- Messages
- 6,921
- Reaction score
- 25
- # of dives
- I just don't log dives
On my very first ocean dive, I saw someone with the sort of skill level people here call 'vacation divers' get herself into air trouble and then have difficulty ascending. The DM with that group had to leave the rest of them and escort her to the surface ... then she had a fit about being too tired to swim the fifty yards back to the boat in a flat calm. It turned out to be just an inconvenience, but I could easily see where she could have been hurt and she was clearly on the edge of panic. This particularly struck me since if Sabbath hadn't been with me, this woman would have been my instabuddy.
That's actually pretty common. Some paniced or nearly paniced divers turn into inert lumps once someone competent takes over. This isn't really an issue, since if someone needs assistance/rescuing, I'm not letting go until they're back on the boat and a slow "tired buddy" tow in calm water isn't much more work than swimming alone.
This is just a personal rule and isn't in any of the OW books I've seen, but I don't give anybody a chance to kill themselves (or me) twice on one dive.
Terry