rescue card? Do you go to help?

Rule 1. Better one problem than two.
It is a judgement call ----- I may start in his direction, but if my ears say no, then I don't go.
I'd look around to see if anyone else is nearby that could help and try and get their attention.