Pet safety peeves--no debating

[TorontoDive]

1. DMs that don't understand when a diver signals "low on air", they are about to run out of breathing gas. Instead of signalling for them to stay down and share air when the OOA happens, the DM should signal for these people to surface. This happened twice on my last trip to Cuba, leaving one diver of a pair surfacing with 200psi and another diver from a different buddy pair OOA.

 

[PacketSniffer]

1) Danglies - Although newbies often are dragging crap across the reef, I don't necessarily blame them. I blame the Instructors, boat operators, and DMs who didn't make it very clear that this is unacceptable. You don't know anything when you start diving. Someone has to tell you. Educate people instead of ridicule them and the issue will be greatly reduced. For hard-headed people, beat them with your weight belt.

2) People going into open water with no safety gear (i.e., SMB, signal mirror, strobe, flares, dye, etc.). The answer, again, is in peeve number one.


Richard

 

[sea nmf]

Regarding Safety pet peeves: No one has mentioned divers with hangovers or divers that have been drinking or are high on any drugs. Doesn't this scare anyone but me?

My other one is when roll calls are not taken on boat dives before and after the dive. Relative to that, no diver recall system. Most boats I've been on here do not have any formal recall system. These are actually not "diver" safety issues but could endanger divers if not done.

Good thread. Lots of grumblers here . . . . sometimes it isn't worth being worked up over some of these incidental things. At least that is my philosophy. To each his own.

 

[labaum]

Love this thread. Reminds me when I first started diving. I ascended thinking this was my best dive ever, did a good job (back then) managing my air, did a good job (back then) keeping bouyant, didn't even fly to the surface during the safety stop (one of those newbie problems that took me weeks to correct). Back on board I turned to my buddy to crow about the dive and realized we were on the wrong boat. So that was newbie lesson 3985439767...remember what your boat looks like before you descend.

 

[gt3073b]

Being a noob, my main safety complaint is the blindspot a few other folks mentioned. Being able to see your buddy periodically is good. Having to roll around to see where they are is annoying. On the second dive, it doesn't seem to annoy me much because I'm more relaxed, my trim is better, and tend to be more aware of my surroundings.

Actually this is a gear safety complaint that plenty of people disagree with. Not trying to start a flame war, but I'm gonna put on my asbestos underpants just in case. This is my own observation, made on a checkout dive, so this may be stupid. My wife and I used rental gear during our checkout dives and we had to do an air share ascent drill. Her rig had an Air2 on it, and while we did the drill successfully, practice was the only way it was reasonably possible (used the same gear in the pool too). The controls were fine and it breathed ok, but maintaining eye-contact during the ascent was very difficult (unless you work for Cirque du Soleil, which we do not). My rental gear (from the same shop) had the usual octo and was much easier. I'm glad we did the drill with an Air2 because I'll end up diving with somebody with one someday. I'd just hate to have one and have a buddy who has never done an air share with it though. This being said I'm going to give the long hose (and some practice quarry dives with it) a shot. Looks to be much safer. (Not drinking the Kool-Aid though...)

 

[Bobbin-along]

I'm confused, you used "her" air2 on the BC? if so, no wonder you had to be an acrobat. I was taught that I use the Air2 and give my reg to the buddy.... We have practiced these several times since graduation and I don't think either of us had to contort to get into the face to face position.

 

[wreckchick]

redhatmama,

I've worked 2 different kinds of boats. One of them had me as the ONLY divemaster with up to 25 divers. I'd love to be able to suss out a diver's experience by chatting with them, but the only way I can get it done for everyone is just to watch what's going on as people are setting up their gear and then gearing up. I honestly didn't have time to chat up anyone, there was always some sort of "issue" I needed to be dealing with or just doing a general briefing.

The smaller boat that I run now, I can talk to everyone on way out and get a sense of where they are. I still watch what's going on, but not with the hairy eyeball I had to use before.

The good/bad thing about the Keys is that it's excellent beginner diving so we end up with a lot of inexperienced divers. The good news is that it's really nice for newer divers to come down and get some good diving in without having to push themselves. The bad news is that the less experience a diver is, the more closely he/she should be monitored. It's a habit that we get into down here to really make sure that the newer divers are getting the attention they need to do a safe, fun dive.

Rachel

P.S. I try to wear sunglasses so you don't know what I'm looking at

 

[DIVERDANFOWLER]

babysitting your dive buddy

 

[Brewone0to]

People who use pony bottles to extend bottom time.

If one uses a "pony" sized bottle to extend bottom time.Does it then become a small stage bottle.(no foul)

1) LDS that rent junk gear that should be tossed in the dumpster.

2)People the don't pay attention to (and talk throughout) dive briefings on boat dives.

3)Divers that kick up sooo much sand that you pick it from your skull all during SIT time.

 

[gt3073b]

I'm confused, you used "her" air2 on the BC? if so, no wonder you had to be an acrobat. I was taught that I use the Air2 and give my reg to the buddy.... We have practiced these several times since graduation and I don't think either of us had to contort to get into the face to face position.

Sorry Bobbin, I guess I wasn't clear. When I was "out of air" she used the Air2 on her rig and she donated the regulator.

It just seemed that the hose was awfully short still because of the way it routes. With the hose coming out the right side of the reg (from my point of view), it has to either go over her left shoulder, over the valve and into the first stage from her right side (no swivel turret), or it doubles back between us and over her right shoulder to the first stage. Either way, that big S-shape eats a lot of hose. The reg hose was shorter than the octo hose on my rental rig. Same for the other rigs with the Air2. Add a hand between our masks (to operate the controls that are now in her face) pushing us further apart and the hose feels really short. This may have contributed to it feeling more awkward. We were both relieved to repeat the drill with the octo rig.

I wasn't trying to say that the Air2 itself is unsafe. It worked fine through the drills. I was trying (and failed...) to say that I feel it requires practice (for the owner and his/her buddy) with that specific piece of hardware to be safe. Guess the same can be said for all of the gear we use though.

Again, this was our observation while still on our checkout dive. Perhaps with more experience it wouldn't have been so awkward.