Now I understand

[agesilaus]

"Not his responsibility to do that. Yours. And yours to insist on doing it before the dives took place. Why did you not take the gear into your room and go over it?"

We didn't go to the motel we left this area and drove 4 hours, in individual vehicles, plus to the Bridge and met at the dive site.

As for your other points, maybe I should have been more assertive with him but that flies in the face of the instructor-student relationship that I expect. I know that I should have checked my gear after he attached the tank and mention that in my original post.

I certainly was not faultless in this situation. But I expect the instructor to be at a higher level than the student. Demanding that he leave the camera behind may have been the right thing to do but probably would have left me sitting on the boat while he did his dive. And it never even occurred to me to do that.

 

[chrispete]

He short-changed you and the instructor candidate. You were paying for him to be there to monitor you while you expanded your boundaries and the instructor candidate is (presumably) paying for him to help her learn to be an instructor. He was on a working dive and should have had all of his attention on his students, not on the best perception narrowing device ever devised for use underwater - the camera. And if you thumbed the dive (not just showed him your SPG waiting for him to do something about it but gave a thumbs-up) and he ignored it I'd personally steer far clear of him for future training.

 

[lv2dive]

To the OP: You have learned a valuable lesson, early in your SCUBA career. A recurring theme on SB is self-reliance; that once a diver is OW certified they absolutely should understand that they are 100% for themselves and should ensure they act in concert with that knowledge (e.g. setting up their own equipment, surfacing at appropriate gas pressures even if DMs or instructors are pushing them not to, budding up on "DM-led" dives, etc.). However, it is more than obvious that a significant portion of the diving population does NOT walk away from their OW training with that understanding - especially in a class situation, it can be hard to put one's foot down and do something different than what an instructor is suggesting.

Congratulations - you are now part of a relatively small group that recognizes what every diver SHOULD fully comprehend coming out of their OW class! And at some point in the future, that knowledge could prove very meaningful. I'm glad you wrote about your experience; it is all-too-common and I am sure that many newer divers can relate to being in a similar situation.

 

[Dive-aholic]

As an instructor the only time I bring a camera on training dives is when I am using photos and videos to provide feedback to the students. This means the camera is there to take photos of the students not sharks. Big fail on this instructor. He needs to be reported to his agency.

 

[TSandM]

I think you have learned a big lesson about where the final responsibility for a safe dive lies . . . but I will not really criticize you, as someone just out of OW, with a few spring dives after class. I know how I felt about instructors when I finished my OW class, and I would absolutely have expected an instructor I hired to set up a safe and educational experience for me, as I think you did.

The story is horrible. I agree with Dive-aholic that your instructor should be reported to the agency -- I KNOW PADI doesn't permit instructors to have cameras during classes, and suspect NAUI wouldn't permit it, either, unless perhaps do they do permit an instructor to take photographs of the student for the purposes of feedback. It's pretty clear that's not what this person (I thought through a whole lot of other, more pejorative nouns before I typed that) was doing.

If I were instructor where you are, where a student would have to do a negative entry for an AOW dive, I would be ALL OVER that student before the drop point, making sure everything was perfect, and the student knew exactly what he needed to do. I come from Puget Sound, where we dive sheltered sites or dive on slack; when I came out to Palm Beach, I found my first negative entry dive to be challenging and a little nervousness-provoking, and I had over a thousand dives at that point. I understand that this is the norm for diving there, so students have to learn it, but I would check and double-check that the student was properly weighted, the equipment was properly set up, and the student felt confident about doing this. That transition from boat to ocean is always the time when problems show up!

Honestly, PLEASE do not let your wife do her OW class with this guy. OW is where people decide whether they like doing this or not -- if you want a regular dive buddy, get her a better instructor. PM me -- I can recommend a couple.

 

[PsyWulf]

1. Report him for the Camera use
2. PADI standards says dive signals to be used must be discussed beforehand - remember not all signals are universal even,so any specifics and even general ones are to be confirmed before diving
3. Always check your own gear,now you know

You paid for his lollygagging and galavanting,lessons learnt. But please report him to his agency for gross misconduct

 

[fisheater]

One more thing: practice the Hell out of orally inflating your i3 at the surface. Do it enough so that it's second nature and you'll automatically do it should you surface OOG in rough seas. One of the major knocks on i3s is the non-standard, non-obvious oral inflation procedure.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Storker]

I suggest you take a look at this thread - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ering-diving/283566-who-responsible-what.html

Just about everything you noted that went wrong could have been headed off by one person - you. You have already recognized your parts to a point so let's look at what you felt was the instructor's doing.


[...]

Wow. Dude, that was pretty harsh, wasn't it? I mean, I know what you're saying, and although I totally agree - in principle - I sure as h€ll didn't have the confidence to actually do something about a situation like that with only 8 dives under my belt (an are those post-cert, or are they incl. the OW course dives? Doesn't matter, really). Today, sure. Fresh out of OW with less than ten logged dives, no effing way. I'd have way too much respect for the INSTRUCTOR for that.

 

[Subcooled]

I have only one thing to add to the excellent posts above

Don't tighten that mask. It gets wrinkled and leaks. Loosen it - a lot.

 

[agesilaus]

One more thing: practice the Hell out of orally inflating your i3 at the surface. Do it enough so that it's second nature and you'll automatically do it should you surface OOG in rough seas. One of the major knocks on i3s is the non-standard, non-obvious oral inflation procedure.


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I've already added that to my list of absolutely must do's.

BK

---------- Post added March 3rd, 2014 at 03:18 PM ----------

I have only one thing to add to the excellent posts above

Don't tighten that mask. It gets wrinkled and leaks. Loosen it - a lot.

I'll give that a try, that had not occurred to me. Thanks

BK

---------- Post added March 3rd, 2014 at 03:19 PM ----------

"Honestly, PLEASE do not let your wife do her OW class with this guy. OW is where people decide whether they like doing this or not -- if you want a regular dive buddy, get her a better instructor. PM me -- I can recommend a couple."

I'm going to talk about that with my wife when she gets home.

BK