Hi from the uk!

[the_dumper]

Just found this site.......cool!
Look forward to talk diving with everyone in the future.
Special big hello to any other English divers out there.

 

[bebo]

Hope you have fun, new knowledge, old knowledge, new friends, etc...
Happy and safe diving!!!

 

[DandyDon]

Welcome to the party line. Hope you like it here between dives...

don

 

[scubaspider]

Hey mate,


Welcome to the board!!!


:spider:

 

[dlegros]

Greetings.

A big hello from sunny Brum

Dom

 

[SOUTH DEVON]

30 m try dive hmmm
I did my first dive in Barbados 40 feet and into shipwrecks and at one point I was left on my own to explore the shipwreck whilst the instructor went off holding hands with two young girls!
It's funny how they don't seem to worry about safety in the Caribbean, although I would definitely say it's much easier diving in the Caribbean than it is in the UK, I was really surprised at how much harder it is over here!
Welcome to the board !

 

[the_dumper]

Hey South Devon
Thanks for the kind welcome, your not wrong about the diving over here being easier and safety in the Carribean not really being an issue. I guess that you read my profile to refer to the 30m try-dive that I did, after a surface interval on the boat the second dive was not much better.
The main thing that I remember about the second dive was being chased by the divemaster who was wrestling with a 6 foot Moray eel. I remember not being as scared as I probably should have been due to the fact that we had spent the 90 minutes or so on the boat during the surface intervall drinking as much beer as possible.
Anyway to escape him I swam under a reef, again at 30m, and again on my own.
After about ten minutes or so exploring on my own I decided to go back to the boat as I was getting low on air (the only thing they showed us how to check), and was begining to sober up.
Once back on the boat I had a laugh with the DM about the moray incident, bought another beer and thought this is one cool sport I must do a course when I get Back to the UK.

 

[SOUTH DEVON]

Hey Guy
30 m and under the influence
apparently so I've heard your much less likely to get The Bends
in warm water , although as an instructor I expect you know this
what part of North London are you from ?
I was born and brought up in High Barnet !
Steve

 

[bebo]

I just have to hand it to you the way you can "trust" your life like that to people that are clearly mediocre at what they do. I'm a newbie at this of scuba diving, but what I'm not new at is being a client (in all the length of the word). I recently did my OW, in the caribbean I may add, and I couldn't feel more secure in the hands of my instructor. He could not be more professional, by the book, super-strict instructor. But then again, it could not be any other way because I would not allow it.
Alcohol? Erratic behavior? Diving alone?. No wonder how we never stop listening to sad incidents. Problems show by themselves without the need to call them, so why call them?
Don't get me wrong, this is not a lecture. I'm just worried for the sport that I've come to love so hard, so fast and for the people who practice it.

 

[the_dumper]

Yeah I knew when I wrote it I would get some stick, I guess I was trying to make a point about the lack of safety that I experienced in the Caribbean.
We had no intention of diving when we went to Cuba and knew absolutely nothing about it or the dangers of DCI.
I have always been a good swimmer 5 miles plus without much problem, so have no fear of water, maybe not a good thing, and we just assumed it was OK to dive to 30m on your own having consumed a fair amount of beer, as this is what everyone else was doing .
When I got back to the Uk and did a course (there is on PADI in Cuba because of the US sanctions) I was shocked at what we had been allowed to do.
I know you will find good and bad dive operations (note I am blaming the operators not the instructors) everywhere but the majority of horror stories that I get told about seem to occur in the Caribbean ( mainly Dominican Rep) and Turkey, maybe this is because a high percentage of English tourists travel to these places and when something does go wrong, or things are not quite as they should be as a dive school owner I get told about them.
It does seem to happen everywhere though, I was recently told about an Open Water diver teaching Open Water courses in one of the Spanish islands (won't name the island as I will get more stick).
I am now a very safe diver, I have to be if I get bent I can't work, I dive with two computers, back up tables and always plan my dives before hand. My sea dives are always done with twin everything and a buddy I can trust, we have dived about 200+ times together so I trust him, but hey now I know the dangers I can anticipate them.