-Potentially Unsafe Observation During Dive

[McJosh13]

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[Soloist]

Here we go again. A few months ago there was a thread about a so-called “incident” in southern Florida. The thread contained a very misleading video that YouTube subsequently removed. The narrator of the video portrayed a “lost” diver in desperate need of “rescue” because the negligent dive op left him at sea. Complete and utter BS. Predictably this resulted in many emotionally charged responses admonishing the dive op thus revealing a complete naïveté of the fundamentals of Florida drift diving. On the other hand many of us posted rebuttals based on our own experience and knowledge of diving in Florida. When the discussion became heated and insults were directed at certain individuals SB killed the thread.

Turns out the diver was at fault. He encountered an unplanned deco stop (possibility due to a conservative algorithm) and exceeded the preplanned time limit for the dive. Moreover his “buddies” were nowhere to be found. He was at the at surface with a fully inflated marker on a sunny day in calm seas. Much ado about nothing. He had absolutely no reason or excuse to board another craft, but he did.

To your point. 20 minutes at the surface? This is Florida drift diving. If you don’t stick with the group then be prepared to wait. Especially if you are on a cattle boat. Currents can be fast and unrelenting, so you wait. We solo dive in order to hunt. If I’m on a nice patch of reef with lots of lobsters I may spend an entire hour on that one spot as the rest of the divers, solo or not, quickly drift away with the current. Countless times I have surfaced without my boat in sight. You wait. These captains have a tremendous amount of responsibility with divers spread out all over the place. You wait. They also work together to help locate their divers. They know what they are doing. On numerous occasions I have been on the surface when another operator would ask if everything is alright and what boat I was on. They would simply communicate that info to my boat. I have not been asked to board another craft nor would I. The only reason to do so would be if conditions severely deteriorated or if the diver was in distress. Otherwise you wait.

 

[McJosh13]

It seems that you are ignoring the facts in this specific situation. I guess I can see why there are so many highly rated dive ops on this site, people must be hesitant to report unsafe practices they observe. I have changed the title to a more long winded one, but more descriptive one. I hope it suits you better.

 

[sportxlh]

I have surfaced on numerous occassions with my boat not visible to me. That does not necessarily mean I was not visible to the boat nor that they did not know where I was. There are many variables in drift diving including current, wave height, and surface visibility, to name a few

As have I. Could well be the Little Deeper was staying with the float ball and the divers you saw separated. Its easy to separate at the Breakers if one dives into the Trench and spends some dive time going east and west instead of purely drifting north. I've done that and was over a mile from the dive boat when I surfaced.

Who knows? Even if not something logical like this, even good operators have made honest mistakes

 

[Soloist]

Facts and hysteria are two different things, but your willingness to change the title to promote a productive discussion displays very prudent judgment on your part. I steadfastly believe when people make mistakes they should be held accountable. However, it is always difficult if not impossible to obtain the full story of these types of events, so it’s best not to rush to judgment. A small business could be divested as a result.

 

[hroark2112]

I’ve waited 20 minutes or more in West Palm/Jupiter more than once. I’ve been separated from the main group and went a totally different direction, hell I’ve been completely freaking lost and off the reef before because I was following a turtle or something!

I would put my own kid on any boat run by Stuart Scuba and wouldn’t worry for a second, and I’ll definitely trust them in the future to make sure they come get me and give me a ride home.

 

[Nick Steele]

I did my checkout dives on the Little Dipper. We did the breakers reef and I was heavy on air therefore a single instructor stayed with me while another went with the other two students. We surfaced 40 mins after splashing and we waited 15 mins before pickup. Me and the instructor talked before the dives and agreed to go slow and sightsee/spot critters vs just drifting. I wasn’t worried and neither was she we just talked over the dive and chatted a bit before the boat showed up. This is a topical dive in the area.

 

[uncfnp]

Prehaps @sheeper has some thoughts.

I too immediately thought of the thread mentioned by @Soloist and there are some similarities. Waiting on your boat 20 minutes is a bit outside the norm but certainly not unheard of and it doesn’t sound like the divers were overly concerned.

 

[Billy Northrup]

Delete this thread, it's not even remotely correct. Can't come in here bad mouthing a good company when you should be asking questions and learning a thing or two about diving.

 

[The Chairman]

I've dove off of the Little Deeper several times. If the divers are spread out, it takes time to get them all on. That's normal for any boat not going to nanny you through the dive. I've spent up to a half hour when there's a mondo current out there. One time I saw the dive boat pick up a group way north of me, then pass me by to pick up the group way south of me. His reasoning for leaving me all by myself? I looked very comfortable in the world's largest waterbed. In fact, I was comfortable.