No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

[drbill]

I didn't use a BCD until I had been diving for 27 years. It was required equipment for diving with a Cousteau team. When I tried to descend, the BCD kept auto-inflating. I told the DM and she said that couldn't happen so I told her to watch me try again. It auto-inflated. When we surfaced, she asked what we should do. I said I'd just disconnect the inflator hose and dive like I had been doing for nearly three decades. She said "You can do that?" The rest of the dive went smoothly.

Despite that incident, I wouldn't dive without a BCD today... and have never had another issue with auto-inflation.

The friend was wrong to reconnect the inflator hose. Glad your wife suffered no ill effects.

 

[gypsyjim]

There was no "emergency" in the scenario in post 1, until the inflator was connected without the diver's knowledge and consent.
At that point the diver now had a case of run away inflation, but she would probably not think to disconnect her inflator hose as she knew for certain that is was not connected.
Others may judge the wisdom displayed by the couple, of diving with the disconnected inflator, but that was their decision to make. As I said early on, I have done this myself.
I will say that I did make divers in my group aware of this prior to entry, and it would have been wise to inform the rest of their group before they dived.
Lesson learned?

I generally dive with a small camera stowed in a pocket, even if the dive is not a "photo dive".
When I see something like a large bubble stream at another diver's first stage, or the valve stem, I find it easiest to swim up, take an image of what I am seeing. I then catch that diver's and show them the picture, and point to what I have seen.
This way the diver in question is alerted, if there is an issue that they are not aware of, and they get final say if something needs to be addressed.

I do not see it as any of my business to "fix" other divers, but I will point out possible issues if I believe they may not be aware of them.

The only time I would dream of grabbing or making any changes is if I see an emergency, like the time in Belize I saw movement from above, and quickly dived down to grab a passing weight belt, and then swam it up to the diver in the group passing over us, and held his webbing while he got back in control.
Later I spoke with that diver and he said he did not realize that the weights had dropped, and was struggling to control the beginning of a run away ascent when I reached him.

 

[caruso]

just touching my life support system can be taken as assault. You are free to observe, and even to comment, but unless I give you permission, my gear is not yours to touch, alter or adjust in any way.

What a silly & thoroughly foolish statement:

What ever cert cards you hold, and what ever competency and experience you think you have, the Dive team have to treat you as a novice until you prove differently by your actions

It may be true that you have more experience and higher certifications than the dive team, but you're a passenger on their boat.

While you're doing that, I'll be checking your valve, and you'll never know because I'm light fingered.

@gypsyjim's post It's not silly or foolish at all. Dive gear IS live support equipment. The diver who is the subject of this thread could have been permanently disabled or even killed by the irresponsible actions of another diver taking liberty with another diver's gear.

You're just another another arrogant boat captain (no different than another on this board who follows you around liking your posts), proclaiming you have some sort of God given right to mess with a diver's gear simply because they are a passenger on your boat.

I do appreciate you posting here, it prevents me from possibly ever making the mistake of diving from your boat.

 

[StefinSB]

You are clouding the issue with irrelevant details here. The problem isn't that there was a strange confrontation (inflator disconnected).
The problem is that somebody took it on themselves to play with somebody's equipment during a dive WITHOUT asking.
As an example, people who dive with drysuit often have a small tank for inflating the suit. They quite often ALSO have an inflator hose connected to their first stage as a backup for if the small tank has issues. Do you honestly think that anyone has the right to come over and start trying to connect the spare inflator hose to something???
If you see an issue, point it out. Nobody ever has any right to do anything to someone else's equipment without permission.

So if you are seemingly lifeless underwater you don’t want anyone to help as this would involve touching your sacred gear?

 

[caruso]

So if you are seemingly lifeless underwater you don’t want anyone to help as this would involve touching your sacred gear?

Now THAT is a foolish and silly idea.

 

[gypsyjim]

So if you are seemingly lifeless underwater you don’t want anyone to help as this would involve touching your sacred gear?

OMG!
Where the #@&& did you arrive at the concept that you read that in ANY of the above posts in this thread?!!
Troll much?

 

[Ana]

Definitely natural progression for a SB thread.
We got to the analogy of wanting to marry a toaster before page 10.

 

[gypsyjim]

Definitely natural progression for a SB thread.
We got to the analogy of wanting to marry a toaster before page 10.

I never heard that one before

 

[Frosty]

Actually Ive done a big ol read of this thread. I can see where the issue lies with those focussing on the last mistake and those looking at mistake 1 and 2.
Perhaps Im wrong but it seems to me that those with "skin in the game" are seeing things one way and those who are "just" divers see it another.-I know Im phrasing it wrong -clearly theres no "just" with solo diving etc.
But the point is that you tend to see things a fair bit differently when its your livelihood at stake
In the case described the lady COULD have been hurt -
You can be darn sure that the first place they look for fault is the dive operator she was diving with.
Put another way. She turns up to dive with me. She has a Faulty BC. MY decision is that she ain't diving with that BC. She better hope one of our spare BC's fit her or we can stop the freeflowing.

 

[Diving Dubai]

@gypsyjim's post It's not silly or foolish at all. Dive gear IS live support equipment. The diver who is the subject of this thread could have been permanently disabled or even killed by the irresponsible actions of another diver taking liberty with another diver's gear.

Please read what I wrote, I didn't say his post was silly, I said the statement that touching someone's gear underwater was Assault. That's just hyperbole frankey.

I don't for one minute condone anyone interfering with anyone's equipment underwater, without at first checking /asking. As for the rest of that statement - lets just remind ourselves that the procedure for dealing with a runaway inflator is taught during current OW. Its really basic. While certainly the "helpful" diver initiated teh underwater incident, poor adherence to training but teh diver and her Rescue trained buddy exacerbated the problem.

@gypsyjim
You're just another another arrogant boat captain (no different than another on this board who follows you around liking your posts), proclaiming you have some sort of God given right to mess with a diver's gear simply because they are a passenger on your boat.

I do appreciate you posting here, it prevents me from possibly ever making the mistake of diving from your boat.

Much as I've tried to resist replying to your thinly veiled insulting rant. Let's set the record straight shall we?

Firstly I don't get any "right" from a fictional deity (God) My duties and authority on the boat are clearly set down in written procedures and instructions from each dive centre I work with, and of course local regulations which may differ from where you live.

Personally I've love to be able to gear up and splash with out constant checking of divers, unfortunately unless its a Tech boat the realities of life make that unlikely. We want the divers to have a fun enjoyable time, but we have a duty of care. You'd be surprised what people forget when they're in a hurry to gear up. I do this week in week out, if you think you've seen it all - think again.


But another perspective. Me and a group of friends charter a Dhow each month for 2 - 3 nights. This weekend there'll be 14 divers, with approximately 19,000 dives between us all. At least half are instructors from different agencies, and 25% are accomplished Tech divers, one in particular makes very big dives. And yet, despite all that experience all make (albeit abbreviated) buddy checks, and before any of us splash, someone "idiot checks" us. People will check each other s valves, and assist with gear without being asked, because we're all comfortable in ourselves, don't' need to prove anything and know how fallible we can be. YMMV