Kill My Kid

[saltydawg]

OK,now that I got your attention, I was at my lds today dropping off a tank for hydro and picking up a wet suit for the other half and while I was in there a fellow came into the shop to fill his tank...after he paid for it he and I were talking about our last dives and I noticed that his bp was a quite a bit small for his frame and it was a 63 on it...so I asked him what kinda bottom times he gets, since he had such a small bottle..."oh that that set up is not mine it is for my 9yo son I am gonna teach him how to dive in the pool since the lds says he is too young at least I will teach him the right way and I will be harder on him than the lds instructor"..... well the owner/ instructor was well withing earshot of this snide remark and simply states "please just remember that barrio trauma can occur in shallow water in divers and especially in children".... the father then says "the what" ..."over expansion of the lungs" the instructor and I say together..."It can kill him", I add....The father still looked at us and then states that we just didn't want his son to dive and that he would find another shop to fill tanks and instruct his son when the time comes....

All I ask is that we keep this unknown kid in our thoughts that he lives to get certified.....It is a shame one has has to get certified to Dive but not reproduce...

 

[Crowley]

Sounds reasonably Darwinian. If enough idiots make enough mistakes they will eventually eliminate themselves from the gene pool!!

"harder on him than the dive shop" ... Poor kid :-(

 

[SkullDeformity]

Your avatar and sig don't match! Please remedy!

Thank you for your compliance.

 

[DavidPT40]

Ugh, the dude is going to teach his son to scuba dive and he doesn't even know what barotrauma is? While I don't think that there is anything wrong with a qualified person teaching someone to scuba dive, it sounds like the father isn't qualified.

 

[h90]

I recently saw a 8 year old diving, so I don't know why the lds don't want to do that....
"will be harder to him" is absolut scary......
I can only hope that he a very very shallow pool.....

 

[fisherdvm]

Some OW books (SSI) call barotrauma "lung expansion" injury. Perhaps the dad did know what it means, but not the vocab used. At least we hope so.

What surprise me is how many certified divers don't understand the injury and get it confused with DCS.

My son is 11, and I am still very anxious about his scuba diving. He's did great through the class work, did great on the exam, did fine in the pool.... But I am still anxious... The LDS let us use the pool to practice, and we'll do alot more pool practice before the OW... Just to make sure.

 

[saltydawg]

after we explained barotrauma as to lung expansion he still had the "what" look and we had to explain how it works and not just in the change of 1 ATM.. he kinda did a "what ever" and left....

 

[fisherdvm]

Barotrauma is a difficult concept for some people to grasp. As I recall, we were discussing it in a CESA thread, and an instructor popped in and tried to explain to me how it could be prevented by keeping my "nitrogen" load down. Apparently some instructors forget to review material that they are supposed to know by heart.

 

[Crowley]

not forgetting that "barotrauma" is a cover all term for *any* pressure-related injury, not solely for lung over-expansion injuries. A burst eardrum (assuming it occured whilst diving) would be classed as a barotrauma, as would a mask squeeze or reverse sinus squeeze...

[rant]The "nitrogen load" instructor needs to go and maybe re-consider his or her career path. It absolutely infuriates me when I hear instructors talking complete and utter crap when it comes to anything a bit more tricky than "don't hold your breath underwater" [/rant]

Oddly enough, I'm actually typing this from the back of the class where I am staffing an IDC and my course director is giving a presentation!

Oh and is my sig and avatar matching better now SkullD!?!?

 

[SkullDeformity]

Yes it is, I won't issue the citation. Have a good day!