Missing Divers - Komodo National Park

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

Geoff, have you considered seeking professional help for your obsession? Maybe you should start a journal and list your feelings there????

I'm starting to worry about you...

 

[PeCeDiver]

Three weeks ago I was on Rinca filming and photographing the Komodo lizzies, sorry Dragons. I was on the ground trying to get a good angle of two dragons eating. Suddenly a third one came out of the bushes behind my back. He passed behind me at about two to three feet. It wassn't really interested in me. It just walked further on the beach to get some sunshine.

 

[sytech]

I agree but will go one step further.

Never ever entrust your safety of a buddy, DM or the management of the Dive Shop.

Take a Solo Diving Course and any other training which emphasizes "self sufficiency" as much as is humanly possible. I have seen many boat crews, DM's and other personnel who seem marginally competent. I have questions about the actual training received by these people.

Just as a DM will watch recently arrived divers for signs of competence by their ability to configure gear etc. nervousness, and other indicators, so do the same at your end with the Diving personnel themselves, the supposed experts.

It was in Belize a few years ago that I witnessed a near catastrophic incident which could have severely injured or killed several divers. The company was called "Belize Diving Services" and they were an incompetent and careless bunch. I think it is under new management thse days.

Just returned from Akumal on Mayan Riviera and saw several lapses of standard scuba procedures by supposedly VERY experienced DM's..

Same in Cozumel a few months before that.

This profession is really very loosely regulated if at all in many places. The certificate-granting theme-park called PADI is one reason among many for this.

Bottom line: Don't assume International or any standards. The visiting diver may "expect" it but will not usually (in fact rarely in my experience) get it.



Sy

I've now read all of this thread, as well as reports from the survivors. Nothing changes my view that in such waters the dive op should have had a positive way of tracking its DM, and hence the group. I stick to my view that the dive was severely mismanaged.

I haven't been to Indonesia or indeed anywhere in that region, but that's beside the point. There are international standards that should be applied to tourist operations seeking international customers (and indeed as someone said, probably run by ex-pats anyway). These are the standards that a visiting diver is entitled to expect. After all, the necessary equipment is neither expensive nor difficult to carry.

 

[peterbj7]

I believe BDS must be under different ownership nowadays, because they are now one of the best and safest operations around (here).

 

[peterbj7]

To suggest that somehow one is "tamer" than the other is ridiculous...

Komodo is not a zoo!

They are not captive, they come and go as they please...often from island to island.

And YES, we did venture to several remote beaches other islands and encountered dragons, none with any problems.

Seems to me you're extrapolating from your own very limited experience (you've been there once, right?) to assume that these creatures are always safe. Yet there seems to be ample evidence promulgated by experts (people whose word I rather prefer over yours) that this is not always the case. I don't condemn you for making an honest assumption based on your own experience, but please don't try to ridicule someone who I suspect is rather better read than you are, even if (like me) he hasn't been there himself. In the court of public opinion (this board) you're making a fool of yourself.

IMHO.

 

[peterbj7]

Geoff, have you considered seeking professional help for your obsession? Maybe you should start a journal and list your feelings there????
I'm starting to worry about you...

I was thinking of your comments about Don when I made my post above, but this post of yours is really absurd and uncalled-for. What is your level of education?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've now read all of this thread, as well as reports from the survivors. Nothing changes my view that in such waters the dive op should have had a positive way of tracking its DM, and hence the group. I stick to my view that the dive was severely mismanaged.

I haven't been to Indonesia or indeed anywhere in that region, but that's beside the point. There are international standards that should be applied to tourist operations seeking international customers (and indeed as someone said, probably run by ex-pats anyway). These are the standards that a visiting diver is entitled to expect. After all, the necessary equipment is neither expensive nor difficult to carry.

Cheng has family in Indonesia ... both of her parents had been born there. And so even before we were divers we'd spent some time over there. One day while her cousin was driving us around he explained something about driving in Indonesia ... "The only rule of the road here is that there are no rules".

The diving's a lot like that as well.

Some of us like it that way.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

I was thinking of your comments about Don when I made my post above, but this post of yours is really absurd and uncalled-for. What is your level of education?

It's called Sarcasm....

Geoff has a continuing pattern of post stalking when it comes to me...always quick to jump on any post or response I make. I just want him to find another outlet for his emotions.

 

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

Seems to me you're extrapolating from your own very limited experience (you've been there once, right?) to assume that these creatures are always safe. Yet there seems to be ample evidence promulgated by experts (people whose word I rather prefer over yours) that this is not always the case. I don't condemn you for making an honest assumption based on your own experience, but please don't try to ridicule someone who I suspect is rather better read than you are, even if (like me) he hasn't been there himself. In the court of public opinion (this board) you're making a fool of yourself.

IMHO.

I was not suggesting that they weren't dangerous, just the opposite. They command a high level of respect. What I thought was laughable was that someone who has never been there to assume that there are actually "tourist" Komodo dragons. That they bust out the tame 10' foot lizards for us silly tourists.

 

[peterbj7]

Don didn't say that at all. He was joking about the inconsistency between what you were saying and what experts said. Or maybe that's a bit subtle?