On a holiday in Turkey I signed up for a AOW course. On the first dive I was buddied with the instructor and two experienced divers buddied together. For the first dive a limit of 50 bar was set for our return and we visited a wreck which being my first was great. Our depth was 20m and when I reached 50 bar I let my buddy know. He acknowledged the 50 bar reading but motioned for me to continue. When I reached 10 bar I reminded him but he indicated that he had plenty of air and for me to finish my tank. Only when I struggled to get air from my tank did he give over his octopus. We linked up but continued on going deeper and away from the boat and the dive continued for 20 minutes. I was relieved to get back to the boat and nothing was said. I don't think he had much English and if he did I couldn't see him using it anyway. I had mixed feelings about the dive as on the one hand I'd ran out of air and experienced that but then the guy was a bit reckless. What's standard practice in that scenario?
Dodgy Instructor
- Thread starter Galileo
- Start date
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JamesK
Contributor
The guy was a certified stroke and is going to get himself or someone else killed! You say he was an instructor? I would report him to whatever agency you were using. That simple. He should not be doing any kind of instruction. To take a student deeper while breathing the same tank is simply ignorrant. Personally, I would have not let my tank run dry, and if it got close and he did not surface, I would have left him.
Galileo,
I am glad to hear you made it through this experience OK.
First thing you should do is contact whatever agency he is an instructor for and report this incident. By encouraging you to use your whole tank he not only endangered your life and his life but also future divers who could find out he does this and feel that since he does it and survives that it must be OK.
Never let yourself get in a situation you are not confortable with. If you have to drag him to the surface or leave him there when you get low do it. You notified him that you were low on air and that you were going up. If he acknowledged your singnal but doesn't follow you up it is he who left his buddy not you.
I hope that you understand how dangerous this situation is.
Dive Safe.
Chad
I am glad to hear you made it through this experience OK.
First thing you should do is contact whatever agency he is an instructor for and report this incident. By encouraging you to use your whole tank he not only endangered your life and his life but also future divers who could find out he does this and feel that since he does it and survives that it must be OK.
Never let yourself get in a situation you are not confortable with. If you have to drag him to the surface or leave him there when you get low do it. You notified him that you were low on air and that you were going up. If he acknowledged your singnal but doesn't follow you up it is he who left his buddy not you.
I hope that you understand how dangerous this situation is.
Dive Safe.
Chad
Ontario Diver
Guest
At the risk of stating the obvious....
Report the instructor. When you ran low on air, the dive was over and all four should have returned to the boat. PERIOD! With you hanging off of his Octopus, how could he have helped one of the other divers if they had a problem? He placed all of your lives in danger.
Second - retake your course. Between the instructor's minimal english skills and his failings that you did note, you may have missed other important pieces of information. As well, you may well benefit from doing these dives in your own neck of the woods. (this will also answer your question on how to handle this problem...)
Third, don't let this stop you from diving. I have been blessed with great instructors and great buddies. I hope that you find the same.
Fourth, put some information into your profile so people on this board can help you find shops/instructors/buddies if you ask.
Have fun.
Report the instructor. When you ran low on air, the dive was over and all four should have returned to the boat. PERIOD! With you hanging off of his Octopus, how could he have helped one of the other divers if they had a problem? He placed all of your lives in danger.
Second - retake your course. Between the instructor's minimal english skills and his failings that you did note, you may have missed other important pieces of information. As well, you may well benefit from doing these dives in your own neck of the woods. (this will also answer your question on how to handle this problem...)
Third, don't let this stop you from diving. I have been blessed with great instructors and great buddies. I hope that you find the same.
Fourth, put some information into your profile so people on this board can help you find shops/instructors/buddies if you ask.
Have fun.
danceswithoctopus
Guest
ditto to all of the above. Report him to the agency. Retake your certification. You might be able to save a buck by explaining what happened to your LDS and that you are getting a lot of input from some pretty experienced divers who are telling you to re-certify.
It's criminal of this dorque to do that to an OW student who wouldn't have developed the confidence or judgement to know to ditch the group and surface.
By all means, get back in the water. And as Ontario says, there are plenty of people here who can recommend good instructors and good dive buddies.
Stay wet!
It's criminal of this dorque to do that to an OW student who wouldn't have developed the confidence or judgement to know to ditch the group and surface.
By all means, get back in the water. And as Ontario says, there are plenty of people here who can recommend good instructors and good dive buddies.
Stay wet!
tinman
Contributor
This incident is shocking, more so for the fact that this was an instructor...
I agree with the previous comments. You were low on air and notified your wish to surface/go to safety stop. Instructor should have followed. If he disagreed then I would have surfaced without him to protect MY safety. His SOP is to surface if he loses his buddy. If he doesn't then he's narc'd or stupid and you made best efforts to rectify the situation. Language & cultural barrier issue is an interesting one - being Macho and facing death is not attributes I'd want in a dive buddy but might be found in certain personalities you face overseas...
I agree with the previous comments. You were low on air and notified your wish to surface/go to safety stop. Instructor should have followed. If he disagreed then I would have surfaced without him to protect MY safety. His SOP is to surface if he loses his buddy. If he doesn't then he's narc'd or stupid and you made best efforts to rectify the situation. Language & cultural barrier issue is an interesting one - being Macho and facing death is not attributes I'd want in a dive buddy but might be found in certain personalities you face overseas...
Hunt him down like a dog! This is actually not that uncommon. I hear of worse. What was the agency? PADI standards limit the first dive to 40 feet. Air is considered required equipment for a student diver.
In some parts of the world, this macho attitude is not all that uncommon. No offence to our friends in the Mediterranean region, but it is most common around tht part of the world. One phrase I'll never forget is "Manometer, I don't need a sissy manometer". This coming from a diver in a group who had no guages, no octo, and no brains! They all laughed when they saw what I had, which in most other places on this watery planet, is considered bare minimum. It was common place too see them pop to the surface with dry tanks, after hitting the bottom of the sea bed. (about 100 metres). Their firm belief was that if they are real men, they would not succumb to any "sissy illness". Oh and their views on women and scuba, I cannot repeat in polite company.
Needless to say part of the stories they like to tell, revolves around who has died and when. Why was I not surprised.
It was a day on the Med that made me come away glad I don't have to put up with these walking corpses on every dive. It's not the norm, but it is common. Turkey will fall into this macho region very nicely. I'll bet they all smoked like mad, and had a few drinks before the dive as well?
Needless to say part of the stories they like to tell, revolves around who has died and when. Why was I not surprised.
It was a day on the Med that made me come away glad I don't have to put up with these walking corpses on every dive. It's not the norm, but it is common. Turkey will fall into this macho region very nicely. I'll bet they all smoked like mad, and had a few drinks before the dive as well?
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