My dive incident

[DCBC]

aozger, I'm glad you are fine although a little shaken from the experience. From what you have described, I've seen quite a few divers with similar experience having difficulty. I place the blame primarily on your Instructor. Obviously, you didn't understand the concept of buoyancy enough to know that you required more weight with a thicker suit and if you had trouble getting down near the surface, you would have a hard time staying down near the surface.

It is your responsibility to get your kit sorted-out. Unlike some comments however, I don't blame you for not being able to stay with the DM. He has the responsibility to look after you on this dive. He shouldn't have left you on your own. Similarly, buddy teams should have been assigned, equipment checked, pressures taken and times recorded. The dive as you described it was a cluster **** and the DM was responsible.

I hope that this experience hasn't clouded the water too much for you. Training standards have been lowered to a point where more new divers require personal attention and DM diver ratios are either non-existent or not enforced.

I would encourage you to seek out a SCUBA Club locally. Explain your position and start diving. Don't be in a hurray and slowly gain experience before going on a charter.

As far as the DCS is concerned, don't worry about it. Every Physician that operates a decompression chamber is well aware of DCS. From what you have described, there's not much chance of DCS because of a positive buoyant ascent. Air embolism would have been a greater risk. Obviously both are clear and you were released from the hospital.

Thanks for sharing your story. Learn from the experience and get back in the water.

Many of us (including myself) have placed unwarranted trust in DMs and Instructors. Expand your knowledge and if you have a question ask until you are satisfied. Any DM or Instructor worth their salt will be happy to try and answer, but you are ultimately responsible for your own safety. If you are uncomfortable, thumb the dive. One step at a time...

 

[Gombessa]

More:
Making sure people put their gear on right. (I have heard of people putting on the tank with the valve facing sideways and the DM stopping them)

Remind people to make sure air is on and BCD s inflated before going in the water.

When going down, making sure everyone s coming down together - as long as they are in the DMs group.

Of these, only the last is one I would really expect from a DM-guided dive.

A certified diver must know how to properly assemble and don his or her equipment. I would not expect a DM to babysit or oversee the process.

A lot of boats do have crew check the valve as the diver jumps off, some people see this as a dubious service. Again, it's your air, it's so easy for you to check, and you don't want them to accidentally turn your valve OFF as you jump (it's happened before).

Again, thanks for posting and continuing to participate, I hope your future dives are much less stressful!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

aozger, I'm glad you are fine although a little shaken from the experience. From what you have described, I've seen quite a few divers with similar experience having difficulty. I place the blame primarily on your Instructor. Obviously, you didn't understand the concept of buoyancy enough to know that you required more weight with a thicker suit and if you had trouble getting down near the surface, you would have a hard time staying down near the surface.

How can that be the instructor's fault? If certified, the diver was presented with this information about bouyancy. ....if you are too light going down, you are going to be too light coming up....Even a casual reading of the text book would reveal that. I'm quite sure the diver was presented the concept of buoyancy multiple times in his instruction. To me, failing to fix the buoyancy problem was poor judgement not ignorance (or poor instruction).

In addition, the diver said he spent 10 minutes trying to descend. That means that he was diving without a buddy for 10 minutes...I thought new divers are taught to come up after a minute or two of buddy separation. Another example of questionable judgement?

Drift diving in 90 or 100 feet of water IS advanced diving. It is scary that poorly qualified divers attempt to do these dives. Even if the DM stayed with the customer, what action should the DM have taken?...I would have just told him to give up on the descent and go back and get some lead.

The diver intended to do only 2 of the three dives. Bailing on the first dive immediately when the inadequate lead was evident and then fixing the problem on the surface interval and then doing the next two dives would have been a simple solution if the diver used good judgement. Blaming the divemaster is silly.

However, this is the way that many people need in order to really learn to dive. They need to get scared, put themselves in a situation that is out of their control, acknowledge that they made poor decisions and also realize that they need more experience before trying a similar dive. Getting a good buddy and doing some shallow (60 ft) drift dives will probably resolve many of the issues.

I've made many bad decisions when diving and learned the most by learning the hard way, but this diver needs to look inward rather than blaming others.

 

[dbulmer]

One of the things that an instructor can teach is the notion of self-responsibility. I suspect that what the OP is hearing now might be new to him.

On my 13th dive I ran out of air and I blamed the DM. It was wrong of me but I didn't know it until I came to Scubaboard and found out more. It would have been helpful if that message had been hammered home during training. I'm sure there are some instructors who do hammer the message but for students who hear the message the hard way it can come as a bit of a shock.

To the OP what Dumpster is saying is right and in some ways quite brutal but it's better to hear that message now so you can do something about it.

Don't be discouraged - we all make mistakes but we try to avoid the big ones you made.

And to cheer you up! - I jumped into a pool fully kitted - the shallow end. Broken leg, out of diving for 3 months and have never been allowed to forget it.

If there was hope (at least) for me I'm sure you can move on too.

 

[seaworm]

I'm a new diver also but never had a problem with what you wrote! Before the desent I do a weight test. You should have even tried to go down by forces let the weights do there job. Next time keep track of what suit mm size you have used and weights and keep track b/c that can help you in the future in knowing what you may need in weights hope this helps. Dont worry since I'm new I do a few odd things myself lol

 

[idocsteve]

Yeah, it may sound overly dramatic, but the moment you allow that idea to take up even a little mental real-estate...you're dead.

It doesn't just "sound" over dramatic, it IS over dramatic, and just plain wrong.

Sure, the idea that someone else is watching out for you is not a safe attitude by which to approach the sport of scuba diving, however it doesn't automatically mean you're about to make your last dive.

It's only going to be your last dive IF you end up in a life and death situation and you are completely dependent on someone else to get you out of it.

 

[idocsteve]

As far as the DCS is concerned, don't worry about it. Every Physician that operates a decompression chamber is well aware of DCS.

That's like saying "don't worry, the Anesthesiologist is thoroughly licensed and trained and would never accidently turn off the wrong valve and leave you brain damaged following surgery". There are surgeons who remove the wrong appendage. Or the wrong organ. Or write down an Rx that is 100x stronger than intended. Or misdiagnose cancer. It happens.

There are a lot of bad doctors out there, as George Carlin once so aptly put it..."Somewhere out there is the WORST doctor, and someone's got an appointment with him tomorrow".

 

[RJP]

It doesn't just "sound" over dramatic, it IS over dramatic, and just plain wrong.

Sure, the idea that someone else is watching out for you is not a safe attitude by which to approach the sport of scuba diving, however it doesn't automatically mean you're about to make your last dive.

It's only going to be your last dive IF you end up in a life and death situation and you are completely dependent on someone else to get you out of it.

Of course there are a few other dominoes that need to fall...



My point was that the best way to keep the last one from falling is to avoid tipping the first.

 

[idocsteve]

Of course there are a few other dominoes that need to fall...



My point was that the best way to keep the last one from falling to to avoid tipping the first.

True.

You make the point that I overlooked, which is that the Ops attitude is much more likely to get him into trouble in the first place, not just make him less able to cope with a random emergency such as gear failure or spotting two beautiful mermaids and having to make a split second decision.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Welly, welly, welly, my droogs...

One thing to remember is that blame does not obey the laws of conservation. In other words, it is not a question of whether the DM or the diver was at fault here. or at least, not as I see it with my sixty-something puddle-splashes of experience under my harness.

A lot of people have pointed out what the OP could have and should have done. But that doesn't mean the DM is absolved of censure, and censuring the DM does not remove any responsibility from the diver.

The DM agreed to be a buddy and descended without the diver. Wrong. If the DM has too many sheep in the flock to notice one going astray, the DM should have refused to take the diver on as a buddy. The DM could have and should have sent the diver back to the boat when it was apparent that the weighting was wrong.

Again, my criticism of the DM's behaviour does not imply any approval of the diver's behaviour or lessening of responsibility. But when the magic word "buddy" is uttered, both parties become mutually and severally responsible for both parties having a safe dive.

I saw almost this exact thing happen in Ontario when I was the odd diver needing a buddy, and the DM explicitly stated that he could not buddy me while leading a group. He then rustled up a team that would take me as a third. I think that is what the DM should have done.