New to ScubaBoard and would like to get your opinion

[scubadiver888]

Greetings to all. I'm new here in ScubaBoard and I would like to get your take on two dive accidents that happened here in the Philippines.

One 15 yo boy who was given an introdive got in the water together with other newbies. The lead found him unconcious underwater without his regulator in his mouth. They tried to revive the boy but all efforts were futile. Now they're having a debate on the proceedure of the lead diver (not stated if it was an Instructor or a Dive Master DSD Leader).

Another incident happened just last Sunday when a 27 year old man died and got lost during a drift dive. The diver went low on air and shared air with the Dive Master. After a few minutes, the Dive Master found that the Diver sharing his air was gone.

We have a lot of opinions on these two situations about the legalities but being a newly certified Dive Master myself, I would like to get your say on how to prevent these from happening.

I would think that when performing a DSD, especially with kids, a DSD leader should take the ratio more into consideration to be able to closely supervise the participants.

Now with the diver who went LOA, not sure what to think of this... It's every diver's responsibility to monitor his air consumption. However, buddy contact plays utmost importance in this regard.

What say you? I'll be following this thread to see your views. I'd like to learn from you too.

Thanks for you time.

I still remember my first and only DSD. A lot of things went wrong and everyone lived by luck. I get the impression, they don't want to scare you and make you fully realize the danger you are in; if they did half the people would not go (less money for them). It wasn't until I was certified that I realized how poorly prepared I was for the DSD and how important it was the dive master to keep an eye on me (he didn't and I did the right thing for the wrong reason).

As for the LOA situation. WHAT?!?!?? I was taught that when you become low on air you indicate such to your buddy. You do share air. You and your buddy lock (hold each other's BCD) and slowly ascend to the surface. Your dive is over. If the dive master is your buddy then the dive master takes the diver to the surface and the dive is over. As a certified diver, I would expect a good briefing and I'd make the call as to whether or not I needed the dive master.

Only once have I been in a situation were this was not possible. There was heavy boat traffic so we were instructed to not surface right away. In that situation they told us how to handle it. The solution was the DM would take us to a location roped off for emergency ascent. Once on that area you could surface. Sharing air and continuing the dive was never an option.

I'm relatively inexperienced and no were near being a DM but I know you have to plan for things like this. The general rule is if out of air, share air and surface. The dive is over. If this is not possible, have an agreed upon plan before you enter the water.