Multiple divers from same boat to chamber today?

[flots am]

So what is the answer:

1. don't take their money and let them dive;
2. Take only divers from some hypothetical program that isn't rushing divers through training;
3. Post a sign, your life is in your hands on this boat;
4. Make sure they are hydrated, just in case, or;
5. provide additional service beyond 'guiding' the tour.

They could come on my boat (shop's boat actually).

We have strict rules:

• Don't run out of air underwater.
• Come back before the boat leaves.
• Bring a dive flag so the sheriff doesn't ticket you.

However that wouldn't work in Coz, so I'll vote for #3.


---------- Post added March 13th, 2014 at 01:48 PM ----------

I have heard rumors (and that's precisely what they are at this point) of multiple (3?) divers from the same unspecified boat who had to go for chamber rides earlier today.

I have no information on this specific event, however I will say that bending three divers on the same dive means that there was a spectacularly horrible dive plan involved.

Modern dive tables and computers are so conservative that bending one diver without a violation is a statistical anomaly. Doing all three is like hitting the lottery.

 

[Karibelle]

I agree. I lay in bed and dream of a world with more personal responsibility. Either I am getting old and crotchety or it is going the other way.

Now in the real world, I would never suggest a diver go with an DM that isn't watching out for their divers in Coz, unless I knew they watched everything themselves. I have met divers on the boat that needed a keeper. And it isn't a small percentage is it? Divers that dive once a year or haven't been in the water in a couple years or just go out of OW and are still a little clueless.

So what is the answer:

1. don't take their money and let them dive;
2. Take only divers from some hypothetical program that isn't rushing divers through training;
3. Post a sign, your life is in your hands on this boat;
4. Make sure they are hydrated, just in case, or;
5. provide additional service beyond 'guiding' the tour.

Absent facts to the contrary, could not one wildly speculate that the profile was not a good one and they were following the DM guide?


Of course I agree with you philosophically. And you would probably not agree with me when I tried to apply the theory of personal responsibility further.

I'd be interested in having that next level conversation.

Consider that this is just Cozumel. There are many, many places where divers, new or not, are actually left to their own devices. Imagine that. My dives 9 and 10 were on Vancouver Island, and the instructions went something like this: Here is your rental gear. Here is a wheelbarrow. Put your gear in the wheelbarrow and take it to that boat. On the boat, set up your gear. Now the DM gives the briefing: Here's where we're anchoring. Go down the line, take a heading of 60 degrees, and once you get to the pinnacle at the wall, go down the wall. Be back in 45 minutes. I'll be here on the boat waiting for you.

That's not an uncommon scenario. It imagines that certified divers are actually qualified to take care of themselves.

And as to your number 2, phooey. Programs don't rush divers through training: INSTRUCTORS do. Bad instructors. The agency that I teach with offers "performance based training" - not time based. So if I certify someone who is unqualified, don't put the onus for that poorly trained diver on my agency: it's MY fault.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Still no one has heard more about these potentially bent divers? That seems very strange for a place like Cozumel. If it turns out to be true, is there a reason none of you are speculating on down currents?

 

[Ron Lee]

Still no one has heard more about these potentially bent divers? That seems very strange for a place like Cozumel. If it turns out to be true, is there a reason none of you are speculating on down currents?

Perhaps because the downcurrents are not killers.

 

[mjatkins]

Still no one has heard more about these potentially bent divers? That seems very strange for a place like Cozumel. If it turns out to be true, is there a reason none of you are speculating on down currents?

I'd like to field this one. As a person who has worked for several years and several thousand dives on Cozumel I think the "killer downwells" are for the most part a convenient scapegoat for bad divers. When Opal and her friends got themselves bent by being idiots, rather than admit to what they had done they tried to blame a downwelling. Suddenly everyone was freaked out about whether or not Cozumel was a safe place to dive, after all, if they could drag two dive professionals and a self proclaimed "experienced diver" to 300 ft, what chance do regular folks have. Since then every time something happens people seem to gravitate to whether or not it was a downwelling. Yes downwellings do occur, but in my experience they are nowhere near what they have been made out to be.

My $0.02

 

[flots am]

Perhaps because the downcurrents are not killers.

You just gotta give 'em tree-fiddy!

 

[letterboy]

So, was there an accident?

 

[robint]

This situation.... 3 divers getting taken to a chamber... can happen at ANY time, ANY destination, with ANY diving conditions.
I have seen divers, not just at Cozumel, do stupid things and cause another diver to go after them! Seriously, I have seen STUPID behavior by newbies and experienced divers. Something as silly as chasing a turtle down deep for a picture, or nurse shark, or two divers trying to go deeper than the other person as bragging rights, to a pair of divers trying to "get over a hangover" by going deep. Yeah, really. I have also seen divers breach the surface like whales every dive, blasting themselves out of the water up to their waists.

So I think we need to find out the facts before we start pointing any fingers. My money is on diver error.

robin

 

[Mike]

I have no information on this specific event, however I will say that bending three divers on the same dive means that there was a spectacularly horrible dive plan involved.

Modern dive tables and computers are so conservative that bending one diver without a violation is a statistical anomaly. Doing all three is like hitting the lottery.

I applaud your logic sir.

---------- Post added March 13th, 2014 at 12:17 PM ----------

Still no one has heard more about these potentially bent divers? That seems very strange for a place like Cozumel. If it turns out to be true, is there a reason none of you are speculating on down currents?

It's too early for that yet... 2 more pages to go first...

 

[DandyDon]

If 3 divers did go to chambers, it could easily be group hysteria. Possibly one hung over diver feels bad, requests oxygen after a dive, and automatically an ambulance is called - then two buddies also decide they feel bad? If the three show up on ambulances with DAN cards, chamber rides will happen - needed or not

I'm sure Dandy Don is on the case!

If someone died, maybe. Chamber rides seem to be pretty common on Coz - not newsworthy.

Bad gas, perhaps, but Meridiano now has CO detectors from what I understand and if they weren't working, it would likely be more than just three tanks affected. If it were CO poisoning, DD will have a field day.

Oh, it's happened before there - after they got the CO monitors.

I'd like to field this one. As a person who has worked for several years and several thousand dives on Cozumel I think the "killer downwells" are for the most part a convenient scapegoat for bad divers. When Opal and her friends got themselves bent by being idiots, rather than admit to what they had done they tried to blame a downwelling. Suddenly everyone was freaked out about whether or not Cozumel was a safe place to dive, after all, if they could drag two dive professionals and a self proclaimed "experienced diver" to 300 ft, what chance do regular folks have. Since then every time something happens people seem to gravitate to whether or not it was a downwelling. Yes downwellings do occur, but in my experience they are nowhere near what they have been made out to be.

My $0.02

It was a friend of the divers who initially claimed it was a down current, trying to cover for them. I knew all parties, dived with most of them. Only one of them ever talked openly I think, and none of them were known to claim the deep dive was an accident.