Rose Robinson
Contributor
Dody,There has been a lot of threads about how a diver should introduce herself or himself to a new DS. I have a DM C- Card but I never claim I am a DM as I have never worked as such. I always say I am a Rescue Diver. 90% of the time, I dive with my wife as a buddy. I jump first, tell her I am ok and watch her jumping. I am more experienced than her and I want to be there if she has a problem (overweighted, valve problem,…).
Last week, diving in the Philippines, the DS decided that we would be three in a group. Two groups of 2 including the guide or DM and our group at the back. To make a long story short, the third « buddy » jumped without inflating his BCD and was probably overweighted. He immediately sunk. He was AOW, and should have been able to correct that rapidly but he was not. I saw it, went down in a rush but I could not equalize fast enough so had to slow down.
Eventually, the diver managed to to inflate his BCD and get back to the surface. A bit too fast though so we aborted the dive. Then, one Dive Director blamed me for not helping him and said I thought you were a rescue diver. I think he will never say that again after the sh*** I gave him but the point is:
1- If it was my wife, I would have risked rupturing my inner ear. I won’t do it for an insta-buddy.
2- I was a customer and not a guardian. Of course, you care for your buddy (even in a 3 guys team) but there are limits.
3- I should never have said that I am a rescue diver. Those folks believe that I would help them protecting their customers. From now on, I am just AOW with a 40 meters clearance.
Professional accreditations are ones own business, personal and private, period.
If for instance it's an advanced dive, and you can produce an AOW certification card, then that's all you need to produce.
This is especially important if you only take courses to collect certification cards and have no practical experience in the specialty.
If you are a braggart, and want to brag about qualifications you don't have, even if you do have the specialty card, it won't be a matter of if you will find yourself in trouble, but when and how soon.
Rose