Planning to go to Belize? Unsafe practices you should know know about addressed

[victorzamora]

Can't speak to SM, but slinging a bottle without screwing your trim and/or making yourself more accident-prone is simply not that hard. Maybe it's not an OW skill, but it should be covered in AOW -- though I know from experience that many AOW courses just don't cover it.

I don't know if it needs to be covered in AOW, but I know that I've never slung an AL80. I know that, without prior SM experience I would have no idea how to sling an AL80. I know that most BCDs are not conducive to slinging tanks. Most divers don't have a stage reg (or pony reg, or whatever you call it) to dedicate to another tank. Most divers have a hard enough time keeping up with 4 hoses and 3 regs....I'd hate to add the task loading of another tank, 2 more hoses and 2 more regs.

EVEN if many divers have used a slung bottle before, a "bottomless" dive is not one I'd use to gain proficiency at a skill. A diver should enter that dive CONFIDENT in their skills and equipment configuration.

 

[Mike]

Where are we reading these multiple reports? I've read the one about the farmboy that Mike referred too, which frankly, sounded truly bizarre to me, having never seen anything like it in my dives there. Yes, I have seen a time or two, a farmboy using the drop tanks at the long safety stop.

If you people want to get yourselves all worked up about something, why not investigate reports of the NOT Belizean accidents in the "blue hole" at Dahab. Or worry about Palau or why Cozumel needs so many chambers.

As for the scubaboard member who is concerned about the missing DM and two catastrophic failures . . .what can I say? I saw a car accident on the way to work today. The chain of incident leading up to it probably started when the at-fault driver woke up this morning or

LOL, you do realize you're posting this in a thread about PADI warning the dive industry in Belize about unsafe dive practices specifically at the blue hole?

 

[chillyinCanada]

Yes, Mike I'm well aware if that. I also know more of the back story and a number of the local parties to that story.