Todd Dicker
Registered
So, real advice needed here. My inclination is to go back to this dive shop and complain, but I also have a "suck it up, things happen" tendency to want to brush it off--okay, more like "man up and don't admit it pissed you off" is closer to it:
Yesterday was the open water dive for my drysuit class. We did a boat dive in 50 feet of 47 degree Lake Michigan water. The group was an instructor and four students.
We descended the anchor line to the bottom, and I dropped to my knees and tried not to stir up too much silt, but the group wasn't quite as gentle and we silted out pretty quickly and visibility dropped to near zero. The instructor got close to my face and gave me the "stay right there" sign.
That was the last I saw of any diver for fourteen minutes. I had my dive light on and pointed it around to make me visible. There was no current, and no waves, so I knew I could ascend and the boat would be close, so I never felt in danger, and I'm a firefighter who trains for zero visibility search and rescue so I wasn't panicked. But I WAS pissed off. My instructor swam off and left me on the bottom in 47 degree, freaking cold water, sitting still so I was getting even colder, and fourteen minutes (according to my dive computer profile) has gone by. I also was thinking about how an Instructor should be aware of where he students are at all times, and this one clearly didn't know where I was. I should also say that I am new to cold water diving, and clearly didn't have enough air in my drysuit (I now understand) so I was a lot colder than I should have been. But it's my first open water drysuit dive, and that's what the training is for.
At the end of fourteen minutes, anther student descended on top of me. We exchanged "what's happening now?" signs, and clearly he had no idea what to do either, but he gave the "let's go up" sign, so I did.
At the surface, the Instructor said, "I should have told you guys that if we're separated, wait a couple minutes then come back up to regroup" and he began talking about going back down. By that time, I no longer had any confidence in this guy. So I listened to the little voice in my head that said "don't go down with him."
Like I said, I'm a full time paramedic/firefighter. I'm rarely in this situation, but when that little voice is telling me not to do something, I have to respect it. I hear too many stories of guys who get seriously hurt or killed and they were hearing that same voice but ignored it to "be brave."
So, am I unreasonable pissed? Should I be furious? Or does **** just happen, move on, and chalk it up to learning? I'd be interested in other opinions.
Yesterday was the open water dive for my drysuit class. We did a boat dive in 50 feet of 47 degree Lake Michigan water. The group was an instructor and four students.
We descended the anchor line to the bottom, and I dropped to my knees and tried not to stir up too much silt, but the group wasn't quite as gentle and we silted out pretty quickly and visibility dropped to near zero. The instructor got close to my face and gave me the "stay right there" sign.
That was the last I saw of any diver for fourteen minutes. I had my dive light on and pointed it around to make me visible. There was no current, and no waves, so I knew I could ascend and the boat would be close, so I never felt in danger, and I'm a firefighter who trains for zero visibility search and rescue so I wasn't panicked. But I WAS pissed off. My instructor swam off and left me on the bottom in 47 degree, freaking cold water, sitting still so I was getting even colder, and fourteen minutes (according to my dive computer profile) has gone by. I also was thinking about how an Instructor should be aware of where he students are at all times, and this one clearly didn't know where I was. I should also say that I am new to cold water diving, and clearly didn't have enough air in my drysuit (I now understand) so I was a lot colder than I should have been. But it's my first open water drysuit dive, and that's what the training is for.
At the end of fourteen minutes, anther student descended on top of me. We exchanged "what's happening now?" signs, and clearly he had no idea what to do either, but he gave the "let's go up" sign, so I did.
At the surface, the Instructor said, "I should have told you guys that if we're separated, wait a couple minutes then come back up to regroup" and he began talking about going back down. By that time, I no longer had any confidence in this guy. So I listened to the little voice in my head that said "don't go down with him."
Like I said, I'm a full time paramedic/firefighter. I'm rarely in this situation, but when that little voice is telling me not to do something, I have to respect it. I hear too many stories of guys who get seriously hurt or killed and they were hearing that same voice but ignored it to "be brave."
So, am I unreasonable pissed? Should I be furious? Or does **** just happen, move on, and chalk it up to learning? I'd be interested in other opinions.