My dive incident

[Deep-6]

Wow tough day but I'm glad you're ok. All the advice given you IS really good and I don't think its anyones intention to attack you or discourage you from diving. I think that if you'd really screwed yourself up, you'd probably know about it by now. My advice goes along with the reliable buddy concept. Next time you go on a dive charter go along with someone you dive with regularly, cause you can never be sure about the people you'll get buddied up with. If you show up by yourself, it's kinda like rolling the dice. I hope you stick with it bro. You can take the lessons you've just learned and use them to become an excellent diver and conscientious dive buddy. You're at a great advantage living in florida. It must be nice to dive in January without cutting a hole.

 

[DiveNav]

.... It must be nice to dive in January without cutting a hole.

Come down to SoCal

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

It might be even better if the poster recognized how much better it might be to take personal responsibility for every action ( and result) in his post, and realize that perhaps he might be far better served by mentoring with someone who would help him grow and develop as a diver that understands that Self Rescue is Rule #1, and that, in this case, dive #1 should have been aborted. That wise decision would have eliminated the need for this dramatic post.

 

[Deep-6]

DiveNav-I'd love too just keep those ill-tempered squid away from me. lol

 

[AfterDark]

I know I'm repeating somethings that have already been stated but, good advice bears repeating. The OP sounds like a victim of modern dive training.
He's OW/AOW and NITROX certified yet it sounds like he's not comfortable in
the water,can't plan or dive or even know when to abort one.
He didn't realize that he'd be MORE byouant with an empty tank so continued
the dive. I'd say he as been under served by his instructor / training.
This is exactly why I don't think much of certs. All they really
show is the holder had the money to take the course(s).
Aozger, you need to hook up with someone with a lot more experience than
you and dive like demons until your as comfortable in the water as you are
in your living room. Good luck good diving.

 

[RJP]

Wow tough day but I'm glad you're ok. All the advice given you IS really good and I don't think its anyones intention to attack you or discourage you from diving.

Quite right!

I hope the OP isn't scared off from diving by his experience, and also that he is not scared off from SCUBABOARD by some of our responses.



I'd like to specifically THANK the OP for having the courage to share his experience here, knowing that he would be opening himself up for a fair bit of second-guessing and grief.

The amount of time he spent writing his story up and the level of detail he provided is a pretty clear indicator that he is going to be a "thinking diver" and the mere fact that he posted at all demonstrates that he is certainly a "self-aware diver."

The other, mechanical skills of diving can be taught and refined with time, comfort and experience - but THINKING and AWARENESS are much more innate, and much harder to come by.

I'd much rather dive with the OP on his very next dive, than go on dive #1,000 with a technically proficient diver who who doesn't THINK and isn't AWARE.

 

[aozger]

Thanks RJP.

My whole point was that it was mostly my inexperience and not being able to think about everything so fast that caused this.

As far as the charter and the DM, since my previous ocean dive was a completely different and fun experience, my original thought still stands that one should expect more from them, otherwise it makes the difference between a DM and a Rescue Diver (or a Master Diver for that matter) obsolete. At least on the textbook definition and what I had heard in my OW classes about them not letting people dive without proper gear and checks. I may have gotten the wrong impression based on what most people are saying. In fact, more so since I was offered to have my watch reset to dive again after the incident than at least be given some checks, or even O2 just as a precaution.

 

[Grover48]

Thanks for sharing. I am relatively new to diving as I was certified last year in October. My cert instructor is not teaching any more after the complaints filed by his last class. PADI pulled his instructors cert. We were under taught in all aspects of the class.

I learned how little I knew when I started reading threads here on ScubaBoard. I went to a different dive shop and took OW cert again. Had I not have done research here, I would not have know how much danger I faced by not being properly prepared to dive.

A suggestion for your dives with that operator. Ask what the profiles are for the planned dives. Many times the deeper dives are planned first and then each succeeding dive is shallower. You may have been better of to have dived a later dive to get a more favorable depth. Thumbing the first dive and adjusting your weights properly would have been a better idea. You only planned to do 2 dives and you would have been happier with the outcome.

 

[oly5050user]

Thanks RJP.

My whole point was that it was mostly my inexperience and not being able to think about everything so fast that caused this.

As far as the charter and the DM, since my previous ocean dive was a completely different and fun experience, my original thought still stands that one should expect more from them, otherwise it makes the difference between a DM and a Rescue Diver (or a Master Diver for that matter) obsolete. At least on the textbook definition and what I had heard in my OW classes about them not letting people dive without proper gear and checks. I may have gotten the wrong impression based on what most people are saying. In fact, more so since I was offered to have my watch reset to dive again after the incident than at least be given some checks, or even O2 just as a precaution.

Sorry to read about the bad experience here,but, you have to accept that it is your fault only.The charter boat is like a bus,it gets you there and back.That is all you should expect from it.As for the DM-crew on the boat,he /she is there to assist you on/off the boat at the dock, brief the dive site,help you into into the water,out of the water at the ladder perhaps.They are NOT there to act as a personal lifeguard.If you want or need that service be prepared to pay for it and hire a personal guide to dive with you..You are responsible for a proper gear check,and to plan your dive,or at the least know how to use your computer .
For your use of nitrox I hope you used the 32% on the deeper dive and saved the higher % for the second shallower dive.As a advance certified diver you should have known better about weight requirements or at the least have done a buoyancy check on entering the water before descending if unsure about it.
If you did not know then either something was missing in the training you received or you forgot everything that you read and were exposed to.You cannot blame your inexperience - you do have advance certification-as people that have only a ow certification with less than you have completed dives similar as the one you describe with no incident on a daily basis.Everyone learns /gets abilities at different rates,some fast ,some slower.As others have said get a mentor or hire an competent instructor to work on getting you into a comfort zone that works for you.

 

[RJP]

As far as the charter and the DM, since my previous ocean dive was a completely different and fun experience, my original thought still stands that one should expect more from them, otherwise it makes the difference between a DM and a Rescue Diver (or a Master Diver for that matter) obsolete.

Really more a matter of communication and ensuring expectations are aligned between you and the charter/captain/DM.

The role of a DM on a charter varies widely from operation to operation. On some boats DMs merely "crew the boat" and don't really dive with the passengers. On the other extreme there are dive ops where there is one DM per each group of divers and they lead/manage the dive. And of course there's everything in between, with many operators offering the full-range depending on the needs/desires of the customer.

Unfortunately, as a new diver - and we ALL went through the same thing - you "don't know what you don't know" about these things.

Going forward, be sure you understand how the specific boat works vis-a-vis that boat's "standard" role and duties of the DM. If the boat's SOP for DM's is consistent with what you're looking for, that's great! If not, feel free to ask if you can "rent a DM" for yourself. That can usually be arranged with some advanced notice, and of course a little extra $$.

If the op doesn't/can't accomodate what you're looking for, that doesn't necessarily say anything negative about that dive op. They may simply be serving a different clientele who don't need/want DM services. (Spear/camera types - as you observed - typically want to do their own thing, etc.)