Honest question for you dive masters instructors out there

[boulderjohn]

Also your minor children. Courts have held that your waiver does not and could never apply to them. I saw a dive shop here in NJ driven bankrupt and closed despite the dead diver's waiver, based on a suit brought by the diver's spouse in the name of the children. They were awarded serious money because he was a young professional. He drowned in a small inlet, about 8 feet of water. My recollection is that he was found tangled in the remains of an old RR bridge that he was not supposed to go near. It appears that fishing lines and a strong current at the narrow bottleneck under the bridge pulled the regulator out of his mouth. He was on his certification open water checkout. Visibility there is limited. It can take only seconds for a panicked new diver to die in that kind of situation.

In that case I am pretty sure that the fact that the children were involved had little to do with it. The liability waiver will absolve the operator or instructor in most cases that arise in typical diving situations, but not in cases of gross negligence or violation of accepted standards. If he had been a certified diver hopping of the boat and then going where he was warned not to go, then I doubt there would have been a case. It is different, however, when you are talking about scuba instruction. Instructors are held to very stringent standards, and if an instructor intentionally put a student into a situation as dangerous as you say and did not maintain close supervision and control at all times, then the liability waiver will not be much help. I would assume the instructor was also expelled from his or her agency. There was a similar situation in Virgina this summer.

 

[scubadada]

Wow, 2 theads and 139 replies regarding whether a DM should do a valve check before you enter the water. If you object, say so before the DM checks your valve. It's not that difficult to make sure the valve is mostly or entirely counterclockwise, i.e. open. I'm still going to check by SPG just before I enter the water anyway.

 

[Herb-alaska]

Actually it really is beyond the question of the valve check it has progressed to. Does the DM have the right and legal /moral responsibility to adjust your equipment to what he feels is acceptable when the diver says no thank you please don't touch my gear l with the follow up question of if the diver with holds a tip because the DM insisted to adjust gear is the diver an JA

personally I doubt we will ever answer this question because the courts are fickle and the shops are rightfully scared of the costs of defending themselves

but maybe we can all learn to be more diplomatic about it

 

[scubadada]

I've never had a DM suggest "adjusting" my gear and don't understand what this is about. Tipping is a personal choice, make it. I generally appecicate the assistance of a DM.

 

[jar546]

Howard, you really need to stop sugar coating your posts.


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[divewench1]

I'm an Instructor and guide in Bali, Indonesia. My question: would you object to me adjusting your gear if I noticed once underwater that your occy or SPG was dragging along the corals? (this often happens with my guests, who can be dripping in expensive kit-all the gear, no idea- but haven't bought the simplest of plastic clips for their hoses)

As part of the service here in Bali, it is normal for the equipment staff at dive centre to assembly (and disassemble to wash) your kit, however, they are quite happy not to touch if a guest so requests. Personally, I let them set up my gear, then do the final check and any necessary adjustments myself, but I don't object as I've never had them turn ''off'' air instead of ''on''.

I recently had one Russian lady guest who refused to try on the rental wetsuit at the dive centre, then complained on the boat as she struggled to get it onto her ample curves. Only when she had zipped up completely did her husband tell her she had it on backwards. She also set up her kit by putting regs on the tank first, then the BC backwards, much to her husband's amusement.

 

[jar546]

Looks like it disappeared.


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[tomfcrist]

So if you popped to the surface after jumping in and were flailing around trying to turn your air on( after telling the DM not To touch your gear), would you also get pissed when the DM jumps in and saves your ass?

I ask because I have had to do this for "super divers" that are so competent that they asked me not to touch their gear in any way. I almost exclusively assume these days that a superbly overconfident customer on a dive boat probably doesn't know his ass from his elbow. If you are on my boat and decide not to tip me because I checked your air, that's fine.....ill do it anyway and avoid the lawsuit.

 

[DaleC]

I'm just glad, when reading this stuff, that I live in a region where divers are thought of as responsible, capable persons.

 

[aquaregia]

I don't particularly care for people checking my valve, but I'll just valve-check it and get on with life. I appreciate that they care, I suppose. Some sort of further adjustment, like "I bet you can't reach your knife" or "I'm moving your console because you're banging up the reef"... in theory it might be nice but I expect that I'd take a real bad attitude towards that unless they were one of my instructors or regular buddies.