I will start by saying that I have very little experience DM-ing, only 2 seasons, around 150 dives including open water discovery dives. However, I dive a lot and with a lot of people, and have been for about 10+ years now.
In those 10 years I have seen bad divers, stupid divers, and suicidal divers. I had (certified) people ask me if they can do a 70 meter nitrox dive, ask for cave dive with 0 overhead experience, bounce dives on air to stupid depths... A few months ago, I got flabbergasted by a bad diver who is stupidly suicidal enabled by someone I have to guess is a greedy scumbag that I'm legally obliged to not name.
That day I had 2 deep dives, and another dive with the genius to 30 meters that day. Not the most conservative odd dive days, but it's a job and someone has to do it.
Usually when doing a dive with just one person I want to give them the best dive possible (I'm a egotriper who loves seeing his name in the 5 star trip advisor reviews
) And this guy wanted to do a beautiful reef that had ripping currents that day. You drop down straight to 30 meters, one one side is a wall of huge red gorgonias, on the other side is the open blue, on the position you can fall down to 60 meters easy if you don't watch out. And he was definitely qualified for the dive, rescue cert 2 years old with 50+ dives after it, and another few hundred, all with the same instructor in South East Asia, almost all suppressing shallow from 10 to 15 meters, some just over 20. Guy had his own equipment, and it looked not new but well maintained. So, why not do the dive, I did it before plenty of times, and it's a fun dive, you don't have to swim, just maintain depth and let the current take you for a ride. If you go up to around 15 meters the current stops and it's a 2 minute swim to the boat.
I will never continue with a dive that I think I can't end safely, I'm actually know around for being a safety sally that sends people back to the boat (and offer them a free refresh dive after the days diving is done)
Every step that I will go trough now is a step I TOUGH I could handle
First thing, he attempts to jump off the boat without checking his valves and a empty bcd. The tank was closed, at the end of the dive I saw that he was at least 8 kilos overweighted ( and we use 9-10 kilos for 7mm suits and 15L Steel tank)
After a few seconds, we splash, I put my equipment on in the water, and he just stares at me wide eyed, not amazement, but confusion. He never saw anybody how to put his equipment on in the water. That raised more then a few flags for me, but the guy looked comfortable, and since I'm alone with him there is very little I THOUGHT he could do to hurt himself.
Ok, I do one more check of my equipement, look over his and we dive. 3 meters, his eyes are starting to dart around, not panicking but obviously not comfortable. I ask if he is ok, he signals thumb up. Wait wha, ok. We surface, he asks what's the problem. Ok, now I'm getting worried. I explain a few basic signals, he said he never used half of them, and barely remembers the ok signal. Of course, this guy is not seeing anything deeper then 15 meters with me in the water because I TOUGH I could control him at that depth. The guy barely knows how to use his fins, he is doing some swimming style that I would call a mix between dolphin kick, and doing the worm. He is grabbing everything to stay still, breathing all over the place, going up and down... I thumb the dive, he gives me the OK signal and goes down. I grab him but we are both sinking fast, he pressed the wrong button on the inflator (and is serverly overweighted. I manage to stabilize him but we are at 28 meters, and I see that he will panic very very soon. Before I manage to signal anything he drops one of his weight pockets and inflates the bcd. I manage to react in time and keep up with him, catch him at around 15 meters and I realize he is not breathing out, at all. And this is where I have to congratulate myself. We are going up fast, my bcd is completely empty, he is not breathing out, I have no way of slowing his ascent. And I remember the Nutcracker maneuver. I punch him in the nuts, he screams and we are on the surface. He is mad as hell at me, and is actively punching my legs while I drag him back to the boat. I screen for O2 to the captain, and it's ready when we get to the deck. He is breathing O2, but it's obvious that he has no barotrauma of the lungs, by the amount of obscenity's he is shouting at me. In the next few minutes I realize this guy has never actually passed a OW course, he paid for diving and a instructor gave him his card, all the lodged dives he has are questionable at best, he said that the instructor told he he needed them for the certs. We calmed him down and he got a short lesson in how I just saved his life. And then I realize I'm feeling extremely tiered and my shoulder is killing me. Oh .... .
Obviously I'm alive, I did a recompensing table with nitrox and all symptom's went away (I was monitored for the whole dive, and the night after it, that was the end of my diving for that week, and there was no way to get me to a chamber in less then 10 hours) but that part of the dive is not the point of this post.
The point is, that I THOUGHT there was very little a idiot is able to do to endanger me and him under the water, and that there is a killer somewhere in some certification factory that just tried to kill me by proxy.
I did everything legally possible to get that guy out of diving, probably did not work, and I can't say anything more about him , at least if I don't want to pay a hefty fine (and is part of the reason I want to vent somewhere with this)
If you know any diver that is like the guy in this story, please be that guy that butts in and save his life.
Also, remember the Nutcracker, you never know when it might come in handy.
In those 10 years I have seen bad divers, stupid divers, and suicidal divers. I had (certified) people ask me if they can do a 70 meter nitrox dive, ask for cave dive with 0 overhead experience, bounce dives on air to stupid depths... A few months ago, I got flabbergasted by a bad diver who is stupidly suicidal enabled by someone I have to guess is a greedy scumbag that I'm legally obliged to not name.
That day I had 2 deep dives, and another dive with the genius to 30 meters that day. Not the most conservative odd dive days, but it's a job and someone has to do it.
Usually when doing a dive with just one person I want to give them the best dive possible (I'm a egotriper who loves seeing his name in the 5 star trip advisor reviews
) And this guy wanted to do a beautiful reef that had ripping currents that day. You drop down straight to 30 meters, one one side is a wall of huge red gorgonias, on the other side is the open blue, on the position you can fall down to 60 meters easy if you don't watch out. And he was definitely qualified for the dive, rescue cert 2 years old with 50+ dives after it, and another few hundred, all with the same instructor in South East Asia, almost all suppressing shallow from 10 to 15 meters, some just over 20. Guy had his own equipment, and it looked not new but well maintained. So, why not do the dive, I did it before plenty of times, and it's a fun dive, you don't have to swim, just maintain depth and let the current take you for a ride. If you go up to around 15 meters the current stops and it's a 2 minute swim to the boat. I will never continue with a dive that I think I can't end safely, I'm actually know around for being a safety sally that sends people back to the boat (and offer them a free refresh dive after the days diving is done)
Every step that I will go trough now is a step I TOUGH I could handle
First thing, he attempts to jump off the boat without checking his valves and a empty bcd. The tank was closed, at the end of the dive I saw that he was at least 8 kilos overweighted ( and we use 9-10 kilos for 7mm suits and 15L Steel tank)
After a few seconds, we splash, I put my equipment on in the water, and he just stares at me wide eyed, not amazement, but confusion. He never saw anybody how to put his equipment on in the water. That raised more then a few flags for me, but the guy looked comfortable, and since I'm alone with him there is very little I THOUGHT he could do to hurt himself.
Ok, I do one more check of my equipement, look over his and we dive. 3 meters, his eyes are starting to dart around, not panicking but obviously not comfortable. I ask if he is ok, he signals thumb up. Wait wha, ok. We surface, he asks what's the problem. Ok, now I'm getting worried. I explain a few basic signals, he said he never used half of them, and barely remembers the ok signal. Of course, this guy is not seeing anything deeper then 15 meters with me in the water because I TOUGH I could control him at that depth. The guy barely knows how to use his fins, he is doing some swimming style that I would call a mix between dolphin kick, and doing the worm. He is grabbing everything to stay still, breathing all over the place, going up and down... I thumb the dive, he gives me the OK signal and goes down. I grab him but we are both sinking fast, he pressed the wrong button on the inflator (and is serverly overweighted. I manage to stabilize him but we are at 28 meters, and I see that he will panic very very soon. Before I manage to signal anything he drops one of his weight pockets and inflates the bcd. I manage to react in time and keep up with him, catch him at around 15 meters and I realize he is not breathing out, at all. And this is where I have to congratulate myself. We are going up fast, my bcd is completely empty, he is not breathing out, I have no way of slowing his ascent. And I remember the Nutcracker maneuver. I punch him in the nuts, he screams and we are on the surface. He is mad as hell at me, and is actively punching my legs while I drag him back to the boat. I screen for O2 to the captain, and it's ready when we get to the deck. He is breathing O2, but it's obvious that he has no barotrauma of the lungs, by the amount of obscenity's he is shouting at me. In the next few minutes I realize this guy has never actually passed a OW course, he paid for diving and a instructor gave him his card, all the lodged dives he has are questionable at best, he said that the instructor told he he needed them for the certs. We calmed him down and he got a short lesson in how I just saved his life. And then I realize I'm feeling extremely tiered and my shoulder is killing me. Oh .... .
Obviously I'm alive, I did a recompensing table with nitrox and all symptom's went away (I was monitored for the whole dive, and the night after it, that was the end of my diving for that week, and there was no way to get me to a chamber in less then 10 hours) but that part of the dive is not the point of this post.
The point is, that I THOUGHT there was very little a idiot is able to do to endanger me and him under the water, and that there is a killer somewhere in some certification factory that just tried to kill me by proxy.
I did everything legally possible to get that guy out of diving, probably did not work, and I can't say anything more about him , at least if I don't want to pay a hefty fine (and is part of the reason I want to vent somewhere with this)
If you know any diver that is like the guy in this story, please be that guy that butts in and save his life.
Also, remember the Nutcracker, you never know when it might come in handy.
