Frightening night dive

[The Chairman]

Nothing wrong with GUE training, but this is obviously not to PADI standards either. Why fault the agency when this is an ID-Ten-T moment?

No matter what agency you cert with or continue to learn from, you are going to find those who would "stretch" the rules to their own peril. Some do it without any thought and others do it consciously. Here we have a DM without a single night dive. NOT ONE. Both the DM and the DM's instructor have clearly violated the standards of every agency out there. The OP was looking to his "leader" for direction as most of us do. He did a "Trust Me" dive and hopefully he has seen the fallacy in his actions.

 

[ClayJar]

I have certainly not had anything quite this amazing happen to me when dealing with dive professionals (as it were). Early in my diving, however, I did have several less profound occasions to teach me that just because someone has a title does not mean you can assume they know a particular thing better than you do.

The first time was a DM scolding me in class (in front of my buddy) for doing lift bag work off the bottom and slightly head down (so as not to stir up the "silt" on the bottom of the pool). Later, I discreetly asked the instructor about it, and he was flabbergasted that anyone would say that.

Later, a DM on a boat scoffed (yes, he really did actually scoff) at the pair of 2-pound weights I had on a cam band to trim myself out horizontally. The funny thing was, the long-time instructor who had a class on the boat had just complimented me for thinking about my trim and working it out with some trim weights. (We all had a good laugh at that DM's expense later, and several divers learned something about trim thanks to him.)

Anyway, having a "trust me" dive go horribly wrong (yet without ending in an accident) sounds like it was an excellent learning experience. With the number of stories I've read about people missing signs that later scream about an obvious problem developing, I can only do my best to try not to make another, eh?

 

[Jasonmh]

Thanks for sharing your experience Tom. It sounds like you learned alot that night, and thankfully everyone walked away ok from it. Without picking everything apart, as I am sure you have done, and others will do for you, it sounds like you did a great job of staying calm and not panicing. No matter what training or level, not panicing is always a massively important step in dealing with a situation like the one you found yourself in, so congratulations for that.

 

[DeepBound]

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

I would have sent up a safety sausage / SMB with a line, then reel the line back up as I ascended, staying a bit negative all the time to your ascent rate would be based on how fast you were reeling the line back in. Once on the surface wait for a bit to see if buddies come up, then swim for shore.

Of course, doing this requires having an SMB and being able to deploy it in the dark there's something to learn for next time you're in a similar situation

 

[Nay]

It's my understanding (I could be wrong) that one of the two required dives for the PADI Advanced Open Water is a night dive.

Obviously this person's instructor wasn't all about the rules anyway so I shouldn't be surprised but how do you get that far without a night dive?

(Not so patiently waiting for the weather to warm up so I can night dive more.)

 

[Divin'Papaw]

It's my understanding (I could be wrong) that one of the two required dives for the PADI Advanced Open Water is a night dive.

Obviously this person's instructor wasn't all about the rules anyway so I shouldn't be surprised but how do you get that far without a night dive?

(Not so patiently waiting for the weather to warm up so I can night dive more.)

Not any more. Only the deep and navigation dives are required. The other three are completely optional, as long as they are three different specialty dives.

 

[DeepBound]

It's my understanding (I could be wrong) that one of the two required dives for the PADI Advanced Open Water is a night dive.

Obviously this person's instructor wasn't all about the rules anyway so I shouldn't be surprised but how do you get that far without a night dive?

(Not so patiently waiting for the weather to warm up so I can night dive more.)

I got my PADI AOW without doing a night dive. We did deep dive, search and recovery dive, peak performance bouyancy dive, nagivation dive, and wreck dive (on a submerged schoolbus). The only mandatory ones are deep dive and navigation.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I got my PADI AOW without doing a night dive. We did deep dive, search and recovery dive, peak performance bouyancy dive, nagivation dive, and wreck dive (on a submerged schoolbus). The only mandatory ones are deep dive and navigation.

Those are pretty standard. They are the exact five dives that I did. Some folks throw in a photography specialty if they have a camera.

 

[DiverBeth]

Glad you were able to come through the experience ok. On my first night dive the light (rented) I was using went out on me. It was a fairly shallow dive 35' and this was my first dive trip. I switched the light on and off a couple of times and nothing happened. I then gave it a whack with my hand and it went on. I kept close to the rest of the group making sure I could see their lights in case mine went out again, it didn't. After that trip I bought my own set of lights and now I even have a backup for my backup.

 

[lmorin]

Mojokelt--Just out of curiousity, did anyone doing the dive have a tank light? Doesn't sound like you or your "buddy" had one. If not, why not? Would tank lights have helped?