In Coz: You, Your Buddy, Your Group and Your DM. Who should do what?

[flots am]

Why would anyone go to Cozumel to just dive sites with hard bottoms and no/low current (if there are any)?

IMO, Cozumel is a terrible place for new divers, however if they're going to go there, they should be diving on sites that are well within thier capabilities.

And I'll bite, what are the "number of conditions that can cause a diver to lose conciousness or muscle control upon surfacing"? I'd like to remember them for my solo dives.

DCS can cause loss of muscle control, similar to a stroke. This is bad in any number of ways both on the surface and on the boat ladder. Arriving on the surface, alone with a DCS hit can cause the diver to be unable to reboard, or fall off the ladder, or simply slip back under the surface, unnoticed. While you would need to blow off a really significant deco obligation to have this from a single dive, it's not all that hard to do if you've been less-than-careful over a series of dives.

Beta Blockers can reduce exercise tolerance and cause loss of consciousness, with the same problems as above.

There are others if you care to do the research.

flots.

 

[Mike]

What time did happy hour start?

 

[Mike]

DCS can cause loss of muscle control, similar to a stroke. This is bad in any number of ways both on the surface and on the boat ladder. Arriving on the surface, alone with a DCS hit can cause the diver to be unable to reboard, or fall off the ladder, or simply slip back under the surface, unnoticed. While you would need to blow off a really significant deco obligation to have this from a single dive, it's not all that hard to do if you've been less-than-careful over a series of dives.

Beta Blockers can reduce exercise tolerance and cause loss of consciousness, with the same problems as above.

There are others if you care to do the research.

flots.

Dave the owner of Aldora, suffered a DCS hit a few years ago. His description of it to me was it hit him at the surface as he was trying to climb the ladder, he said he was barely able to hold onto the ladder, slipping back under water with failing muscle and motor skills and would have drowned had someone not been right there and pulled him out of the water.

 

[Mossman]

DCS can cause loss of muscle control, similar to a stroke. This is bad in any number of ways both on the surface and on the boat ladder. Arriving on the surface, alone with a DCS hit can cause the diver to be unable to reboard, or fall off the ladder, or simply slip back under the surface, unnoticed. While you would need to blow off a really significant deco obligation to have this from a single dive, it's not all that hard to do if you've been less-than-careful over a series of dives.

Beta Blockers can reduce exercise tolerance and cause loss of consciousness, with the same problems as above.

There are others if you care to do the research.

No thanks. I don't take beta blockers. That makes your "number of conditions" add up to one. I'm not going to be bent on the surface because I dive nitrox with a conservative computer, practice very slow ascents, and do a safety stop. I see no reason to forego a solo ascent because of a practically infinitesimal risk of an undeserved hit that would be so bad it would paralyze me. It's not like I'm doing a bounce dive to 350'.

 

[Laurie S.]

We dove at Captain Don's Habitat. There was no video, no check-out dive, and we were not charged a marine park fee. We did two shore dives right at the resort. We were only there for the day. We were given details about where to dive, currents, etc.

 

[flots am]

No thanks. I don't take beta blockers. That makes your "number of conditions" add up to one. I'm not going to be bent on the surface because I dive nitrox with a conservative computer, practice very slow ascents, and do a safety stop. I see no reason to forego a solo ascent because of a practically infinitesimal risk of an undeserved hit that would be so bad it would paralyze me. It's not like I'm doing a bounce dive to 350'.

It's not infinitesimal, since I know someone who had one and very nearly died (a different person from Mike's post above), however you're free to accept whatever level of risk you want.

flots.

 

[Mossman]

We dove at Captain Don's Habitat. There was no video, no check-out dive, and we were not charged a marine park fee. We did two shore dives right at the resort. We were only there for the day. We were given details about where to dive, currents, etc.

OK, I think Mike and I were under the impression you were staying on the island. While I don't see an exception in the BMP rules for cruise ship divers, I do see that you can buy a $10 day pass instead of the $25 annual tag. Perhaps the "details about where to dive, currents, etc." sufficed as an orientation since you were just doing two shore dives from the resort and not driving on your own to dive sites around the island.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Mike and others,

That was caused by a lung over expansion incident caused by breath hold following my 9 year old up a 15 ft swim through. IN actuality an cerebral arterial air embolism, which had nothing to do with the bends. Yes, it damn near killed me but that is a pretty common way for divers to die in Couzmel. IF I have the time, and the balls, I will soon write a thread about how divers die in Cozumel—I do know how most of them do.


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Thalassamania]

I just have to wonder about folks who cannot demean themselves for a few minutes to give the dive op a look. They need to take themselves a little less seriously, I think.

The last time I did a checkout was CocoView, and I had a great time making the DM crack up when he got to me in the lineup. Afterward he apologized for making me do the checkout.
I asked how he would have known without seeing me in the water...

For the purpose of a recreational dive I don't see that would be that hard. Frankly, I think I could tell all that I needed to know by watching someone carry their gear a few hundred yards, unpack it, assemble it, disassemble it and pack it back up.

 

[Ron Lee]

IF I have the time, and the balls, I will soon write a thread about how divers die in Cozumel—I do know how most of them do.

Dave, that would be extremely useful information for many. I wonder if it might allay the fears that a few seem to have after reading about the recent challenging currents or the apparent hysteria caused by the false "report" of a down current in the Scuba Mau deep dive debacle.

In flying, there are several main factors leading to fatal crashes. These are not secret causal factors that silently await to smite down the most competent pilot. They are by a wide majority pilot error and preventable.

If that applies to diving as well, then divers can be on the look out for problem areas. Of course, just as pilots know (or should) the things that can kill them, diving fatality causal factors may also be things already taught and ignored.