Near Miss with Cruise Ship: Dive Paradise - Cozumel

[DandyDon]

Well, divers do have to be lead by locally license DMs in the Mexican marine parks. Most of the DMs I've dived with allowed me a lot of leeway on that, but then your group needs to surface in the same general area so the live boat following can track your groups bubbles and find all of the live bodies for retrieval. I always dive with a SMB, spool, Dive Alert whistle, and other signaling devices and sometimes I am quite a ways from the rest, but there are reasons for follow-me diving there. Trust-me diving is also involved with some I suppose, but I've had no problems with my making my own calls here & there.

 

[MMM]

So in keeping with the theme of this forum (as opposed to this post being just a general complaint and more appropriate for a different forum), what did you learn from your near miss? What would you do differently in future?

 

[Lorenzoid]

What I'd like to know is what, if anything, did Dive Paradise learn from this near miss? Does Dive Paradise have guidelines in place for what a DM should do in such a situation? (Do any Coz dive ops?) If so, did the DM in this case follow them? Dive Paradise is a major operator. This concerns me.

 

[Mike]

Well, divers do have to be lead by locally license DMs in the Mexican marine parks.

So true DD. How much do you think Cozumel messes up new divers who end up in Cozumel as their first real dive trip? Personally I think the place effects a lot of new divers, creating an un-reality for them for a long time, that diving means following a dive master and putting your brain on auto-pilot... some divers one day 'get it' that, oh yeah, I'm responsible for my own safety and my own dive profile, that oh yeah, I'm actually certified to dive without a divemaster along with me on a dive, but many never seem to shake out of it.

 

[Shasta_man]

I'd say these, and all the dives you go on as a group, are first "follow me" dives, which is independent of the trust me element. You add "trust me" dive to that if you just follow the guide wherever without actively considering and managing what you are doing. However, while we do have considerable control over the dive we do, we're not completely independent to the degree some might suggest. We have the skills to dive and navigate, but we still work with the boat crew to put us in the right place and understand where the current is, whatever, etc. Barring some fantastic training class, you still don't have the experience to deal with all situations as a new diver and should look to learn from experienced divers and the guides. There is going to be a little "trust me" mixed in that. Your job is to recognize stupid moves and what the right thing to do is per your training, and have the guts to do what's right which includes thumbing your dive or not doing what the guide is.

 

[SailNaked]

In mexico the diving is great because of the DMs, if they stayed on the boat and just followed your bubbles and picked you up at the end you would not see 10% of the stuff they "follow me" through.
If the DM did not explain to a divers understanding that at the end of the Paradise dive site there is a NO GO zone that is not just a safety consideration but a federal exclusion area involving both Mexican and US governents. this is not a near miss, this is just a failure to emphasize the significance of what was at the end of the dive and to prepare the divers in advance to take it seriously.
No divers were harmed in the making of this film.
they even got to pretend to be commandos at the end, Bonus.

I love the valet diving in COZ, every morning my gear is assembled and waiting on the boat, we go to beatiful sites and the DM shows us stuff we would have overlooked on our own. and maybe the briefings are short, but then again maybe if I spoke better spanish they would be better. i am always responsible for my dives with or without a DM / cruise director.

 

[flots am]

I'd say these, and all the dives you go on as a group, are first "follow me" dives, which is independent of the trust me element. You add "trust me" dive to that if you just follow the guide wherever without actively considering and managing what you are doing.

There is very little you can actually manage a dive in Coz. You can't stop and look at something the DM didn't stop for because he'll go flying off down-current along with your ride back to shore. Likewise, if he wants to stop and stare at a lobster, you have to also, regardless of whether you want to or not, because if you don't stop, you'll go flying off and you don't really know where you're headed. Into a cruise ship maybe? Florida?

You can't surface because the boat isn't looking for you, they're looking for the DM's lift bag. Surfacing without the DM or a lift bag is begging to get hit with a boat or prop, which means that whatever happens, you're stuck following the DM. He's going to get picked up. You? Maybe not. Shooting your own lift bag is better, but there's no reason to think that your boat will know you belong to them and stop to pick you up.

you still don't have the experience to deal with all situations as a new diver and should look to learn from experienced divers and the guides.

Divers that aren't qualified to dive <location_name> with just a buddy also aren't qualified to dive in a mob (guided) dive. If diving in Coz is a teaching/learning experience, then the DMs should conduct it as such with a classroom session, defined objectives, material and procedures, respect training standards and conduct it as a class, including student:instructor ratios.

But it really isn't. It's just a fast drift though unpredictable waters lead by a guy who implies you'll be OK, but can't actually back up the commitment.

flots.

 

[DandyDon]

There is very little you can actually manage a dive in Coz. You can't stop and look at something the DM didn't stop for because he'll go flying off down-current along with your ride back to shore. Likewise, if he wants to stop and stare at a lobster, you have to also, regardless of whether you want to or not, because if you don't stop, you'll go flying off and you don't really know where you're headed. Into a cruise ship maybe? Florida?

You can't surface because the boat isn't looking for you, they're looking for the DM's lift bag. Surfacing without the DM or a lift bag is begging to get hit with a boat or prop, which means that whatever happens, you're stuck following the DM. He's going to get picked up. You? Maybe not. Shooting your own lift bag is better, but there's no reason to think that your boat will know you belong to them and stop to pick you up.

That has certainly not been my experience. I've stopped to look & shoot many times, got ahead on a few, veered off on a nearby but different path, and certainly have surfaced without the DM many times. I shoot my own SMB from a spool, then follow it. The boat finds me, one way or another. If it doesn't, I can ask another boat to radio him, fire off my Dive Alert whistle, etc.

 

[flots am]

That has certainly not been my experience. I've stopped to look & shoot many times, got ahead on a few, veered off on a nearby but different path, and certainly have surfaced without the DM many times. I shoot my own SMB from a spool, then follow it. The boat finds me, one way or another. If it doesn't, I can ask another boat to radio him, fire off my Dive Alert whistle, etc.

If I recall correctly, you've also had a number of "exciting" dives there.

flots.

 

[deborahdelamar]

Specific to the OP, the boat captain should have known where the divers were -- that's his job. He has a radio and can broadcast his group's position. Perhaps he did. There are so many eyes on the water at the cruise piers -- the crew of the ship, the crew of the harbor pilot boat, the people who do the heavy lifting on the pier, pier security officers and the pier manager -- they all know to look for divers nearby. The cruise ship was likely staying put.

Turning the group face to the current to slow progress toward the pier is not the worst idea if everyone was calmly handling it. I know that the engine noise is loud and you can hear it a long way off when you're in the water and it's quite disturbing. But it was the potential fine and/or detention for questioning that became overly significant to the DM -- so much so that he allowed his divers to become stressed by a situation that he knowingly swam into head first.

What really gets me about this story is that the captain put the engine in gear with his divers right there -- hanging onto the boat while it was running! The possibility of accident was so high and so unnecessary. A fine is nothing compared to putting your customers in physical danger. What is it they teach us to do when things go wrong? STOP. BREATHE. THINK!!!