Incident During OW Training- What do you do?

[diverdan214]

John Pennekamp State Park includes the cost of new, unopened plastic wrapped snorkels in the cost of snorkel trips. Why don't dive operators do the same thing with inexpensive mouthpieces on rental regs?

We got our own mouthpieces to put on each training dive at the begining of my course. Of course that was in the States where health and safety is probably much more heavily regulated. I have my own kit now but even if I was doing training where they didn't supply mouthpieces I think I'd splurg the 5 bucks or whatever a cheap couple of mouthpieces cost (esp. not much considering how much you're prob paying for training, really you can live with 1 round less right?), and heck even get some for my buddy.

 

[Seacaptain01]

Arrhhgg,, alot of Posts on this.. had to read each one before I posted... I noticed that no one brought up the fact that the hose was "twisted" on the original post during the bcd removal . Maybe the instructor told her to remove it to correct the twisted hose??? As for the torn mouth piece.. according to Module One of the OW training manual (PADI) and chapter 2 (SSI),, are the students not trained in the class room to INSPECT their equipment BEFORE using it???
Now someone mentioned "standards", the standards are just the "BASELINE" to get the students to become O/W divers, right?. All agencies have to obide by these base line standards and cannot leave any of the basic items out. But the standards do not prevent the instructor teaching other skills that can occur during diving as long as safty is not in jepordy? When I went though NAUI traing 25 plus years ago, we went through what some called "harassment training",, the ole ripping off the mask, turning off the air and unbuckling items "weight belt for one". I am actually glad that I went trhough that as it really prepared me for diving. But times have changed and now the agencies do not do that because they do not want to scare divers. That is understandable, I myself turn the air off in confined water for the ESA but turn it right back on. That way the student feels what it is like to run out of air, but they are in a controlled enviroment and if they really need the air it is there if needed. As for skills that come in handy that are not required,, anyone consider teaching students to fix a cylinder that has come loose during a dive.. hmmm., that happens more than people will admit. I teach that to EVERY student of mine, it a good one expecially when I seen an student of mine on o/w 5, swim over to an already certified diver that was on a wreck, and reafixed their cylinder.. lol.. now that is a skill that always comes in handy.
Notice that I didnt bash any agency nor instructor. .

 

[SparticleBrane]

It's sad when I drive to the local rock quarry for diving and after getting out of my car the first thing I see are multiple people walking around with their tanks just about to slip out of their straps--they're hanging so low that the tank boot is past their butt and the valve is in the middle of their back. With their tank so low their reg hoses just barely reach their mouth and I highly doubt they'd be much use in an OOA situation.

 

[Thalassamania]

Folks in need of a long hose, eh? In more way than one.

 

[SpeedDemon]

As a Health & Safety officer for the company I work for, this poor level of attention you have described is unacceptable and sloppy. The dive centre has a duty of care for ALL its students and this issue was badly demonstrated by the poor condition of the equipment.

Report this 'outfit' to PADI as soon as you can!! and may I commend you on you skill and proffesionalism in indicating the 'out-of-air' signal and swimming to the instructor, I see they taught you well, young Jedi.

Take care with ALL your dives and check equipment thoroughly and harm to you will not come.

GEEZ, I'm starting to sound like Yoda :11:

 

[BKP]

We did BC removal underwater in SSI OW class. You didn't have to remove the regulator, just remove and slide it around as if to untangle something on the valve while keeping your right arm in the shoulder strap. Then you just slide it back around to replace it. Not every class is PADI.

Agreed. We originally did OW BCD R&R in our #3 or #4 checkout (NAUI). We were instructed to keep the regs in our mouth, and with the proper instruction, 15 students performed it flawlessly. Conversely, when we did the reg removal, and sweep/retrieval, the BCDs stayed on. The instructors were exemplory, patient, and beyond careful in every aspect (and kept the equipment up-to-date and serviced). I imagine each association has their own approach (however, I'm sure each has its own less-then-perfect representatives, as well).

Kudos to you for keeping the panic at bay (biggest cause of accidents).

-Barry

 

[TheRedHead]

Kudos to you for keeping the panic at bay (biggest cause of accidents).

I'm not the original poster who had the problem.

 

[BKP]

I'm not the original poster who had the problem.

Yep... I know. I was agreeing with *your* post, and lauding the original poster's consequent actions.
Sorry for the confusion.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I was wrong in my previous statement that NAUI required CESAs from 60fsw many years ago. I received a reply from my instructor, who said that the suggested depth was 15-30 feet but that they were commonly done from 60 feet, and that in the early 70s NAUI only required 2 OW dives before certification
As a side note he still has an instructor manual from 1973 that he offered to let me look at--I believe I'll take him up on that to see how times have changed.