Reconsidering whether I want to be a divemaster

[Hawkwood]

scuba nube,

You controlled the student, and you got the student to surface safely, that is all that matters. You did well. The rest of our comments are points to put in the "toolbox" the next time you help out.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

What Hawkwood said. I am sorry I had to bail due to my battery. But in all seriousness I need to ask, why did you begin DM training? Was it solely your decision or did the instructor or shop suggest you'd be a good one? If the latter what were the reasons they gave for asking you?

On another vein how much low vis experience do you have and what if any with a redundant air supply? Do you own your own tanks and all of the gear you might conceivably need to assist with classes, including a stage or pony bottle? How many lights do you own that are appropriate for the local conditions you most often dive in? Have you taken any kind of tech training at all? Intro to Tech, Cavern, Ice, etc.? It's a good idea. How many non training dives or dives in some type of class do you have?

Do you really want to become an instructor? If not, why DM when there is not much you can do with it? Before sending in any more money, buying any more stuff to assist with classes, and getting into the whole dues and insurance paying racket, if I were in your position with the issues you seem to present, I'd back off. Get away from classes unless you are taking one. And if you do it should be one that will challenge the hell out of you and show you your limitations. And then just dive. Or just dive. Work on your buddy and critical thinking skills.

No instructor is a god. A few think they are. I don't. I would expect a DM of mine in the position you were in to totally disregard my instructions and get the student to the surface safely. And to have done it when the group got separated and you ended up with a new guy in tow. And if I had said anything derogatory on the surface about your decision, to tell me to go to hell. Once the group split up the instructor was no longer the one to make a critical decision. You were. If that's a problem to do then I stand by my original statement that you are not ready to be a DM.

 

[Hawkwood]

scuba nube,

I suggest you have a chat with the Instructor(s) and have a "post mortem" on the events. Talk to some of the other DMs and DMC where you are.

You need to understand how they expect you to act vs. how those of us on ScubaBoard would expect you to act.

 

[boulderjohn]

Lurking behind this is the conflict between two people who are supposed to be working together but have fundamentally different ideas about what is safe and what is not safe. The experienced instructor is supposed to have a better idea of what is acceptable in terms of conditions, and the new DM or DM trainee tends to follow along and learn. That is, after all, the point of an internship.

The problem comes when the DM or DM Intern has a strong sense that the instructor is not using good sense and is in fact going over the line. That puts a lot of pressure on the DM to override the decisions of the person who is in a very real sense the boss of the operation.

In this case your instincts were correct--the instructor was over the line. Let's start with the very real possibility that a student could have died on that dive, just as it happened recently in Virginia. The student you were tending went OOA on a training dive, and you barely had enough to help, so it could have happened. One factor was the instructor's decision at start skill work at 700 PSI. Another factor was the decision to dive in a zero visibility situation that created the problem you described in your post with the student's descent.

If that happened, we start with the horror of a student dying, which is, of course, the worst part of it. But what happens next? Your agency begins an investigation, and turns up the facts listed above. There is a potential for expulsion from the agency for the instructor, and he will have to explain those decisions in a lawsuit. His liability insurance is at risk. That's him. Do you think the DM might also be included in the lawsuit for not intervening when things looked wrong, for not forcing an ascent whilst knowing both the student and he were in a low on air situation?

In short, in a situation like this, the instructor made a decision to take a risk in order to complete the certification process. In putting himself at risk, he put you at risk as well. Does he have that right? There's your conflict.

 

[Thalassamania]

There are three levels of diving:

Buddy Diver, you dive as a buddy and take care of each other.
Solo Diver, you dive by yourself because you are tired of having to take care of someone else.
DM or Instructor, you (essentially) dive by yourself handicapped by one or more students who can't take care of themselves and have no room to take care of you at all.

I learned, early on, to do it differently. I think it is better for students and staff. We dive in a team of six, two buddy pairs of students who are, along with everything else, specifically learning take care of each other, and a buddy pair of staff, so that someone is watching over me and backing me up as I watch over a buddy pair of students and do the same for them.

 

[DevonDiver]

So why am I reconsidering?
Who the hell looks out for the DM? Why are they doing advanced courses for people in such lousy conditions? why can you go straight from open water cert to advanced as these students did? Why did the instructor decide to go into the pitch black? Was my life in danger? For what? This was NO FUN! Should I mention that last summer and the summer before a student died doing an advanced class? Not with this shop but still was in the back of my mind, especially as I feel myself getting dragged down in the pitch black. Thoughts?

1) The prudence of safe diving practices and recommendations to "dive within the limits of your training and experience" do not end when you reach DM level.

2) Far too many diving professionals believe that a 'pro-rating' instantaneously qualifies them to conduct dives that they are neither trained or experienced in. That is nothing more than inflated ego.

3) Forgetting your status as a DM/DMT... you encountered dive parameters which were beyond your comfort zone and experience. That unsettled you - as it would do any diver. You should learn a valuable lesson from that - which can help shape you as a more responsible and reliable dive pro.

4) Working as a dive pro is not about "FUN". It is work and responsibility. A prospective DM should never believe that their experiences working as a pro will reflect their experiences as a fun diver. Sadly, too many DM courses are 'sold' on exactly that basis, which IMHO is deceptive. However, it is somewhat common-sense to appreciate that there is a different experience between the perspectives of employee and customer...

5) The DM is expected to look out for themselves. That is why they are taught a higher-level of knowledge and skill. PADI released the Self-Sufficient Diver (solo) course recently, which is partially aimed at the 'pro' market. It provides supplementary training that helps develop the pro-divers' ability to look after themselves. That said, there is no reason why a DM should not allocate themselves a direct buddy for safety reasons on dives. Without solo/self-sufficiency training, the DM is not trained to conduct dives outside of the buddy system.

6) Risk assessing the conditions suitable for diving/training are the prerogative of the instructor running the training. The decision to accept that risk assessment is the prerogative of the individual diver. Did you communicate your concerns to the instructor and seek clarification about how and why they made that risk assessment?

7) Yes, you can go straight from OW to AOW, as those students did. However, the instructor is responsible for ensuring safe diving conditions for the students. The instructor manual provides clear definitions on the full spectrum of instructor responsibilities and further guidance on risk assessment and liability issues.

8) The issue of visibility, whether from silt or ambient light, is a factor in the risk assessment. However, 'darkness' itself does not preclude diving. It does however encompass a need for effective briefing, appropriate equipment and procedures. Were the instructor and students (and yourself) equipped with lights when you entered the dark water? Were you pre-briefed/warned that the dive would enter a zone of low-light?

 

[TSandM]

You know, you've gotten a lot of feedback on what you should or shouldn't have done.

I'm going to do something different. I'm going to tell you that I know just how you feel, and I empathize. I don't think anybody would argue that I got my DM cert too soon; I had 800 dives, Full Cave and a tech cert before I began it. I had lots of experience in diving in low visibility in Puget Sound. And doing OW dives with students sometimes scares me half to death. It is one thing to maintain your own composure and manage your own issues in low viz and dark and depth, and quite another to deal with a student who isn't managing himself, may be frightened, and could be close to panic. No one who leads guided dives in warm, clear water can understand the sheer terror of being unable to see the student you're responsible for, because he's just kicked up a siltstorm that's rendered him completely invisible, even though he's less than an arm's length away.

There are days when I wonder why I DM -- and then I remember I really didn't have much of a choice, since the instructor I work for is my husband. I love pool work, and have very ambivalent feelings about dives in OW. When they go well, they're fantastic fun, and when they don't, they're stressful or downright scary. (One of my most horrible memories was riding a corking student from 50 feet to the surface, trying to slow her ascent, and just desperately hoping she was still remembering to breathe.)

One DOES learn to be assertive. Last Friday, we began an OW1 dive, and had two students, with Peter on one side of the pair and me on the other. When we descended, I couldn't see the student on the other side of mine; heck, I couldn't see my own student's right arm! I immediately gave my student the thumb, and we surfaced and waited for Peter. When he came up with his student, I told him I thought doing two students at the same time in that viz was unsafe, and I wasn't willing to do it. He agreed, and did Dive 1 with each student individually, in touch contact; he then canceled the second dive for both.

Don't do things you don't think are safe. If you need to surface a student who is low on gas, do it, and deal with the fallout afterward. If you're wrong, you may have some consequences to face, but they can't be as bad as the consequences you'll face if you're right and you don't listen to yourself.

 

[Hawkwood]

...Don't do things you don't think are safe. If you need to surface a student who is low on gas, do it, and deal with the fallout afterward. If you're wrong, you may have some consequences to face, but they can't be as bad as the consequences you'll face if you're right and you don't listen to yourself.

That sums it up pretty darn nicely.

 

[TMHeimer]

I always seem to agree with TS & M. Your scenario was very uncomfortable and there were things that were wrong on all accounts. I imagine I will be in that position at some point. When I "pleasure dive" I look at each time as something different, maybe nasty. I think of myself as a newbie. I guess it gets back to knowing your local conditions and what might happen.

 

[endurodog]

You did accomplish what you were suppose to as the DM getting the student back to the surface, but I think we all agree it was to close to the edge for anyone to be comfortable. As a DMC your instructor is ultimatly responisible for you and the student. From what was posted he made some questionable decisions to put everyone in that spot and to continue on with the dive. The question for you is did you learn from it and know that you can do it better next time or are you just wanting out all together? Everyone at the professional level has all had things happen that we change later or don't let happen again. If your of the opinion you don't want anything to do with leading people then your decision is made. If your still considering it or have decided you want to go on and have learned from this decision I think you need to sit down with the instructor and find out why he made the decisions he did to do the dive in those conditions and if his answers are not acceptable move on and work with a different instructor.

Good luck in what ever decision you make, it's great that your not just sitting back and shrugging your shoulders. Your recognizing things went wrong and that is a good first step.