Frightening night dive

[Archangel]

I am now about to be a trainee rescue diver with an occasional thought of turning to the dark side... (GUE!) I am in no rush, however, and feel that I need to do a lot more dives before I extend my diving limits.

Wow Tom, good account and you handled yourself well.

NOW is the time my diving friend that you should give a strong and serious look at DIR and GUE. You forsake the fact that you look at 'more experienced divers' as icons, when you were the more experienced, careful, and competent diver of you two.

Leave the PADI and merit badged divebuddy mess that you have experienced behind, and step up to a small group of divers that you trust, and ONLY dive with them outside of your comfort level.

Oh, and start carrying TWO back up lights on your rig.

Take care,

Tevis

 

[TSandM]

ONLY dive with them outside of your comfort level.

I don't think GUE would advise this . . .

 

[Arizona]

Tom,

I agree with TS, without a back up the dive should have been reconsidered. Your logic to descend was pretty smart. A search initiated by your buddy should have began. You handled it well and we all learn from your sharing. I have only been on two night dives thus far, but would not go without a back up torch especially after reading your experience.

I am currently studying the PADI DM material and have learned they have a formal quality assurance program in place. They use the course evaluation questionnaires, letters and incident reports. You might consider writing a letter, maybe the instructor and DM will be reminded to follow correct procedures. The more people write the greater the escalation. You should list the other divers present and their respective certification. No one likes to be a snitch, but if you are silent others may be as well. It is worth a try as safety for everyone is involved. I can't believe a DM would leave you that way at depth in the dark.

Thanks for sharing,

AZ

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Thanks for sharing. It certainly sounds like you've analyzed this over and over and have learned from your mistakes. You even have the humility to share it with us so that we can also learn. Thank you for that. I'm actually less experienced than you are and it helps me a great deal to learn from others mistakes.

Now about your "buddy." I just cannot believe that there is a DM out there that would show up to a night dive without a light, accept their buddies primary light and then not be aware enough to notice that the buddy's backup failed and then leave them in the dark. I believe it happened, but I am without words. And this is a DM! Unreal. I'd say learn from what you did wrong, don't repeat those mistakes, but most importantly ... don't ever dive with that person again.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Who is more stupid? The diver who shows up for a night dive with no light or the diver who loans out his primary and decides to dive? It is surprising to me that you got really scared when the one back-up light failed. Didn't you consider this possibility when you loaned out the light? I used to do many solo night dives as a teenager with only one light, but I sure as heck was willing to deal with the consequences of the tiny little filament burning out.

Apparently you are finally learning that many certifications are boardering on meaningless, especially if the certified diver has no common sense. I don't even ask people what certification they have when going diving with them, I just try to inquire as to what experience they have. Two weeks ago, I was joking around with a buddy that I had done a number of dive tips with (including two, 4-day liveaboard trips), and I realized that I never mentioned that I was a PADI scuba instructor. DAMN, I got to get a bunch more of those PADI patches!

 

[dave4868]

Tom, although I am not a fan of buddy diving, you and your group would be the kind of dive buddies I'd be happy to dive with anytime!

You all demonstrated excellent knowledge and training. (Not including the DM in question, of course.)

To cut a long story short, I complained to PADI (UK) who currently feel this individual is fit to teach despite numerous shocking practices being brought to their attention.

Hopefully, you've created a "paper trail" with some certified letters.

At this point I suggested she turn on her torch. "I haven't got one. I've never done a night dive." came the reply. Thinking more about the dive than anything I handed her my main torch and took out my back-up. I was uneasy, but I figured that she had been diving a lot longer than I and she was also more qualified. I figured she knew what she was doing. In fact I thought she was going to be wary of my beginner's techniques and resent being with a newbie.

I don't blame you a bit for not interrogating her about her apparent lack of foresight or experience. As you said, you were preoccupied with dive prep.

I tend to make a similar mistake, that is, I expect buddies to volunteer info about their deficiencies or concerns. More than once, I've kicked myself for not broaching the subject directly.

After a hurried conference hanging on to the wreck, we performed a quick search then headed straight for the line. After our safety stop we surfaced to find my buddy calmly smoking a cigarette having gotten changed and packed away her kit. As we left the water she refused to talk about the incident or even acknowledge that anything unusual had happened. As a group we talked this incident over for weeks but the DM never said one word about it to me.

So many things went wrong that we could not ignore the near disaster. Suffice to say that we, as a group, are a LOT more strict about EVERYTHING. I survived a potentially terrifying experience and have learned so much. Hindsight is a wonderful way to look at something but it doesn't help at the time. We can only hope to learn the lessons it shows us.

Dive safe.

Tom

Tom, you've really provided an excellent lesson here, mostly by sharing what I consider to be your superb responses to a trying situation.

Your initial mistake of lending your primary light and not interrogating the deficient DM is a minor fault that I may have also committed.

I like your deliberate thinking process that helped you make good decisions once the problems arose.

Many thanks for sharing and kindest regards!

Dave C

 

[Arizona]

"Your initial mistake of lending of your primary light and not interrogating the deficient DM is a minor fault that I may have also committed."

Ditto for me, before reading this post.

Well put Dave!

 

[The Chairman]

Wow...

How does one become a DM without ever doing a night/limited visibility dive? It sounds that she has some holes in her training as well.

There is no need for finger pointing at this point. You have a clear idea of what you did right and what you did wrong. Kudos on your analysis of the incident. It seems you have left that river of Denial though it appears that your DM has kept her residence there.

I also find the appeal to go to GUE rather disengenuos as well. There are PLENTY of instructors who train and dive with safety as their utmost goal. The Instructor and the DM did not execute to the agency standards so there is no need to denigrate any agency for this incident.

 

[TSandM]

You gotta forgive Tevis -- He was hitting the KoolAid a little hard last night

And the OP DID say he was considering GUE training . . .

 

[Steve50]

Hi Mauifish.

Keep the comments coming! What should I have done upon finding myself in the dark on the bottom of the sea?

Tom

suggest

Whenever diving with a new buddy, have the "what will we do if we get separated" talk and then follow what you agree upon. Not so sure it would have helped with that buddy.