First dives after OW cert - lesson learned

[CelticRavenVA]

When I get my tank, reg and BCD for the second dive, I look at the gauge and see that it's the tank from my first dive. I ask for a new tank, but am told that they didn't have any. Only 3 divers on the boat got new tanks for the second dive - DMs included. Is it too much to ask that if I pay $95 for a 2 tank dive, I ACTUALLY GET 2 tanks? So I have to use my first tank with only 2000 psi in it for the second dive. :upset:

The second dive was much better - the vis was 60 - 70 feet, I saw lots of turtles and a huge ray. Wished I could have stayed longer, but starting with a 2/3 full tank kind of prevented that.

When it was time to ascend, the DM grabbed the hands of the discover scuba people and started leading them up. I kept pace with them until I looked at my computer and saw that we were going way too fast - I was all the way in the red. I slowed down, and then tried to do my safety stop at about 12 feet. At some point the DM looked down and realized I wasn't ascending. She came down and tried to grab my hand to pull me up. I pointed at my computer, but she grabbed my console - and up to the surface I popped.

Sorry but I would not even come close to hesitation on reporting this. Lets see a DM that takes new divers on an unsafe ascent, poor equipment planning, total disregard for a safety stop, a dive master actually pulling me to the surface???? I am asuming you didn't turn them into shark chum with your dive knife... (I might have) I don't like when people jepordize my safety. At the very least the DM would have gotten the ass reaming of the century as soon as I had my reg out of my mouth and could scream at them. Oh yeah... screw that I wouldn't pay them either.

 

[seabat]

coberry7 posted....

"Chepar, you have been on this board for a while and have posted over 400 times. As I understand it, this was the 5th and 6th time you went diving??"

Umm...coberry7 check the date of the first post. The thread was just recently resurrected.

 

[coberry7]

Thanks, that answers one of my questions.

 

[Tao of the Dive]

If you know any names of any company or tour group who conducted that dive, you need to contact the certifying agency and advise them that this tour group(s) are conducting dives in this manner. If nothing else, you've logged a complaint at the very least. It may not do anything right now, but in the near future, when that company(s) kills somebody, then you may have helped seal the deal on any litigation that may take place. But it may also help prevent that death. We aren't obligated to speak up solely as divers in an instance like this, we are obligated as human beings to speak up, because our mere inaction may cause a human life to perish.

 

[fins wake]

NT

 

[chepar]

Wow, I didn't know this thread had been resurrected until just now. That was a long time ago. But to answer your questions, coberry, the boat was more like a floating barge - large and flat, with some sort of covering built up to provide sun shade. I don't recall the name of the operation that I went with, but the boat they advertised looked something like a large speedboat.

I think you have to keep in mind that these were my first dives after being certified. I had never been on a dive boat before, much less seen one. I didn't even really know how terrible this operation was - all I knew at the time was that it went against everything I learned in class and I didn't have fun. There's a lot to be said for learning from experience.

As far as anyone else noticing what was going on, I can't say. There were other divers that appeared to have some experience, and others were there to do "Discover Scuba". Having been diving now for over 2 years, now I can guesstimate when there are enough tanks - but on those dives? I was too busy trying to find a buddy to dive with and worrying about first dive jitters. As far as anyone else realizing the lack of tanks, I can't say. I do recall it was remarkably disorganized and chaotic.

Whether you believe my account or not is up to you, but frankly, I find your tone a little condescending - not to mention you didn't bother to check the date of the original posting. Perhaps you're accustomed to people wasting their own time and effort to make up accounts that are not true just to get a reaction out of people - that would not be unheard of online.

However, I have no need to justify myself or my experiences to you.

 

[Trisha]

Chepar -- have you heard anything further about those operators? Are they still operating "business as usual?" Did you get a refund?

 

[Tao of the Dive]

I suppose you refer to me, since my post was the most recent before yours. Firstly, my tone was not intended to be condescending. It was simply an attempt to affirm what you may have already suspected needed to be done all along. As for checking the date, I merely looked at the date of the most recent post. I didn't realize my response was not going ot be as timely as I had hoped it would be. 'My bad' would be the proper response I suppose if I felt like laying waste to the language.

As for the legitimacy of your post, I have no doubt that everything you posted was true. Which is all the more reason for me to hope that you reported those in charge of that "operation" to the proper liscensing agencies. Companies who operate in such a manner have no further business operating. It's also my hope that you contested the charge, and got your money back. I'm just glad the experience didn't sour your mouth to diving again.

 

[Groundhog246]

Chill TAO, I'm pretty sure he meant Coberry7, whose "tone" was most definitely off. I've been almost fooled a couple times by older posts found in a search, as the info with your avatar is always current (always shows current status and number of posts), not your status at the time of the post.

I'm also curious to hear if anything was resolved, refund, etc.

 

[chepar]

TAO- sorry, I was not referring to you, I was referring to Coberry7 when I said I thought his tone was condescending. As I was trying to quote from his post, I was having a hard time figuring it out - I was looking for the button that said "quote" like before. Didn't figure it out at the time, but have figured it out since.

As far as the issue being "resolved" - I called the company after to complain. They told me that they only arrange for people that sign up with them to go out on these diving excursions - and that no one from their company actually takes the divers out. Some sort of subcontracting agreement, I guess - they function as the middle man. There appeared to be people from multiple operations/shops all on the boat together, and it was unclear to me from their explanation if the owner of the boat employed the people with the unsafe dive practices, or were we being handled by another shop. At any rate, while I probably could have really pushed the matter, I didn't. Partly because I was still a wet behind the ears newbie and because I had no other experience to compare this to, so I wasn't sure how this compared to other boat dives.

I have no idea if this outfit is still in operation - I've forgotten the name completely. Unfortunately, there are a lot of these types of operations in business - they cater primarily to the Japanese tourists and their service is crappy because they know that culturally, the Japanese probably won't complain about it.